Welcome to BEC!
EdIntersect is a certified woman-owned small business (WOSB) based in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. The global education firm draws on a seasoned, international academic-practitioner network to provide research, evaluation, assessment, capacity development, and program design services for education sector programs, notably in literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning. The firm’s commitment to an intersectional lens means that gender and disability inclusion integrate thoroughly into EdIntersect approaches. EdIntersect’s consideration of intersectionality recognizes that the many elements of individual identity - disability, gender, ethnicity, race, age, language, urbanicity, class or caste, citizenship status or religion - are not static characteristics. These dynamics also overlap and interact in ways that affect how individuals or groups experience marginalization and exclusion from education. The firm brings innovative and technology-infused approaches to evaluation and to engagement with stakeholders of all types, with a strong commitment and proven capabilities in building local capacity and local leadership in each context where EdIntersect works. Inclusion in a distinctly participatory process in each local context is a key priority in all of the work conducted by the EdIntersect team. Together, the EdIntersect team has worked in over 25 countries on reading, math, social-emotional learning, gender, disability, girls’ education and empowerment, and social behavior across the life cycle and education ecosystem, from early childhood and pre-primary to primary, secondary, and on to teacher training levels. In addition, EdIntersect has conducted country-wide education sector evaluations, performance evaluations for specific projects, and partnered with development organizations and donors as a prime contractor and subcontractor in technical assistance, system-strengthening, capacity-partnering, and research and evaluation roles.
The EdIntersect team brings the overall knowledge and planning to carry out research required by donors, but with an expertise unique to the depth of skills and experience brought by the firm. Drawing on meaningful assessment principles, EdIntersect develops research instruments with a suite of sub-skills to assess learner outcomes in a variety of national languages depending on the context, which address needs at the country level but also speak to donor and international guidelines. EdIntersect works hand in hand with governments, ministries of education, and local organizations to build understanding around approaches to foundational skills development and assessment, as well as to engagement with school and home stakeholders relevant to the learner’s development. As a research team, EdIntersect brings a life course view of learning to its work as well as forward-thinking understanding and concentrated experience in using USAID’s frameworks for national and district assessments to look at school quality, and literacy and foundational skills progress for learners and the systems serving them.
Since its inception in 2013, EdIntersect has been working across the globe to incorporate multiple factors using an intersectional approach to frame critical issues and create practical, lasting solutions. EdIntersect is currently undertaking or has successfully implemented, along with its partners, USAID projects focused in pre-primary and primary education, including USAID Malawi NextGen, USAID Tajikistan Learn Together Activity, USAID Senegal Lecture Pour Tous, and USAID Rwanda Soma Umenye. In addition, EdIntersect served as the lead evaluation partner for the adolescent girls’ leadership and empowerment through education program USAID Mali GLEE over the course of that five-year award. EdIntersect also recently completed education sector evaluations funded by the World Bank and UNICEF in Cape Verde and Nigeria respectively. The EdIntersect team works closely with counterparts in diverse country contexts on capacity building across thematic areas, incorporating a seasoned teaching and learning approach for education systems and inclusive education solutions that take into account gender, disability status, rural/urban location, language group, and marginalizing factors specific to each context. In this sense, EdIntersect directly shares in BEC’s mission to “Promote expanded, equitable, access to quality basic education so that all children have the chance to learn.”
Visit EdIntersect’s website to learn more: