A Results-Driven Consultancy
Results-driven consultants in service of education
edBridge Partners is a mission-driven consultancy committed to helping education institutions, membership organizations, and philanthropies perform at their very best for the students we all serve. We have a bias for action and a strong commitment to achieving results for our clients. Education leaders and organizations who work with edBridge Partners can feel confident they are getting the very best assistance – in management consulting, expert planning, and program development – that will enable them to achieve their most ambitious goals and make a difference.
What we do:
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Realignment & Organizational EffectivenessHelping community colleges realign organizational structures and resources to strengthen academic pathways and workforce development to amplify student success.
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Academic InnovationHelping higher education systems and states take advantage of technological innovations, like open education, alternative credentialing, adaptive learning tools and learning analytics to improve teaching and learning.
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Policy and AdvocacySupporting public sector leaders with policy analysis, and the development, implementation, and evaluation of advocacy efforts to advance their mission.
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Program DevelopmentConceiving and developing new programs and services or restructuring existing ones so they add more value to membership organizations, their stakeholders and the field.
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Strategic PartnershipsDeveloping and managing meaningful strategic partnerships to create unique value that aligns to the organization’s mission, vision and goals.
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Optimizing Student ExperienceImplementing a breakthrough survey and analytics tool that improves the student experience and helps college leaders decide how to optimize investments in advising and organizational structure.
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Leadership CounselProviding strategic advice on mission, program and organizational effectiveness, as well as communications strategy, to leaders of educational institutions, membership organizations, and corporate philanthropy.
ABOUT
edBridge Partners was formed to fill the gap between intentions and results
At edBridge Partners, we are dedicated to helping our clients create sustained momentum for their most important projects, programs and initiatives. We plan, ideate and inspire creative problem solving and thoughtful collaboration to accelerate your ideas and goals. We have a set of beliefs and a way of working that will bring unique value to your organization.
Our principals have a combined 60 years’ experience in education and business organizations, working within K-12 and higher education, in applied and academic research as well as strategic planning, project management, and communications. Most significantly, we have a bias for action and a commitment to achieving results. We bring a focused, entrepreneurial approach to working within and between institutions and systems to cultivate new ideas and implement fresh approaches, on time and within budget.
- edBridge Partners is a mission-driven consultancy. We are passionate in our belief that all students deserve access to post-secondary education, and are focused on helping educators and organizations take effective actions to improve the conditions necessary for progress.
- We have deep knowledge of the field you operate in; in particular, we are experts on the critical transition point between high school and college and know what it takes to smooth that transition.
- We have a bias for action and intense client focus. Your agenda is our agenda and you will always feel as if you are the only client we have when you are working with us.
- We will give you a holistic view of your operation—not just smart data analysis and measurement tools—but a practical view of how to strengthen your programs or services with a sharp customer focus to best serve your constituents.
- We bring a network of incredible advisors and partners to our work with you. We have connections across the education sector and can recommend outstanding specialists to help meet your goals.
- We believe our work with educators is significant but it is also deeply personal. For at the heart of all that we do, it is our passion for education’s potential and belief in the power of educators that fuels our vision and drives us to help transform the organizations and institutions for the students we all serve.
Inquiry-Based Professional Learning to Improve Student Transitions Download
OUR CLIENTS
We are privileged to work collaboratively with some of the best organizations and institutions to achieve their desired results.
edBridge Partners supports the Midwestern Higher Education Compact on two grant-funded projects:
- edBridge serves as the consultants on an 18-month grant supported by the Hewlett Foundation to support the growth and expansion of use of open educational resources (OER) across the Midwest and efforts to build state, regional, and national capacity for OER. This role includes managing state OER action teams, developing and delivering communications, publications, and presentations on MHEC's behalf, and providing overall grant management.
- edBridge provides overall program and project management services supporting the creation and cultivation of the regional 12-state Midwest Credential Transparency Alliance (“MCTA”). edBridge collaborates closely with MHEC staff and leadership, Credential Engine staff, and partners and providers to develop the Alliance structure, goals, and outcomes and to manage the day-to-day activities of the Alliance in promoting credential transparency across the Midwest.
edBridge is currently engaged by Frostburg State University in Frostburg, MD to serve as program and grant managers for a 5-year Department of Education Teacher Quality Partnership grant. The grant aims to develop and implement a Teacher-Residency program designed to increase teacher diversity and teacher competencies in high-need and rural districts in Maryland. edBridge provides overall program management for this project, including strategic counsel, planning, coordination, development, implementation and launch activities. edBridge is also responsible for providing strategic guidance on partnerships to help sustain the program beyond the grant, and ensuring that the project mission, vision, and goals are achieved on time, within budget and with high-quality outcomes over the 5-year term of the grant.
