CommunicationWorks has a long history of driving communications efforts to change state and federal policy and writing and/or editing and releasing important reports in K-12 and higher education, civil rights, and workforce development. In education in? particular, we have a distinguished track record, and have managed large scale communications campaigns on issues such as making college affordable, public responsibility for public education, raising high school graduation rates, and promoting teacher professionalism nationwide. The firm also has written, edited and/or released reports on the charter schools, choice and vouchers, college costs, college graduation rates, community colleges,  continuous improvement in education, curriculum, demographics of education and higher education, Every Student Succeeds Act and state policy, equity in education, federal policy, future of higher education, grading, the Nation’s Report Card, Open Education Resources, private education, productivity in education, research universities, school staffing, standards in education, state assessments, teacher education,  teacher professionalism,  technology and special education, and many more.

We work with national commissions and education and policy groups to draft reports with action agendas that resonate with the media and key audiences; help researchers translate and publish their work. The firm also has conducted research and written reports on the impact of national disasters on schools, cultural gem institutions, best practices in communicating research at federal research agencies, and others issues.

For the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Time Magazine, CW conceived of and developed a special insert about the importance of research universities for the nation’s economy and our society, including essays by leading presidents of U.C. Berkeley, University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, and other major research universities , identifying life-changing inventions that came from these campuses, new ideas to better sustain funding for them, and to draw attention to the benefits of these institutions to the nation and regions.

CW worked with the president and the board of Trustees of Teachers College, Columbia University, to benchmark leadership and communications practices of cultural gem institutions (such as the San Diego Zoo, the New York Public Library, California Institute of Technology, National Public Radio, The Folger Shakespeare Library, and prominent think tanks) that have changed their fields. Working with the President, we also developed a comprehensive plan for release of highly visibile research, establishment of new institutes, and new communications strategies and activities for the college.

For PBS, we analyzed and developed a report on all the research conducted on PBS assets—from broadcast programs to teacher courses and community activities—to demonstrate the educational value of educational television. The study was used, in part, to demonstrate how the impacts we expect from PBS television have expanded to new technologies.

For example, CW worked with policy experts to help transform perception of accreditation agencies and the role accreditors can play in measuring and monitoring institutional performance.  For the Council on Regional Accreditation Commissions, which represents the regional organizations responsible for accrediting nearly 3,000 colleges and universities, we drafted a 44-page report on what we know about college graduation rates, how they are used, and how they can improved. Over a three-year period we also wrote and placed articles, managed media relations, developed collateral material explaining accreditation for policymakers in every region, supported policy development, and other activities.

CW has worked with Cognia—the school improvement, accreditation, and assessment organization that serves a network of 36,000 institutions—to draft comprehensive policy white papers on such topics as designing state accountability policy to promote continuous improvement and research findings on factors related to school quality. We also serve as writers and associate editors for their magazine, produce thought leadership reports on such topics as the impact of remote learning on schooling, manage media to announce new developments (including the recent merger that formed the new company), and produce case studies on the impact of Cognia’s work on school districts.