Momentum Strategy & Research

What Momentum Strategy & Research does

Momentum Strategy & Research is a Denver, Colorado-based non-profit organization founded by Jim Griffin and Dr. Jody Ernst after their tenure at the Colorado League of Charter Schools, where they pioneered national work on alternative education campus (AEC) accountability and charter school facilities. The organization's mission is to collect, disseminate, and help schools implement data, tools, and resources to strengthen K-12 public education, with two principal lines of inquiry: (i) measure alignment and relevant accountability for all schools, and (ii) equitable access to funding and facilities for charter school students.

The core product portfolio combines research databases and frameworks rather than a single software platform. The flagship asset is the Alternative School, Performance, & Policy Database, described as the nation's most comprehensive compilation of alternative school data including measure, assessment, and public policy elements. Supporting products include the Student-Centered Growth System (SCGS) for multi-domain student progress tracking, the Measuring Opportunity Pilot Project (MOPP) for measure alignment with Colorado AECs, the A-GAME (Advance Great Authorizing & Modeling Excellence) tools and protocols for authorizers, the Charter School Facility Center (launched with the National Alliance), the Schoolhouse Network for USDA financing support to rural charter schools, and the Accountability Reimagined framework. The underlying technology is a research and data analytics operation built on proprietary databases and assessment tools rather than a commercial SaaS product.

Momentum generates revenue through commissioned professional services — research projects, landscape analyses, policy scans, evaluation services, technical assistance, and survey/measure development — delivered to schools, authorizers, districts, state departments of education, and advocacy organizations. The organization supplements fee-for-service work with grant funding, notably the federally funded Charter School Program Dissemination Grant supporting A-GAME. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and services are commissioned through direct inquiry. Distribution is direct and partner-mediated: a content-driven website and newsletter presence feeds top-of-funnel awareness, while bottom-of-funnel conversion occurs via direct contact forms and flagship partnerships with USDA, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, NCSI, and The New America School-Colorado. The organization operates nationally from its Denver headquarters with a staff of 11–50.

Name

Momentum Strategy & Research

Legal name

Momentum Strategy & Research

Website

https://momentum-sr.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Momentum Strategy & Research is a Denver-based non-profit that provides research, data, evaluation, and technical assistance to K-12 schools, authorizers, districts, and state education departments, with a focus on alternative education campuses, charter school facilities, and accountability frameworks.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Research & Policy Consulting

NAICS

Educational Services (61), Educational Support Services (6117)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Education Policy Research Institutes & Think Tanks (EDADADAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Education Policy, Research & Advocacy Organizations (Nonprofit) (BPAGADAN), Research, Evaluation & Program Effectiveness Reporting (EDADAIAM)

Keywords

• Education policy research
• Alternative education assessment
• Charter school facilities
• Student growth measurement
• Education consulting services

Headquarters

HQ city

Denver

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Research and Consulting Services: Provides commissioned research projects, landscape analysis, policy scans, and evaluation services to schools, districts, authorizers, and state departments of education. Services include survey development, data validation, measure selection, and accountability advocacy.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Momentum Strategy & Research provides commissioned K-12 education research, evaluation, and technical assistance services focused on alternative education campuses (AECs) and charter schools. Its core deliverables include proprietary databases on alternative school performance and policy, accountability framework and measure-alignment tools (SCGS, MOPP, A-GAME), policy analysis, and technical assistance on USDA facility financing for rural charter schools. Customers are schools, authorizers, districts, state departments of education, and advocacy organizations across the United States.

Product overview

Momentum Strategy & Research is a Colorado-based non-profit organization offering a portfolio of research databases, evaluation frameworks, and technical assistance services focused on K-12 public education. The core products include the Alternative School, Performance, & Policy Database (nation's most comprehensive alternative school data compilation), Student-Centered Growth System (multi-domain student progress tracking), and A-GAME (holistic evaluation framework for authorizers). Supporting initiatives include MOPP (measure alignment pilot), Accountability Reimagined (student-centered accountability principles), Charter School Facility Center (facility policy research), and Schoolhouse Network (USDA financing support for rural charters). The organization operates as a services and research provider rather than a software platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• A-GAME (Advance Great Authorizing & Modeling Excellence): A project (Oct 2018-Dec 2021) funded by a Charter School Program Dissemination Grant that developed resources and data tools to help authorizers collaborate with alternative charter schools in selecting accountability measures and metrics.
• A-GAME Goals
• Student-Centered Growth System (SCGS)
• Measuring Opportunity Pilot Project (MOPP)
• Accountability Reimagined
• Charter School Facility Center
• Schoolhouse Network

Products and services

• Alternative School, Performance, & Policy Database A nationally maintained database of alternative school data, measure and assessment information, and related public policy elements that schools, authorizers, districts, and state agencies use to find benchmarks, set targets, and inform policy and practice for alternative education campuses.
• Student-Centered Growth System (SCGS) An indexing system that measures and tracks student progress across multiple domains, enabling schools to group students by incoming needs, strengths, and challenges and to set individualized goals aligned to each student's most pressing needs; serves alternative education campuses, charter schools, and networks.
• Measuring Opportunity Pilot Project (MOPP) A three-year measure alignment service that matches a school's profile to available and relevant measures and assessments for internal and external accountability, delivered in collaboration with The New America School-Colorado and the Colorado AEC Consortium.
• A-GAME (Advance Great Authorizing & Modeling Excellence) A toolkit and engagement framework developed with NCSI under a Charter School Program Dissemination Grant that helps charter school authorizers collaborate with alternative charter schools on selecting accountability measures and metrics aligned to their missions and student populations; subsumes the A-GAME Goals resources.
• Charter School Facility Center A research and policy center established with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools that documents USDA financing for rural charter schools and produces reports on facility-related policies across charter school states.
• Schoolhouse Network & USDA Financing Support A technical assistance service connecting rural charter schools with USDA facility financing through Schoolhouse Planning (growth and facility plan alignment) and Schoolhouse Support (preparedness for financing applications), delivered in partnership with USDA.

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Ongoing partnership with USDA to support rural charter schools' access to USDA facility financing through Schoolhouse Network. Momentum provides technical assistance to prospective USDA borrowers through Schoolhouse Planning (strategic alignment of growth and facility planning) and Schoolhouse Support (preparedness for financing applications). Published 2020 report documenting USDA financing for charter schools.
• National Charter Schools Institute (NCSI)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 December 2018Co-led the A-GAME project (Oct 2018-Dec 2021) funded by a Charter School Program Dissemination Grant. Developed state-of-the-art resources and data tools to help authorizers collaborate with alternative charter schools on accountability measures.
• National Alliance for Public Charter SchoolscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018In 2018, Momentum helped the National Alliance apply for and launch the Charter School Facility Center. Momentum leads research efforts documenting USDA financing for rural charter schools and produces reports documenting facility-related policies across charter school states.
• The New America School-ColoradoflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerMOPP collaboration operating a three-year pilot project with a consortium of Colorado AECs focused on measure alignment. The project matches school profiles to relevant measures and assessments for internal and external accountability purposes.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• WestEd: Large nonprofit education research and development organization providing evaluation, technical assistance, and policy research to states and districts; comparable professional-services model at much larger scale.
• Mathematica Policy Research: Major social-policy research and evaluation firm with a substantial education practice conducting program evaluations and surveys for federal/state agencies; competes for the same state and federal research RFPs.
• Education Resource Strategies: Nonprofit that partners with school districts on strategic resource allocation and performance; broader portfolio than Momentum but shares the K-12 consulting and systems-improvement orientation.

Direct peers

• Bellwether Education Partners: Nonprofit education research and advisory firm providing policy analysis and strategic advising to education leaders; directly comparable business model serving schools, districts, and funders with research-based consulting.
• National Alliance for Public Charter Schools: National advocacy organization for charter schools; Momentum helped launch its Charter School Facility Center and they share charter-policy research and dissemination activities with overlapping authorizer/state audiences.
• Colorado League of Charter Schools: Founding employer of Momentum's co-founders and the originating organization for its charter and AEC research work; continues to operate in overlapping charter-advocacy territory in Colorado.
• National Charter Schools Institute: Charter school authorizer and support organization; co-led the A-GAME project with Momentum from 2018–2021 and serves the same alternative-charter and authorizer customer base.
• National Association of Charter School Authorizers: Membership organization for charter school authorizers that develops accountability frameworks and quality standards; directly overlaps with Momentum's authorizer-focused A-GAME work.
• Center on Reinventing Public Education: Education policy research center producing original research on school accountability, choice, and portfolio reform; shares the niche of K-12 policy research and alternative accountability design.

Emerging players

• Public Impact: Education-focused research and consulting firm working on school staffing, charter school redesign, and portfolio management; overlapping K-12 policy and school-improvement consulting audience.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/momentum-strategy-research

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 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 Momentum Strategy & Research