what we do
Navigate complexity and build credible, scalable systems for learning, impact, and decision-making.Ignite/ed partners with forward-thinking education agencies, nonprofits, and philanthropic organizations to understand what’s working, what’s not, and what to do next. Our approach is data-informed and rooted in the belief that all kids deserve an education system that works. We bring research, data, strategy, and evaluation together to support decision-making and stronger outcomes for K-12 students.
Organizations come to us with a specific challenge—unclear results, a big idea, a new initiative, or internal misalignment.
Ignite/ed helps organizations step back, make sense of what’s actually happening, and move forward with a clear, grounded approach.
© IgniteEd. All rights reserved.
Text
testimonials
Danielle has been a fantastic partner in our work to push the field of education forward, shepherding grants and learning opportunities for the education field that are forward-looking and impactful, both at the organizational level and for broader systems change. Fast and very smart, Danielle is equally qualified to convene highly technical experts to work through solutions to key challenges in the market and to lay the groundwork for ambitious conversations about the impact of emerging technologies on students and schools.
- Ulrich Boser. Founder and CEO, The Learning AgencyWorking with Danielle has far exceeded every expectation. From day one, she hasn’t just coached us—she has stepped in as a true co-owner of our mission. Whether building essential infrastructure, digging into the weeds between sessions, or keeping our core research agenda moving forward, her follow-through is unmatched. My favorite moments are when I present a complex need and watch Danielle instantly conceptualize a solution—only to find a custom, high-impact tool in my inbox a few days later.
- Emma Humphries, Chief Education Officer, iCivicsIgnite/Ed have been exceptional thought and operational partners to our team as we built out a complex, multi-year research and evaluation strategy - from developing and enacting a new evaluation framework tailored to our portfolio's needs to providing technical assistance, capacity building, and research strategic planning directly to our portfolio organizations. They're fluent enough on the technical side to hold their own with external evaluators, which is a key part of our work, and plainspoken enough to make it all make sense to the rest of us so we make the right decisions at the right times. That combination has made them trusted by both our external partners and our internal staff. I would highly recommend them to any organizational leader who has low internal capacity but needs to execute a high volume of work while maintaining great attention to quality.
- Callie Riley, Managing Director, Cambiar EducationWe so appreciated Danielle’s responsiveness and ability to learn our context quickly. In a complicated time for our organization, she was able to name our assets and challenges, articulate key decision points, and suggest clear next steps to help us move with respect and care. Most important for us, her written analysis brought our team together around key decisions and work we needed to prioritize.
- Lisa Vahey, Co-Founder, Honesty for Ohio EducationOur work with Ignite/Ed has helped us become much more intentional about how we collect, understand, and ultimately use data across our organization. Their team took the time to dig deeply into our needs, helping us identify the critical measures that truly matter and connecting those measures back to our mission and organizational goals. From developing our logic model to guiding the selection and implementation of a centralized data platform, Ignite/Ed has helped us move beyond simply collecting information toward building a clear purpose for our data. Their thoughtful guidance has strengthened our ability to understand our impact, make informed decisions, and better measure mission fulfillment.
- Jason Wojnicz, Chief Strategy Officer, Julie Billiart Schools
Text
Text
about us
MISSIONAt Ignite/ed, we partner with education agencies, nonprofits, and philanthropic organizations to bring clarity to complex challenges—building the tools, insights, and leadership capacity needed to deliver high-quality, evidence-based learning experiences and improved outcomes for K-12 students.
VISIONWe envision an education system where every K-12 student has access to high-quality, evidence-based learning experiences—and the opportunity to reach their full potential.