edBridge conducted a formative evaluation project on open education networks primarily within the US and Canada for the Foundation. The first phase of this work entailed establishing a baseline mapping of the current networks. The second phase included surveys, interviews, and focus groups with leaders and stakeholders across the North American open education field on their perceptions of strengths and weaknesses of the field and future directions, with an explicit focus on how the field might expand to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. The final phase included an analysis of these insights and recommendations to the Foundation on future strategic priorities and investments to support a strong and healthy open education field, along with an interactive online network map tool to easily search and find networks based on filterable criteria. See final report here
Baltimore City Community College is a state-sponsored, degree-granting community college with five learning sites in the city of Baltimore. Offering 37 associate degree programs and 17 certifications in high-demand fields, BCCC helps thousands of students advance their academic and career prospects each year, and is considered a critical asset in the economic revitalization of Baltimore.
edBridge Partners was engaged to help BCCC and its Board ensure the college’s organizational structure, resources, and talent were properly aligned to help more students succeed in their academic and career goals. Working closely with the leadership team, we conducted a comprehensive review of the college’s goals, organizational structure, leadership capabilities and succession planning, and made actionable recommendations for improving the student experience while realizing mandated cost efficiencies.
In addition, edBridge Partners worked with the College’s Workforce Development and Continuing Education division to more closely align curriculum with area job opportunities, to strengthen strategic partnerships, and to collect data to measure the effectiveness of key programs.
College Spark Washington funds programs that help low-income students become college-ready, making grants to organizations and institutions throughout Washington state that are helping low-income students improve their academic achievement, prepare for and graduate from college. Under a 3-year College Spark Grant, edBridge developed and implemented a self-directed, regional, professional development network for approximately 50 English language arts (ELA) and mathematics faculty representing Eastern Washington University, the Community Colleges of Spokane, and seven urban, suburban, and rural K-12 districts in the Spokane region. The project supported small cross-sector cohorts of faculty in the inquiry process of identifying problems of practice, finding ways to address those problems, and studying the implementation and results of their strategies. edBridge developed an online toolkit, Successful Transitions to College, after the project to disseminate the learning from our three-year engagement. All the tools, lesson plans, research, and data are freely available for download and use by others in the field.
NASSP is the leading organization of and voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and school leaders from across the United States and 35 countries around the world. Founded in 1916, NASSP's mission is to connect and engage school leaders through advocacy, research, education, and student programs. We have been working with the organization over a number of years to strengthen strategic partnerships and provide support for its major membership programs, including the National Honor Society, National Student Council, the NASSP Policy & Advocacy Center, and school leaders recognition programs & professional development.
Prince George's Community College (PGCC) selected edBridge Partners to engage the College in an extended dialogue and to provide actionable recommendations to align the resources, capabilities, and structure of the institution to best serve its students, prepare for the future, sustain the college, and achieve the vision for PGCC. The project also focused on identifying the leadership skills and development needed for the future. Following the approval of the recommendations, edBridge was engaged to assist in the implementation of the Realignment recommendations and new business processes to support the new structure and ways of working.
In addition, edBridge supports Prince George’s Community College participation in the three-year Pathways Project, a national project focused on building capacity for community colleges to design and implement structured academic and career pathways at scale, for all their students. edBridge Partners provides project management for Pathways on the ground at the institution, providing coordination, planning, communications, and program support across all areas of Prince George’s Community College to integrate and synthesize the Pathways work to date and prepare the institution for execution and implementation of the Guided Pathways model in Fall 2018.
Among the first of its kind at the system level, the USM William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation provides a cohesive place to conceptualize, organize, and disseminate innovative best practices in learning and teaching for the benefit of its students. We have been assisting the USM in the implementation of the Center's vision and mission, including planning, organizing and managing major strategic initiatives on their behalf on topics such as open educational resources, digital badging, MOOCs, student outcomes assessment, online course quality, and course redesign.
Additionally, edBridge Partners was selected by the University System of Maryland to manage a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education's First in the World (FITW) program to develop, implement, and evaluate a statistics pathway in order to accelerate developmental students' progress into credit-bearing postsecondary courses and help more of those students reach certificate or degree completion effectively and efficiently. Project goals include reducing costs for students who will not have to languish in developmental courses, and saving the state and higher education institutions at least a portion of the estimated $72 million spent annually in Maryland on developmental education. In order to meet those goals, the FITW MMRI program supports the development of a new developmental statistics pathway leading to a general education statistics course. The twelve partnering institutions—five USM institutions and seven community colleges serving approximately 158,000 new students each year—will be the "early adopters" of the new mathematics pathway and will lead the development of the new pathway for Maryland's 29 public higher education institutions.
edBridge Partners served as a project manager and facilitator of the North Carolina Student Aid Study Group, organized by the University of North Carolina System in partnership with the North Carolina Community Colleges. The Student Aid Study Group brought together higher education leaders, financial aid experts, and state policymakers to examine state aid programs that serve UNC and NCCCS students, to identify lessons from research and other states about the optimal design of student aid, and develop evidence-based reforms to enhance the effectiveness of state aid investments. The recommendations developed by the Study Group will inform changes to state policy and program design for the North Carolina state grant programs.
SERVICES
Defined by brilliant strategic thinking and driven
by a desire to achieve results
OUR TEAM
Extensive experience combined with an entrepreneurial approach
We bring a deep commitment to improving education, backed by extensive experience in both education and business organizations, in applied and academic research, and in strategic planning, project management and communications. Above all, we have a bias for action and a commitment to achieving results for our clients.
