Inverness Research

What Inverness Research does

Inverness Research, Inc. is a private educational evaluation and consulting firm founded in 1984 by Dr. Mark St. John and headquartered in Inverness, California (Marin County). The firm helps foundations, federal and state agencies, and education project leaders optimize investments in educational improvement across K-12, higher education, and informal science education domains. Its core offering is organized into four interconnected service areas: identifying investment opportunities, conceptualizing and planning initiatives, evaluating programs (formative, summative, and developmental evaluation), and implementing initiatives in partnership with funders. Deliverables include reports, briefs, technical studies, case studies, and slide presentations, and the firm maintains an archive of more than 200 person-years of accumulated experience studying hundreds of education investments over 25+ years.

The firm's competitive positioning is built on a stated "investment-as-client" model — Inverness positions itself as neutral and independent, with no agenda other than optimizing the underlying investment — and on a team of approximately 15 PhDs and experienced researchers, nearly all of whom are former classroom teachers or university faculty in science, mathematics, writing, or informal learning. Notable long-tenured engagements include the National Writing Project evaluation (since 1994) and recurring work for the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Exploratorium, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Education Development Center.

Revenue is generated through professional-services consulting engagements rather than any productized or technology platform. The website is explicitly maintained as an archive covering work from 1994 to 2019, and current inquiries are routed through direct phone and email contact; there are no publicly disclosed pricing models, no subscription or SaaS revenue, and no disclosed funding rounds, outside investors, or parent company. The firm is entirely founder-owned and operates with a relationship-based, sales-led go-to-market targeting foundations, agencies, and project leaders on a national scope.

Name

Inverness Research

Legal name

Inverness Research, Inc.

Website

https://inverness-research.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1984

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Inverness Research, Inc. is a private educational evaluation and consulting firm that helps foundations, government agencies, and education project leaders optimize investments in educational improvement through formative, summative, and developmental evaluation services, with a team of approximately 15 researchers holding over 25 years of accumulated experience.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Educational Evaluation and Consulting

NAICS

Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (541690)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)

akta.pro primary industry

Industry & Sector Research (Syndicated/Custom) (BPAHALAE)

Keywords

• Educational evaluation services
• Education consulting
• Formative evaluation
• STEM education research
• Philanthropy advisory

Headquarters

HQ city

Inverness

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Evaluation Services: Professional evaluation services provided to agencies and foundations investing in educational improvement. Services include formative evaluation, summative evaluation, developmental evaluation, and strategic planning for sustainability. Revenue is generated through consulting engagements with funders and project leaders.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Inverness Research is an educational evaluation and consulting firm that helps funders and project leaders improve their financial strategies, program designs, and implementations in education. The firm offers four interconnected service areas: identifying investment opportunities, conceptualizing and planning initiatives, evaluating investments through formative, summative, and developmental evaluation, and partnering with funders to implement initiatives, primarily serving foundations, government agencies, and education project leaders across K-12, higher education, and informal science education.

Product overview

Inverness Research is an educational evaluation firm that offers a portfolio of consulting services focused on optimizing investments in educational improvement. The core offering consists of four interconnected service areas: Identifying Opportunities (helping funders find investable problems), Conceptualizing and Planning (designing and clarifying initiative logic), Evaluating (formative, summative, and developmental evaluation), and Implementing (partnership support for launching initiatives). The firm produces various deliverables including reports, case studies, briefs, and slide presentations. Services span K-12 formal education, higher education, and informal science education domains, with particular expertise in STEM education, teacher leadership development, professional development networks, and education policy assessment. The firm has accumulated over 200 person-years of experience studying educational investments since 1994.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Educational Evaluation Services Educational evaluation services covering formative, summative, and developmental evaluation of education improvement investments in K-12, higher education, and informal science education. Services are delivered to foundations, government agencies, and project leaders as custom engagements.
• Identifying Opportunities Advisory service that helps funders position themselves for successful investments in educational improvement by matching funder mission and capacity with investable problems, drawing on the firm's knowledge of the education landscape.
• Conceptualizing and Planning Consulting service that helps funders and project leaders think about initiatives in new ways, interrogate logic models, clarify intended returns on investment, and increase the potential to generate educational capital.
• Implementing Partnership support service in which Inverness Research works with funders to launch and operate their initiatives, offering neutrality, experience, and knowledge as an independent group focused on optimizing the investment.
• Reports and Publications Produced deliverables including presentations, briefs, technical reports, case studies, slide presentations, and monographs that portray key features of projects and lessons learned about contributions to education improvement, serving funders, project leaders, policymakers, and the broader field.

