Our Approach
We seek the best in leading-edge practices so that we can bring a wide range of ideas to bear for community college students, faculty and administrators.
- The Academy for College Excellence is inventing, aggregating and remixing the best practices from the higher education sector, as well as executive education from the corporate sector.
- ACE’s leadership team was trained in the cutting-edge organizational change strategies used in the corporate world, most notably at Hewlett Packard.
- The solutions and services provided by ACE are informed and inspired by leaders in social science, product development, and scaling services.
Our approach is based in evidence and informed by practice.
- ACE is an outgrowth of comprehensive inquiry and deep research.
- We apply the best practices and lessons learned over the whole of our careers, as well as regular, systematic feedback from students, faculty and administrators to make our work rigorously relevant in practice.
- The Academy for College Excellence is invested in evaluation, assessment, and planning.
- Assessment and rigorous planning is an ingrained and integrated practice at the Academy for College Excellence.
ACE relies on the wisdom of a wide range of experts in all aspects of our operation — from strategy to evaluation to curriculum design to organizational design.
- Among those who’ve informed the growth of the Academy for College Excellence are academics, social impact experts and foundations. ACE has partnered with leaders in social impact and scaling to further refine and expand services, engaging in sophisticated analysis of the sustainability of its programming in both delivery and adoption at community colleges.
- Key partners include: Harvard Business School Community Partners, Monterey Institute of Social Architecture, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, FSG Social Impact Advisors, and the Nonprofit Finance Fund.