SELECT CLIENTSIgnite/ed has partnered with a range of education and philanthropic organizations, including:
Walton Family Foundation
Cambiar Education
Charter School Growth Fund
ETS
Friends of Breakthrough Public Schools
Julie Billiart Schools
The Primary School
Intergenerational Schools
Meeting Street Schools
Honesty for OH Education
Text
Our People
Text
Text
Danielle Eisenberg, Founder & CEODanielle is an education strategist and measurement leader with 20+ years of experience at the intersection of education innovation,
assessment, and large-scale implementation. In addition to founding Ignite/Ed, Danielle currently serves as Executive Director, Learning & Measurement at ETS, leading the design, validation, and multi-state deployment of a K–16 durable skills assessment system integrating AI- assisted scoring, innovative assessments, and competency-based transcripts. With a track record securing and managing federal and philanthropic grants exceeding $12M, Danielle also holds deep expertise in holistic measurement systems, assessment design, and translating research into practical interventions.Danielle’s favorite work lives in the space between idea and launch. Prior to founding Ignite/ed, Danielle spent over a decade in senior leadership at KIPP Public Schools, running the national Research & Evaluation team. In this role, she implemented tools and systems to capture and make sense of a holistic set of high-quality data on school and network practices as well as student and alumni outcomes. She oversaw the network's K-12 assessment strategy, comprehensive stakeholder survey design and implementation, and managed all evaluation efforts from program evaluation through longitudinal randomized control trials and quasi-experimental designs to measure long-term impact. More recently, she served as Acting CEO at Breakthrough Public Schools steering the organization through a set of leadership transitions and crises.Danielle is an active community member, having served as School Board Chair of Breakthrough Public Schools, on the Overseas STEM Committee for the Cleveland Jewish Federation, and as a writing coach for MindsMatter. Danielle holds a BA from Washington University and an Ed.M. from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. When not working or volunteering, Danielle is parenting three very spirited children with diverse learning needs and exploring the art of gardening.
Molly DePasquale, Senior Consultant Molly is an accomplished education leader with 25 years of experience aligning instructional materials, professional learning, and assessment systems to improve student outcomes. She has an in-depth knowledge of the education product and service market, informed by her leadership of a national nonprofit’s entrepreneurial business development and strategy consulting arm. She is passionate about research and development that leads to codifying exemplar practices and strengthening instructional quality.
Molly demonstrates strong interpersonal, collaboration, and coaching skills. She began her career in Baltimore City as a middle school math teacher and spent eight years in the classroom as both a teacher and instructional leader. She later worked for District of Columbia Public Schools, where she helped launch the IMPACT program.As a first-generation college graduate, Molly believes deeply in the importance of education and its power to change the trajectory of children’s lives. Her love of mathematics, as well as her confidence in herself, was sparked by a memorable 8th-grade Algebra teacher.
Aryana Bolourian, ConsultantAryana is an independent strategy consultant specializing in education. She has experience supporting state agencies, school systems, philanthropy, and mission-driven organizations through strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and implementation support. Aryana brings a practitioner’s perspective as a former middle school math teacher, program coordinator at an afterschool program, and fellow at the Rhode Island Department of Education. Her expertise includes facilitation, research and deliverable development, synthesis, and the design of collaborative processes that help leaders make complex decisions.Before launching her independent practice, Aryana served as an Associate Consultant at Education First, where she advised districts, foundations, and education organizations on initiatives related to literacy, teacher preparation, and system improvement.
Her work included leading stakeholder engagement research for The Gates Foundation’s Washington State Initiative; planning a professional learning series for the Maryland State Department of Education, conducting an evaluation of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s arts grantmaking; managing a competitive positioning project for AERDF; and supporting the development of Alliance for Learning Innovation’s three-year strategy, mission, and vision. She also designed and facilitated communities of practice, focus groups, and planning sessions with principals, district leaders, and higher education partners.Aryana holds a BA in Economics and Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s in Education from Rhode Island College. She is based in Seattle, Washington.
Text
Text
Service Areas
Research & Evidence
We help organizations answer important questions using rigorous research and thoughtful evaluation. Together, we define success, build evidence, and generate actionable insights that strengthen programs, inform investment decisions, and improve outcomes.Our work includes evaluation design, implementation research, landscape studies, mixed-methods research, and evidence-building efforts across school systems, nonprofits, and philanthropy.Example Deliverables & Offerings:
Case studies
Program evaluation
Landscape scans
Literature reviews
Survey design and analysis
Research & evaluation planning
Data, Insight, & Decision Support
We help leaders turn data into clear priorities and actionable next steps. This work focuses on organizational learning — helping teams synthesize information, strengthen decision-making, and build practical tools and frameworks that guide continuous improvement over time.Example Deliverables & Offerings:
Logic models and theories of action
Data strategy and governance
Data dashboards and reporting frameworks
Outcome tracking and performance management
Strategy & System Design
We help organizations transform promising ideas into coherent, scalable systems. Together, we design strategies that align vision, implementation, governance, measurement, and day-to-day operations.Whether launching a new initiative, redesigning an existing program, or navigating organizational change, we help leaders build solutions that are evidence-informed and practical to execute.Example Deliverables & Offerings:
Strategic plan
Program design
Organizational design
Implementation roadmap
Multi-year scaling plan
Leadership, Capacity & Change Management
We support organizations through growth, transition, and complex change by strengthening leadership capacity, team alignment, and implementation practices.Our work helps organizations build the structures, collaboration, and internal capacity needed to sustain improvement and lead change effectively over time.Example Deliverables & Offerings:
Executive and leadership coaching
Root cause problem identification
Organizational design and role clarity
Innovation in Measurement
We help organizations develop measurement strategies that meet their current and future needs. Our work includes both traditional approaches (surveys, extant data collection, assessment development), as well as emerging measurement models, AI-enabled assessment, and innovative methods for capturing complex outcomes.Example Deliverables & Offerings:
Comprehensive assessment strategy
Vetting & selection of measurement tools
Development of innovative measurement models
Text
Text
CASE STUDIES
Julie Billiart Schools: Building a Data Foundation to Deepen Impact
"Our work with Ignite/Ed has helped us become much more intentional about how we collect, understand, and ultimately use data across our organization. Their team took the time to dig deeply into our needs, helping us identify the critical measures that truly matter and connecting those measures back to our mission and organizational goals. From developing our logic model to guiding the selection and implementation of a centralized data platform, Ignite/Ed has helped."