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• National Science Foundation (NSF)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2011Primary funding source for many evaluated projects including MSP program, Advancing Informal STEM, and various implementation/dissemination centers. Inverness serves as external evaluator for NSF-funded education improvement initiatives.
• National Writing Project (NWP)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-term evaluation partner for the National Writing Project. Created site database, conducted formative evaluation for multiple initiatives including New Teacher Initiative, Technology Initiative, and College Ready Writers Program.
• ExploratoriummajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSan Francisco science museum. Multiple evaluation partnerships including Teacher Institute, Institute for Inquiry, XTech Program, and English Language Development/Science integration program with Sonoma Valley Unified School District.
• American Museum of Natural HistorymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEvaluated Seminars on Science online courses for K-12 educators. Also studied youth programs and ITEST high school science research program.
• Education Development Center (EDC)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerExternal evaluator for K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Center (K-12MCC). Also studied Compass implementation center for high school mathematics curriculum.
• Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District (GGBHD)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLed Golden Gate Bridge Outdoor Exhibition project with CUREE, exploring use of large public works as sites for informal learning, funded by NSF.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• RMC Research Corporation: RMC Research is a smaller education research and evaluation firm that conducts program evaluations for federal agencies, foundations, and state departments of education. It is a closer peer to Inverness in scale and mission, focusing on K-12 and STEM evaluation.
• Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research (BEAR) Center: The BEAR Center at UC Berkeley specializes in educational assessment and program evaluation, particularly in mathematics and science education. It overlaps directly with Inverness's MARS/MAP formative assessment work and STEM evaluation expertise.
• Rockman et al (an independent consultancy): Rockman et al is an independent research and evaluation consultancy that studies education, technology, and museum learning initiatives for foundations and federal agencies. It is highly comparable to Inverness in scale, methodology, and informal science education focus.

Broad incumbents

• Education Development Center (EDC): EDC is a global nonprofit that designs, delivers, and evaluates education programs, including STEM initiatives. It is both a past Inverness partner (Inverness served as external evaluator for EDC-led projects) and a competitor for foundation-funded education evaluation work.
• RAND Corporation: RAND's education division conducts large-scale program evaluations and policy research for foundations and federal agencies. It competes with Inverness for high-profile education evaluation engagements and has overlapping expertise in K-12 and STEM.
• WestEd: WestEd is one of the largest U.S. nonprofit education research, development, and service agencies. It overlaps with Inverness Research in providing evaluation and consulting services to foundations and government agencies on K-12 and informal science education initiatives, but at a much larger scale and broader portfolio.
• American Institutes for Research (AIR): AIR is one of the largest U.S. behavioral and social science research organizations, with substantial work in education evaluation for federal agencies and foundations. It competes for the same large-scale federally funded evaluation contracts as Inverness.
• Mathematica Policy Research: Mathematica is a major nonpartisan research organization conducting policy-focused evaluation and program assessment for federal agencies and foundations. It competes for the same federal education evaluation contracts (NSF, U.S. Department of Education) that Inverness pursues.
• Abt Associates: Abt Associates is a research and consulting firm with significant federal education evaluation practice. It competes with Inverness for NSF and U.S. Department of Education evaluation contracts, particularly in STEM and K-12.
• SRI International: SRI International's Center for Learning and Development conducts education research and evaluation for foundations and federal agencies. Several Inverness researchers previously worked at SRI, and the two firms engage similar STEM education clients.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/inverness-research-inc.

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Inverness Research