This year, Education Analytics (EA) celebrates 13 years of partnering with educators, leaders, and communities to use data in service of better outcomes for students. What began as a small team driven by curiosity and purpose has grown into a collaborative organization of more than 100 people working across the country — each bringing their own passion, expertise, and heart to the mission and vision. To mark this milestone, we invited team members who joined EA in each of our 13 years to share what it means to be part of this journey. Their reflections capture what continues to make EA special: our shared commitment to learning, collaboration, and impact.
Timeline
The early foundation for EA began at UW-Madison, when Dr. Rob Meyer ran the Value-Added Research Center (VARC), which partnered with districts and researchers to deliver state-of-the-art value-added analytics that identified which programs and practices generated the strongest learning growth, particularly for traditionally underperforming student groups. In December 2012, EA was established as an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit, with Rob Meyer as President, CEO, and Chair of the Board, and many staff from VARC joining Rob at EA to help him scale across the country.
The EA of 2012 was a handful of people trying to prove that public education could use data for good. The EA of 2026 is a community of hundreds still proving that every day through their creativity, care, and constant evolution. I’m proud that EA has stayed true to our founding vision, helping educators make better decisions with data, while constantly reinventing how we do it.
EA’s earliest work takes place in a spare room at the home of Andrew Rice (then VP of Research & Operations) before the team moves to a small office in the Heartland Credit Union building. Despite limited space and long hours, EA successfully delivers major growth and teacher effectiveness projects that establish its reputation.
Andrew Rice (VP of Research & Operations at the time) and Gabe Rosen (then Senior Research Analyst) working out of Sean McLaughlin's basement (when he was Director of Operations & Communications) during EA's early days, circa 2013.
EA’s products and services have evolved significantly over the years, but our purpose has always remained the same: getting the right data into the hands of educators who make a difference.
EA carried forward trusted partnerships that began during the VARC days while also welcoming new collaborators—signaling strong trust in the new organization. EA delivers large-scale analytics more efficiently than traditional research contractors, demonstrating the value of its nimble nonprofit model.
EA has been a truly meaningful place for me to work—having been part of EA since the early years, it’s been deeply rewarding to grow from an individual contributor to CIO and help lead the IT and security transformation that helped EA evolve from a small, security-focused education data service to an enterprise-level, interoperable platform with ISO 27001—a globally benchmarked information-security certification—continuing to innovate while staying rooted in our mission to help students thrive and proving that innovation, trust, and purpose can scale together to create lasting impact.
EA invests in core foundations, like shared code, project management, and early software development practices, that will define how we blend rigor with an open-source mentality.
Despite an enormous amount of growth and change in our work, one thing remains constant at EA: the people. I’ve worked with humans who are inquisitive and creative; who are light-hearted and kind; who persist through challenges to deliver value to our education partners.
EA moves into the now closed Paisan’s building at 131 W. Wilson Street, marking the organization’s first long-term headquarters. As the portfolio grows, EA deepens its combination of research, analytics, and technology.
EA’s people always show up willing to learn and do what it takes to have positive impact. The moments that stand out to me are when researchers and my analyst teammates step in during tight timelines or challenging Q&As so we can serve our partners better.
While student growth modeling remains central to EA's focus, EA expands into broader analytics and continuous-improvement services that districts and states increasingly seek. This diversification sets the stage for future product innovation.
EA is dynamic. It has adapted to the changing environment since I started in 2017: more staff, much more emphasis on Ed-Fi, more explicit policies and better IT support. The growing pains experienced along the way are common with organizations rapidly expanding and adapting to market change. What has remained constant is the “can do” attitude and the ambition to make a difference. And the use of room mascots.
EA deepens partnerships with external researchers and collaboratives, demonstrating how strong data infrastructure and analytics expertise can accelerate high-quality academic research. Through work such as the CORE Districts SEL initiative, EA provides rigorous analytics efficiently to a broader range of collaborates, positioning itself as a trusted analytics partner for large, multi-site research efforts.