-Jason Wojnicz, Chief Strategy Officer, Julie Billiart Schools
Client
Julie Billiart Schools (JB) is a network of four schools serving neurodivergent learners in Northeast Ohio. JB has a deeply held whole-child mission and a strong culture of understanding students as individuals.JB already had rich sources of information and a clear understanding of the outcomes that matter most to its students and families. Ignite/Ed partnered with JB to build on those strengths and create a stronger infrastructure for bringing that information together, using it strategically, and communicating impact to the broader school community.
The Opportunity
As JB continued to grow and evolve, leaders saw an opportunity to make its data even more useful and connected.
JB wanted to bring together information across academics, social-emotional development, IEP progress, family engagement, staff, and long-term outcomes - and create a clearer picture of how those pieces connect to its mission.The opportunity was not simply to collect more data, but to make the data JB already had more accessible and actionable.
Approach
Phase I | Listen & Learn
Ignite/Ed assessed JB's data ecosystem through interviews and focus groups with board members, school leaders, teachers, and families. The process highlighted JB's strengths and opportunities to better connect data to its mission and outcomes.Phase II | Define the Outcomes & Explore Solutions
Ignite/Ed helped JB align its Logic Model and Graduate Profile to six core outcome areas and created a mock board dashboard to clarify what meaningful reporting could look like.This work helped define JB's technology needs. Ignite/Ed then researched and curated options for a central data “Hub” to connect existing data, support reporting, and provide a foundation for future measurement. Ignite/Ed also evaluated SEL and executive functioning measurement tools, advancing DESSA 2 and SSIS-SEL as two options for JB to consider as the data infrastructure evolves.Finding the Right Hub
Ignite/Ed collaborated with JB to develop JB-specific criteria covering reporting, interoperability, implementation, IEP progress monitoring, privacy, and cost. Five vendors were researched and evaluated through demos, independent scoring, and reference checks.The process narrowed the field to EduClimber and Otus, giving JB a clear, evidence-based set of options for selecting the Hub best aligned with its mission, goals, and capacity.Building Beyond the Hub
Ignite/Ed also created a phased roadmap for building on that foundation:
Hub + SIS Integration: Select and implement the Hub, connect core data, and launch the board dashboard.
SEL & Executive Functioning: Select and integrate a tool measuring outcomes such as independence, self-advocacy, and self-regulation.
IEP Progress: Strengthen aggregate IEP reporting and add a supplemental tool only if needed.
Long-Term Outcomes: Expand measurement of family experience and alumni/post-secondary outcomes.
Impact
Through the engagement, JB gained a shared framework and practical roadmap for turning its existing information into a more connected story of impact.The work created:
A mission-aligned outcomes framework
A vision for a centralized data Hub
A rigorous process for technology selection
A roadmap for integrating new measurement tools
A stronger foundation for communicating student outcomes
Text
Text
Contact
Ignite/ed partners with forward-thinking education agencies, nonprofits, and philanthropic organizations to understand what’s working, what’s not, and what to do next.Our approach is data-informed and rooted in equity. We bring research, data, strategy, and evaluation together to support decision-making and stronger outcomes for K-12 students.Please connect with us if there’s anything we can do to help you and your organization improve outcomes for K-12 students.We would love to hear from you!
Text
Thank you
We will be in touch soon.