Welcome to the Center for Educational Progress
The Center for Educational Progress is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and advocacy organization devoted to studying and promoting excellence in education. We reject the one-size-fits-all model that has dominated American education for half a century, instead embracing a vision where every student can advance as far and as fast as their curiosity and determination will take them. Through research, policy advocacy, and community building, we work to create educational environments that foster genuine excellence — not by pretending all students learn the same way at the same pace, but by meeting each student where they are and enabling them to soar. Our work spans from early childhood development to advanced academic acceleration, from classroom discipline to cognitive science, centered around a common mission: to understand how humans learn and excel, and to build systems that let them do so without artificial constraints.
Join Us!
Are you interested in following our work and joining a community of parents, teachers, students, and others focused on excellence? Subscribe to our newsletter and consider joining our Discord server, where we coordinate our projects and provide discussion space.
Interested in contributing more actively? Do you have an idea you think could contribute to our mission? Please fill out our volunteer survey. We’re seeking help from knowledgeable, passionate people across a wide range of fields. Education has been stuck in the same paradigm for a long while, and there is a tremendous amount to be done to break out of it.
Please consider donating to support our work. Our short-term goal is to hire two more full-time staff members and to maintain enough of a budget to pay contributors and organize effectively. Looking towards the future, we intend to expand aggressively, eventually running conferences, building schools, and creating a long-term viable alternative to the education school ecosystem. For small donations, please consider subscribing to our Substack or donating here. If you are in a position to make a larger contribution and would like to discuss more with us, please get in touch with us at centerforedprogress@gmail.com.
Who are we?
Jack Despain Zhou is the writer behind the newsletter Tracing Woodgrains, known primarily for his coverage of the FAA’s hiring scandal, admin abuse at Wikipedia, and his writing on the education system. He currently attends law school. Previously, he worked as producer for the podcast Blocked and Reported and served as an Airborne Chinese Language Analyst in the United States Air Force. He has been passionate about education reform since childhood. He is on temporary leave from the Center for Educational Progress.
Thomas Briggs graduated from UCLA’s School of Law and is the current Executive Director at the CEP. Before law school he got a couple philosophy degrees researching international politics and democracies, and until joining us tutored gifted high schoolers. Besides education policy, he loves nerding out about music and history.
Joshua Dwyer is the Principal at Dwyer Strategies, a public policy and government affairs consulting firm. Prior to his current role, he worked for a number of education reform organizations, where he wrote and helped pass six pieces of legislation, including a bill that allowed students to enter school early, skip grades, take above-grade level classes, and graduate early and a tax credit scholarship program aimed at helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds. He has a wife, four sons, two dogs, and a bird, and enjoys spending his free time playing video games and going to concerts with his kids. When he was younger (and cooler), he hosted a radio show in Burlington, Vermont where he got to meet and hang out with indie rock legends, including Wayne Coyne (of the Flaming Lips) and Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco).
