MSG has been awarded a contract to enhance academic technology programs for the National Defense University (NDU). MSG will work alongside the Careerstone Group, a full-service organizational and leadership development firm, to help NDU develop their academic technology platforms and systems, along with the management and delivery of their academic programs.

Michael O’Donnell, Vice President of Management and Training and current Project Director, “We are excited to help the colleges within this prestigious university develop a roadmap to improve overall effectiveness of how academic technology is being used within their unique academic environment,” Said Michael O’Donnell, Project... read full article

The Department of Education's Office of Communication and Outreach mentioned MSG's Family Engagement Resource Providers (FERP) program in its most recent monthly newsletter (Volume 8, Issue 9), citing MSG for effective practices in administering the FERP program.

The FERP program supports State Education Agencies (SEAs) and grantees in enhancing critical family engagement initiatives, which are frequently linked to student learning success.

MSG oversees FERPs in 10 regions across the United States and other U.S. Territories. “We are happy and proud to be a part of this effort to help families across the nation,” said Ms. Sally Wade, Project Director. For more information... read full article

MSG has been awarded a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to provide logistical support for ED conferences ranging from small convenings to large, virtual meetings.

“We welcome the opportunity to continue our work in supporting the Department of Education,” said Ms. Sancta Watley, Project Director and MSG’s Logistics Expert. “Our experience and expertise in logistical support combined with our innovative technologies used to complement logistics planning will allow us to deliver high-quality, impactful meetings to our client,” Ms. Watley added.

Ms. Watley and her team will provide ED with pre-meeting services, on-site support, and post... read full article

MSG has been awarded a contract with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) to build and implement state-wide career pathways systems. MSG will provide subject matter expertise to build the capacity of secondary and postsecondary career and technical education programs, aiding states in the development and expansion of comprehensive career pathways systems.

The award is a task order from a Career and Technical Education (CTE) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) vehicle, on which MSG has been awarded one of three seats. Through this vehicle, MSG will provide extensive expertise on the development and implementation of ... read full article

MSG has been awarded a 20-month study to evaluate the Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF). “We are pleased to have been awarded this important contract, continuing our record of service to NSF in program evaluation,” said Dr. Dan Geller, Director of MSG’s Research and Evaluation practice.

I-Corps is a grant program open to recent or existing NSF grantees at academic research institutions. It encourages scientists to consider the commercial potential of their research by awarding teams a flat grant of $50,000 to train team members in entrepreneurship.

MSG will use a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of I-Corps. “This ... read full article

MSG has been awarded one of 13 seats on a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) to provide Education Technical Assistance and Support Services (EDTASS) to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and its grantees.

“This is an exciting opportunity for MSG to continue to support the Department of Education across multiple areas,” said Ms. Laura Lanier, Director of MSG’s Technical Assistance practice. “MSG will be able to combine its expertise in providing technical assistance with its technological platforms, allowing us to deliver high quality and innovative solutions to our client,” she added.

Through this vehicle MSG will contribute to the development of a comprehensive model... read full article

In June, MSG welcomed our new Vice President of Management and Training, Mike O’Donnell. Mike joins MSG with over 25 years of experience in training, education and senior management, including President of Chubb Institute, Inc., a vocational technical college for adults that included 10 campuses in 6 states; COO of the Arthur Andersen Virtual Learning Network, an online learning platform that provided online courseware and learning management support services to numerous fortune 500 corporations; and various roles supporting training and workforce development for the federal government as the Chief Learning Officer of FPMI Solutions, Executive Director of the Federal Management Institute,... read full article

MSG is working with ED's Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) to identify promising examples of adult education and developmental education alignment at community colleges. MSG developed evidence-based assessment rubrics for four program models. The project brought together community college leaders to provide feedback on MSG's proposed products. MSG will also develop videos and accompanying discussion guides for community college audiences. MSG will participate in presenting on findings at various conferences, sharing lessons learned through webinars, and, engaging practitioners through LINCS Community of Practice.

Following the firm's recent partnership with the non-profit organization Reading is Fundamental, MSG was honored to be chosen as April's "Donor of the Month". MSG employees work with RIF to provide books to low-income children, as well as volunteer to participate in school-wide reading days. For more information on the work of RIF, visit their website.

MSG has been selected to provide logistical support services and planning assistance for the Principal Investigators (PI) Conference hosted by the National Center for Education Research (NCER) and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER), both within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

The meetings, scheduled annually in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, will support IES by convening researchers, training fellows, and practitioners in the field of education research. The Principle Investigators and staff from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) will meet to discuss challenges and solutions in the field.

“This is an exciting opportunity for M... read full article

Despite extreme weather threatening to intervene, on March 5th MSG hosted the national "Career Pathways Champions" meetings in Washington D.C. This convening brought together career pathways pioneers from all across the country - in education, workforce, and human services - to discuss the forthcoming "Career Pathways Toolkit."

This exciting project is being completed by MSG and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. The updated toolkit will feature best practices from leading organizations, and will help educators, administrators, and policymakers to align programs and policies to meet the needs of an evolving workforce.

The dialogue was an overwhelming success. Attende... read full article

MSG is working with ED’s National Center for Education Research (NCER) and National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER), both of which are housed within the Institute for Education Science (IES), to plan their annual Principal Investigators conference. MSG is responsible for organizing the entire conference, including all pre-meeting, on-site, and post-meeting support. This role includes securing meeting rooms, organizing speakers and attendees, and coordinating conference technology and materials. MSG also created desktop and mobile applications to facilitate registration, orientation, and survey distribution among participants and attendees.

On February 24th, the U.S. Department of Educations's Office of Career Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) released a report entitled "Making Skills Everyone’s Business: A Call to Transform Adult Learning in the United States." The report is in response to the International Assessment of Adult Competencies’ Survey of Adult Skills, which found that 36 million Americans have low literacy skills, nearly 24 million of whom are part of the workforce.

MSG works directly with OCTAE and other federal agencies to tackle the challenges presented by adult education. The firm currently supports the Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS) and the Student Achievement in Read... read full article

MSG is proud to announce our new Director of Technical Assistance, Laura Lanier. With 17 years of experience in complex project management, government contracting, client solutions, education reform, and technical assistance, Ms. Lanier has led local, state and national level education and workforce development TA projects as a Project Director. Her work spans the full spectrum of education and workforce development, including expertise in adult education, career pathways, career technical education, and English Language Learning.

Ms. Lanier currently directs the Student Achievement in Reading project and the LINCS Resource Collection on behalf of the U.S. Department of Educat... read full article

On Friday, February 13, 2015, nine MSG team members visited the JoAnn Leleck Elementary School at Broad Acres in Silver Spring, MD to distribute books to 400 students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade. During the event, second grade students visited the library media center with their classroom teacher and selected their own books, received book plates to insert into their selected books to display their name, and were given stickers and a friendship activity sheet by MSG and Reading is Fundamental volunteers. Students in Kindergarten and 1st grade received books their teachers pre-selected for them the morning of the event in their respective classrooms.

In addition to the b... read full article