Client Spotlights
We’ve worked with hundreds of clients in dozens of states. Here are deep dives on a few.
Madera Technical Exploration Center (MadTEC)
We partnered with Madera Unified School District to design the instructional model and program for its innovative middle-grades lab school. Working closely with district leaders and the founding administrative and teacher team, we delivered a full year of intensive coaching and professional learning as the school launched.
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This half-day program for 8th-grade students is built around six career-themed labs—Engineering, Health, Agriculture, Public Safety, Entrepreneurship, and Media & Performing Arts—created to spark interest in high-school CTE pathways. Students learn in a state-of-the-art facility and engage in quarterly, project-based learning experiences that strengthen their Graduate Profile skills and showcase authentic demonstrations of learning. In addition to increasing engagement in school, MadTEC regularly leads the district in math and reading test scores.
Graduate Portrait Development in Rural Oregon
Credit: UC Irvine News
Starting in 2022, we've guided six different rural school districts in Lane County, Oregon (near Eugene) through the development and implementation of a Graduate Portrait. It has been rewarding to watch each of these communities rally around a shared vision of future readiness for their students. Key strands of this project have included:
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Helping districts form Task Force teams to lead the profile development process.
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Facilitating focus group sessions with students, parents, staff, and community partners.
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Designing customized tools such as profile guides, scaled rubrics, and rollout tools for each district.
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Coaching school leaders on pilot projects that grow performance tasks such as student-led conferences, showcase presentations, and aligned senior projects.
Program Design for the Oregon Small Schools Initiative
Sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Oregon Small Schools Initiative was a multi-year effort to bring innovation to high schools across Oregon, primarily through starting new small high schools and converting large existing schools into autonomous small learning communities. From the inception of the project in 2003, we worked intimately with initiative leaders to design key elements of the initiative, including their “School Change Rubric,” coaching model, and professional development plan. Once schools began their deep change work, we provided professional coaching to site leaders and professional development to teacher teams.
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Credit: Springfield Public Schools