The culture of collaboration and openness has remained very consistent at EA. At every step as I’ve developed new skills from navigating Outlook calendars on my first week on the job to learning TypeScript this last month, there has been someone at EA who’s willing to take time out of their day to support and teach me what they know.
EA invests in more advanced data engineering, interoperability, and early warehouse approaches, laying groundwork for what will become EA’s products and open frameworks.
For me, a project that captures the spirit of EA is our College Roadmaps work, which I initially joined in 2019 when we were still finalizing the predictive model and report designs to roll out to students in California. Today, the project lives on as a "Career and College Readiness" component in our Rally platform, empowering educators to leverage actionable "on-track" information for their students on a much broader scale.
As COVID upends assessment and testing, EA launches the Rally Analytics Platform to help educators access academic and wellbeing data in real time. Rally represents a major step in EA’s evolution toward modern, educator-facing tools.
One memory that stands out is EA’s rapid work on the first Rally prototype during the pandemic, created to help partners track student learning lags at a moment when information was scarce. It felt emblematic of EA’s ethos: rising to meet critical needs for our partners with solutions that are rigorous, relevant, and grounded in service.
After 11 years as CEO, Dr. Meyer transitions into the role of Founder & Chief Research Officer, and the Board appoints Andrew as CEO. EA continues expanding its research portfolio and product capabilities.
During my time at EA, I’ve had the opportunity to leverage our robust data infrastructure to explore some of the most pressing issues in education—such as COVID learning loss, social-emotional learning, and chronic absenteeism—while collaborating with incredibly intelligent and dedicated colleagues who have both inspired and humbled me.
EA releases the Enable Data Union (EDU) framework and Stadium, its hosted Ed-Fi–based warehouse, strengthening its commitment to open standards and empowering partners to modernize their data infrastructure.
Starting with EA in 2022, during a period of growth, was both exciting and daunting, but from my very first day, my ideas were welcomed, my work appreciated, and my creativity encouraged. I’m proud to be part of EA’s story and proud of what we’ve built—and continue to build—together.
After the initial success in South Carolina, more states begin to adopt EA's products and services, reflecting EA's growing capacity to support statewide data modernization, continuous improvement, and cross-agency collaboration.
From day one, I was inspired by EA’s mix of humility and ambition—people show up with purpose and collaborate with intention. Being part of a forward-thinking organization that centers student success makes EA’s mission and vision feel tangible in the work we do every day.
Now serving more than 30 states with more than 120 staff, EA continues to grow while preserving its founding commitment to rigorous, academic-grade research paired with innovative analytics and technology.
EA staff at the 2024 Winter Week party.
I started at EA as a project management intern, and that first thing that immediately made me feel welcome here was how genuinely helpful and approachable everyone was and continue to be. I continue to learn so much about how our work helps schools and education, and how to manage projects from being part of a very smart and inspiring team!
Now comfortable in its second decade, EA remains a thought leader in open, equity-driven data infrastructure—moving from bespoke analytics toward shared, interoperable systems that states and districts can own and sustain. Building on years of research and technical stewardship, we’re shaping our next chapter around enabling others to leverage interoperable, scalable, and secure infrastructure that will unlock innovative ways to use data, evidence, and ethical AI in service of public education.
What stands out to me is how seamlessly EA blends infrastructure, analytics, and implementation. Our teams move from building interoperable data systems to asking hard research questions to supporting practice change, all within one organization.
Celebrating and Looking Ahead
As we celebrate 13 years of learning, building, and partnering in service of students, we’re reminded that EA’s impact has always come from people—educators, leaders, researchers, technologists, and communities who believe that better data and thoughtful design can change what’s possible for young people. We invite you to join us in shaping EA’s next chapter: collaborate with us on research, explore our open data frameworks, or connect with our team to learn how modern, equitable data systems can support your work. Together, we can continue creating the tools, insights, and partnerships that help every student thrive. Contact us at partnerships@edanalytics.org.
