About Us

Our Mission

Virginia Ed Strategies, in collaboration with K-12, business, and community stakeholders, develops and implements innovative best practices to align education with employer needs and assist schools in improving academic and career outcomes for students.

Our Vision

Virginia Ed Strategies is dedicated to ensuring excellence and innovation in our future workforce through effective K-12 education and business partnerships.

Our Core Values

Generating Solutions

We are generating solutions to challenges – always building on lessons learned, broadening our skills and perspectives, and continuously improving our processes and services.

Unifying Partners

We are unifying partners with common goals as we highly value learning from others, we willingly share what others may be able to learn from us, and we achieve together what may not be possible alone.

Intentional Innovation

We are intentional about innovation and excellence as we strive to develop better content and strategies based on research, experience, knowledge, and data.

Dedicated Effort

We are dedicated to making a real difference, and we operate with both a sense of urgency and a long-term view.

Empowering Others

We are empowering others to find creative ways to solve their own problems and more meaningfully contribute to their communities.

Our Story

Virginia Ed Strategies is a 501c3 nonprofit organization focused on partnerships and programs that help ensure a strong K-12 educational system, a prepared future workforce, and a thriving global economy for Virginia. Originally established in 2007 as “Virginia Advanced Study Strategies,” our first several years were dedicated to administering the National Math and Science Initiative’s Advanced Placement (AP) teacher training and student support program that significantly increased the number of students taking and passing AP math, science, and English courses across the Commonwealth. More recent signature projects include the Rural Math Excel Partnership and the Rural Math Innovation Network – both funded by United States Department of Education Investing In Innovation (i3) grants to develop innovative models of national significance with potential for large-scale replication.

Over the years, we have broadened our reach and mission to cultivate a variety of best practices that align K-12 education with employer and community needs. To date, Virginia Ed Strategies has garnered over $33 million in public and private funding to support statewide initiatives that have impacted more than 200,000 Virginia students.

In 2019, we became a sponsored organization of James Madison University, and our staff became A&P faculty members of the College of Education and the Office of Professional and Continuing Education. As a nonprofit affiliated with a major university, we have the best of both worlds – independence to set and follow our own agenda while benefiting from the resources and credibility of one of the best institutions of higher education in the nation. Our role in addressing the challenges of K-12 education and employer needs is consistent with the research and outreach roles of JMU, and our work is strengthened by our connection with the university.

Also in 2019, we changed our name and rebranded to demonstrate our commitment to K-12 education and business alignment and to set ourselves apart as the premier intermediary organization focused on strengthening Virginia’s talent pipeline. The maze and highlighted path in our logo symbolizes our desire to be a GUIDE for our partners in setting a course to ensure excellence in our future workforce. We are passionate about collaboration because it is so critical to understanding the challenges, innovating best practice solutions, and continuously improving in ways that make the most impact. In short, we don’t just spend our time thinking and learning – we put our hearts and minds into DOING.