Education Progress and the Center
The Center for Educational Progress is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit thinktank devoted to studying and promoting excellence in education. Our primary publication — Education Progress — aims to unite various pro-excellence voices from across the educational landscape.
At Education Progress, 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.
The Education Progress Principles
Excellence should be accessible, and exceptional outcomes are achievable.
Schools should teach to ability, not age.
Progress is constrained by interest over intelligence.
Growth requires measurement.
Order enables excellence.
Education serves students first.
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 Executive Director of Education Progress and 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 is a graduate of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. 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.
Thomas Briggs graduated from UCLA’s School of Law and is Director of Operations at Education Progress. Before law school he studied philosophy, international politics and democratic theory. Recently moved to San Francisco.
