For K-12 systems, this means focusing on proficiency, college and career readiness, teacher effectiveness, and school turnaround.  For state higher education systems, it means focusing on improving college access and success.  And for all systems, it means narrowing the achievement and attainment gaps that separate economically disadvantaged students and under-represented minorities from their peers. 

EDI does not offer up new policies or magic-bullet answers; rather, we focus on helping our partner systems to use the delivery approach to implement the policies and reforms to which they have already committed.

EDI strives to be a different kind of technical assistance organization in its work with partner systems.  Some distinctive features of our working approach:

• We take a collaborative approach that focuses on capacity-building and sustainability of impact.  We will only be successful if the Delivery Units we work with become capable of operating without outside help or guidance.  For that reason, our approach invests heavily in Delivery Unit staff in each of our partner systems through training, joint fieldwork, and observation and feedback.

• We seek to role model a culture of delivery.  EDI is a learning organization that has the privilege of working with multiple systems at the cutting edge of reform.  As such, one of EDI’s core competencies is the development and dissemination of knowledge about what works best.  Our staff benefit from this knowledge and work to embody the characteristics of a Delivery Unit in their work with partner states.  This means that our staff will support the people that they work with, but also challenge them if ambition, courage, or determination are lacking.  It also means that we hold ourselves accountable according to the results that we help our partner systems achieve: their success is our success.