MSG has established itself as a thought leader and innovator in the field of adult education (AE). Our staff has led numerous impactful projects supporting AE, including the Student Achievement in Reading (STAR) Toolkit, a comprehensive reading reform initiative, as well as the LINCS Resource Collection, the Department of Education’s hub for AE that provides free online access to high-quality, evidence-based, vetted materials that help adult education practitioners and state and local staff improve programs, services, instruction, and teacher quality.

MSG’s team brings to the table a combined 50+ years’ experience in afterschool programming and other extended learning time (ELT) initiatives. We have supported the Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers program through a variety of services, including best practices guides, state evaluation, and evidence-based professional development.

MSG has been at the forefront of a national movement to ensure that all Career Technical Education (CTE) programs have access to high quality resources. Our team was responsible for designing and developing an innovative guide for the using, building, and sharing free, openly-licensed educational resources (OER).

MSG takes a holistic approach to the issue of high school dropout prevention, and has helped educators and administrators around the country learn to recognize the “early warning” signs that might indicate a student is on the verge of dropping out of school. Our efforts cross numerous types of districts and at-risk populations, including runaway and homeless youth, Native American, and Alaska Native.

MSG’s experience in early childhood education includes preschool program development, dual language programs, family engagement, afterschool programming, and other extended learning time (ELT) initiatives. We have supported the Administration for Children and Families and Department of Education’s Preschool Development Grants (PDG) Technical Assistance Center, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, and the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) through a variety of TA events, including on-site TA sessions, webinars, communities of practice, peer learning exchanges, and national grantee meetings. We have also engaged in robust product development encompassing curriculum development, instructional approaches, best practices guides, technical reports, infographics, newsbreaks, newsletters, and webinar content in print and digital formats. We employ evidence-based and translational research methods for policy, program, and workforce development.

The MSG team is highly experienced in using, managing, and designing education datasets. The firm was selected to develop over 99 modules to train prospective users on the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) datasets.

English Language Learners are an ever-increasing focus of the highly diverse national education system, and a direct area of expertise of the MSG team. Our staff have led projects to develop practitioner guides on working with ELLs in afterschool programs, as well as managed the ELL-U professional development network for ESOL practitioners.

MSG recognizes the importance of family engagement in education as a key factor in improving student performance across all levels. To that end, our team is leading the impactful Family Engagement Resource Provider (FERP) initiative, a national project that involves promising practice identification, regional communities of practice, and national webinars on critical topics.

Since the recession of 2008, financial literacy has evolved into a key area of public policy focus. MSG has helped to enhance the money skills of low-and-moderate income individuals and supported the creation of positive banking relationships through evaluations of innovative programs such as FDIC’s MoneySmart.

Rural education systems face many challenges, both in terms of resources available and sheer distance covered. MSG has helped rural educator and administrator’s around the country connect with one another and share best practices through work funded by the High School Graduation Initiative (HSGI).

As our national economy progresses to offer more high-skilled jobs, education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) becomes all the more critical. MSG has paved the way for increased participation in STEM by developing practitioner guides for afterschool programming, writing reports on important issues such as advancing women in Technology, and collecting evidence-based professional development resources for STEM educators.

Successful re-entry programs prepare incarcerated individuals to successfully re-enter society with the support of education and workforce training. Through our work on projects such as the Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS), MSG supports adult educators around the country in providing effective, positive re-entry programming.