We Partner, Plan & Problem-Solve
With Colleges
& Universities
We envision a world in which institutions believe every student can succeed and purposely evolve to ensure they do.
Trusted by leading institutions & partners.
Experienced & Proven difference-makers
We provide services for postsecondary leaders at the institution, system, and state levels, as well as intermediary and membership organizations. Hover for info about our services:
Our Approach
We fix broken systems in higher education.
The key to our work is our systems thinking approach. We compare a system’s desired results with its actual outcomes, and work to align them. As with any system, those who were disproportionately harmed by it will likely benefit more when that system is redesigned, but we do not operate on beliefs about who a system is helping or harming—we follow the data.
We center learnings from data that are disaggregated, so that leaders understand the impact their systems have on various populations.
We design intentional methods for students to share their experiences and perspectives to help us diagnose why systems are getting different results than intended.
We encourage and support states and institutions to customize their approach, ensuring system reforms work within the context of each partner’s mission, history, and students.
We prioritize support for lower-resourced institutions, including community colleges and minority-serving institutions.
We develop innovative approaches to serving institutions, working to eliminate any barriers to secure the support we provide.
We work within a proven theory of change that embraces higher education reform as a people-centric process: driven by teams of individuals, each of whom has valuable personal and professional experiences and perspectives.
We also think that it is important to be clear about things we do not do. These are things we do not do because they are not part of our operating model:
We do not work on enrollment management systems that determine who gets into college – only the systems that serve students once they are admitted.
We do not assist with human resources operations such as recruiting, hiring, and routine training of faculty or other personnel.
We do not directly work with students to help them prepare for or apply to colleges.
We do not engage in partisan political activities.
We do not support institutions in any efforts to dilute academic standards or learning outcomes in order to improve success rates.
We do not change systems to benefit faculty or administrators if those changes make things more difficult for students.
We do not make assumptions about the motivations or intentions of the people who created or informed systems in the past.
Student-Ready
Leader Training
Find the Right Training
Session for Your Team
Training participants gain knowledge, develop new skills, and use innovative tools to dismantle and redesign systems. The workshops are delivered on a campus, within a state, and/or in a national cohort.
Is your Institution Student-Ready?
Self-assessing and measuring progress. In order to change the status quo, you have to understand it first.
Change the systems, not students
Systems-thinking and change-management. Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it does.
The Power of Policy
Become an expert in creating Student-Centered policy and processes. Institutional policy governs the experiences of students and higher education professionals alike, but is often overlooked as a lever of meaningful change.
Who Has the Time?
Overcoming Capacity Constraints: One of the biggest challenges in higher ed is slow implementation of systemic changes. We know the culprit. Higher ed professionals have constrained capacity and initiative fatigue.
Research & Thought Partnership
In order to redesign systems, we first need to understand which of them are in need of fixing, and why. We work independently and in partnership with other organizations to bring new knowledge and innovative practices to the field through publications, keynotes, and conference sessions.
Insights
Articles, reports, videos and additional resources focused on Student-Ready transformation.
