Our Impact
At ERS, we empower education leaders to strategically shift resources and system structures so that every student—especially those with the greatest learning needs and those furthest from opportunity—attends a school where they can learn and thrive.
Celebrating 20 Years of Impact
Our Impact Report recognizes 2025 as a milestone year in ERS’ rich history of working with states, districts, and schools to strengthen how public education serves students. The report offers a closer look at the progress unfolding in communities nationwide—and the possibilities ahead.
How We Support States, Districts, and School Systems
Our work is both holistic and comprehensive, drawing on the exemplars, data, samples, benchmarking, and experience from our more than 20 years of deeply embedded district work. We empower leaders to make the large-scale, systemic change that supports equity and excellence in their districts.
Partnerships
Workshops and Networks
Tools and Research
We provide districts and state education agencies with comprehensive data analysis and hands-on consulting to enable leaders to make the transformative shifts students need to succeed.
We facilitate training events and circulate insights to help district and school leaders better serve the students in their buildings. Contact us to learn more.
We produce data-backed original research and key stories informed by our district work to illustrate how strategic resource allocation can impact student success.
“[Working with ERS] provided an opportunity to challenge our thinking, to challenge the way that we do things, in an effort to move our student achievement to a higher level.”
Dawn Mirand, Superintendent, Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School District
Measuring Our Impact
Our work is successful when it leads to educational environments in which:
- Students have school experiences with engaging and relevant learning opportunities that are grounded in the best available research and organized strategically to ensure equitable success.
- Teachers have career experiences that fundamentally redesign the daily work of teaching and offer supportive professional learning, robust career pathways, and competitive compensation opportunities.
- School systems can mobilize resources to advance excellence and equity for all students, with a focus on sustainability and long-term strategic planning.
State and District Snapshots
Texas
In collaboration with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas Impact Network (TIN), we’ve supported dozens of projects that span more than 60 Texas districts. Most recently, we launched the reimagined Texas Strategic Resource Use Network, which provides professional learning and technical assistance to district leaders. Through the network, we’ve been able to:
- Create pathways for deeper budget planning, system strategy, and school design support.
- Offer a continuum of differentiated support to districts across Texas.
- Enable network participants to continue to develop strategic mindsets and strengthen core competencies.
“This process has helped build a bridge between academics and finance and operations. … It’s helping us surface multiple strategies serving the same core need and understand the full cost. It’s really helping us drive forward a conversation on what’s working.”
Network participant and Chief Financial Officer of a Texas school district
cleveland
We partnered with Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) to design and implement a student-based budgeting model that enabled leaders to allocate dollars based on student enrollment and need. This work:
- Boosted school leader budgetary control from 2% to 71%, which enables more equitable, student-based allocations.
- Supported CMSD in training its first two cohorts of principals under the new student-based budgeting system in how to identify a vision for their schools and organize resources around that vision. 91% of pilot cohort principals said ERS support gave them a deeper understanding of strategic school design.
- Provided CMSD with data and analysis that helped strengthen leaders’ relationships with teachers, ultimately leading to a contract that garnered an unprecedented 71% approval rate from teachers.
“Our work with ERS has empowered us to truly own our strategy as district leaders and become better partners to the schools we serve.”
John Scanlan, former Chief Financial Officer, CMSD
Tulsa
When teachers at Tulsa Public Schools struggled to deliver the rigorous instruction that met their students’ diverse needs, we partnered with leaders to transform staffing and scheduling models to create job-embedded professional learning time for teachers. This work:
- Increased collaborative planning time by at least 50 additional minutes per week across all schools, enabling teachers to have the greatest impact on student learning.
- Tripled collaborative planning time at one school from 40 minutes to 135 minutes per week.
- Enabled five schools to create new site-based coaching positions to provide targeted academic support, which has been shown to help low-performing students thrive.
“I can take you to numerous classrooms where I’ve seen teachers’ capacity grow exponentially in that teachers are more confident in their curriculum and teaching, and they’re using strong strategies in front of children.”
Jennifer Gripado, Instructional Leadership Director, Tulsa Public Schools
Impacting Students Across the Nation
These district spotlights highlight just a fraction of the work we do and the students we serve. We’re proud to partner with states and districts across the country to make lasting change and impact.
Our District and State Partners
Looking to make an impact in your district or state? We’d love to know how we can help.
Reach out today!
Learn About ERS
Learn more about our mission, vision, and values.
Explore how we help every student from every district learn and thrive.
Access resources on strategic system transformation.