FAQs

  • We partner with leaders in schools and education-focused organizations who are responsible for stewarding mission-driven work and making thoughtful decisions about impact, effectiveness, and strategy. Our work most often supports independent schools, public and charter school initiatives, nonprofit organizations, and education-focused funders.

    Across these contexts, partners share a desire to better understand their work, articulate its value, and use evidence to guide future direction.

  • No. Independent schools are one context where our approach is often a strong fit, but our work is not limited to them. We collaborate with a range of education organizations navigating questions about program effectiveness, organizational strategy, and impact.

    Fit matters more to us than sector. We do our best work with partners who value reflection, learning, and thoughtful use of evidence in service of their mission.

  • Partners often come to us with questions such as:

    • How effective is this program, initiative, or strategy — and why?

    • How are students, families, or educators experiencing our work?

    • How well does our work align with our mission and stated priorities?

    • How can we better understand and communicate our value?

    • What evidence should inform an upcoming strategic decision or investment?

    We help partners clarify the questions that matter most, design appropriate inquiry, and make sense of findings in ways that support leadership and action.

  • Many partners are doing meaningful work but struggle to clearly describe its impact or effectiveness. We help organizations examine what they are trying to achieve, how success is defined, and what evidence best reflects their value.

    In addition to working with existing data, we often support partners in gathering new evidence through careful engagement with stakeholders — including interviews, observations, and other qualitative approaches that surface lived experience and perception. This allows organizations to understand value across different stages of the student or participant journey and to connect program-level insights to broader strategic goals, value propositions, and conversations with boards or funders.

  • We work in close partnership with the organizations we support. Rather than operating at a distance, we take time to understand context, relationships, and community dynamics, and we stay closely connected to the work throughout an engagement.

    Our approach is collaborative and relational. We listen carefully, engage stakeholders with care, and work side-by-side with leaders as thought partners. We believe that trust, proximity, and deep contextual understanding are essential to meaningful inquiry and responsible use of evidence.m description

  • We don’t offer fixed packages. Each engagement is designed in response to a partner’s specific questions, context, and decision-making needs.

    That said, our work often includes familiar components — such as qualitative inquiry, surveys, data analysis, facilitation, or strategic sense-making — which we scope clearly and transparently during early conversations. description

  • Most engagements begin with a discovery phase focused on clarifying goals, questions, and constraints. From there, we design and carry out an inquiry tailored to the organization’s context and timeline. Throughout the process, we stay in close communication and prioritize shared interpretation and reflection, not just final deliverables.

  • Timelines vary based on scope and complexity. Some engagements are relatively focused and short-term, while others span an academic year or longer. We work with partners to align timelines with key decision points and organizational rhythms.

  • Our work is scoped and priced based on the nature of the questions being explored, the methods required, and the timeline for decision-making. As a result, fees can range from focused, short-term engagements to more comprehensive, multi-year projects.

    We discuss budget early and collaboratively, with the goal of designing work that is both rigorous and realistic for the organization.

  • We see inquiry as part of an ongoing learning process. Many partners ask us to support reflection, planning conversations, or next-step decision-making after findings are shared. Our goal is to help organizations use what they learn — not simply receive a report.m description