About Us
Our Vision and Mission
We envision a future where all young people have access to an equitable and excellent education and live lives filled with opportunity. We look to a future where the education system is effective, equitable, and responsive.
Bellwether is a national nonprofit that exists to transform education to ensure systemically marginalized young people achieve outcomes that lead to fulfilling lives and flourishing communities. We work hand in hand with education leaders and organizations to accelerate their impact, inform and influence policy and program design, and share what we learn along the way.
Our Mission In Action
We work across the sector to build equitable educational opportunities that lead to robust outcomes for all. Our team’s and clients’ diverse and collective expertise powers our ability to be an education field bellwether, partner with clients to accelerate their impact, and shape the national conversation on how to transform education. Every day, we work to ensure our education system is effective, equitable, and responsive, so that:
All young people have access to an equitable and excellent education, and lives filled with opportunity.
There’s a dramatic increase in education stakeholders’ awareness, adoption, and implementation of evidence-based policies and practices that drive equity and effectiveness.
Our clients improve their impact for systemically marginalized young people, accelerate growth, build capacity, and improve sustainability.
Our Results
Trusted and Reliable Source of Information
We serve as a trusted and reliable source of information for local, state, and national education leaders and for the news media.
600+ Clients
Since 2010 we have worked in partnership with more than 600 clients with equity-minded leaders and organizations. We have industry leading repeat client and satisfaction rates.
Robust Resources
We create robust resources to support leaders and drive organizational and systems-level change.
Evidence-based Policies
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Our Core Values
Mission Mindset
We focus on transforming education to ensure systemically marginalized young people achieve outcomes that lead to fulfilling lives and flourishing communities. Our nonprofit status allows us to focus on this mission and guides the people we hire and the clients and projects we support.
Tailored Excellence
We work with our clients to develop customized, innovative solutions. We direct our unwavering focus on quality toward successful outcomes for our clients.
Synergy
We believe the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that our teams make each other better.
Integrity
We exemplify the highest standards of individual and organizational ethics. We carefully balance client confidentiality with transparency to other clients and the public.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
We believe that to achieve our mission, we must be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization broadly reflecting the various communities we serve. We demonstrate this through our commitment to listening to and showcasing diverse viewpoints.
Flexibility
We believe in the philosophy of “working smarter, not harder.” We trust our co-workers and teams to do excellent work in the manner they see fit.
Candor With Care
We believe open, honest conversation, paired with trusting relationships, is vital to our work and growth. We respectfully and proactively deal with frustrations, disagreements, and unexpected hurdles with each other and with clients and external stakeholders.
Viewpoint Diversity
At Bellwether, we believe lively discussion, free expression, and evidence-based debate across a range of informed perspectives leads to better solutions — in education and in every other area of public policy. Everyone on our team agrees about the scale and severity of America’s educational challenges and the need for dramatic, not incremental change. But we have different ideas on the best strategies, policies, and even degree of government involvement required to address those challenges.
Fostering a culture of open debate and empiricism helps ensure our answers to complex questions aren’t canned or merely reflective of the fads of the day. Clients, leaders, and policymakers can trust that we’ve stress tested our ideas from a variety of perspectives.
This commitment to viewpoint diversity also helps us broaden our impact. We have the most ideologically diverse network in the education sector — a big reason why we partner with the most diverse cross-section of clients of any education organization. Our culture allows us to partner wherever we see opportunities to help students, regardless of the political or policy issues contested by the adults in their states.
Our Approach to Partnerships
Our breadth of organizational experience and unwavering belief in all young people’s ability to succeed drives our work. Our team is uniquely positioned to anticipate trends and policy shifts that can transform what’s possible in education.
At the core of our work is a strong commitment to equity — ensuring all students have what they need to succeed — and an intensive focus on systemically marginalized students. To most effectively address education’s complex problems and long-standing inequities we bring a viewpoint-diverse approach to our work that incorporates a wide range of perspectives and approaches. Our deep understanding of the evolving realities that educators face means we approach our work with:
The lens of an honest friend with deep context.
We develop solutions through a collaborative process, pushing clients’ thinking with an independent and informed perspective.
A proven strategic decision-making process.
We focus on rigorous analysis and proven approaches to engagement and decision-making — tailored to the cultural contexts of our clients and their communities.
An evidence-driven approach.
We produce work based on research and analysis informed by best practices and tailored to the unique operating environment of each client, which lends itself well to situations where significant internal differences in opinion hinder an organization’s ability to excel.
A commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Race, class, gender, and systemic inequities play an outsized role in education and society, so we engage deeply to identify and address policies, practices, and behaviors that lead to inequitable outcomes for systemically marginalized young people.
An unparalleled network across the education sector.
We work with the most diverse cross-section of education organizations of any consulting or nonprofit organization. Our deep network enables us to tap into varied expertise. Our exceptional insight into on-the-ground challenges of schools and service organizations allows us to understand and engage with broader trends shaping the field. The viewpoint diversity of our experts and those we work alongside makes us unique. We’re positioned to generate creative solutions to education’s most complex challenges.
Partner With Us
We've partnered with a diverse array of equity-focused clients — from large-scale foundations to school districts to nonprofits to mission-driven companies. Let's work together to transform education.
