Partners in School Innovation

Overview

Partners in School Innovation was established in 1993 to address disparities in academic outcomes between white students and racial minorities in low-performing urban public schools. The organization does not operate schools directly; instead, it embeds coaches inside partner districts for multi-year engagements focused on instructional leadership, teacher development, and organizational change, with an approach oriented substantially around critical race theory-aligned notions of educational equity. ^{4  1  2}

The organization has drawn funding from a mix of philanthropic sources spanning the ideological spectrum, including large private foundations associated with left-of-center philanthropy, as well as smaller family foundations with more limited ideological profiles. ^{5  6  7  8}

Background

Partners in School Innovation was founded in 1993 by Julien Phillips, a former Peace Corps volunteer and McKinsey and Company partner, and Kim Grose, a Rhodes Scholar. The organization began as an AmeriCorps-affiliated project focused on addressing the racial achievement gap in urban public schools through a data-driven coaching model. Partners in School Innovation was founded in 1993 and has been tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) since 1999. ^{4  9  10}

Phillips remained on the organization’s board as of 2026 as executive director emeritus, more than three decades after co-founding the organization. Derek Mitchell became the chief executive officer in June 2009, succeeding earlier leadership from the organization’s founding period. ^{9  11  12}

The organization is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with a mailing address in Concord, California. It has operated under the working name PartnersSI. ^{1  13}

Programs

Partners in School Innovation groups its work into three categories: K-12 leadership development, adult learning facilitation, and change management strategy. The organization places coaches, called “improvement partners,” at partner schools and districts to work with administrators, teachers, and other staff, typically over a multi-year engagement. Services include one-on-one and team coaching, the facilitation of professional learning communities, classroom observation, and an online course platform. The organization uses a proprietary assessment tool it calls the “School Transformation Rubric” to evaluate partner schools against categories it has identified as relevant to its improvement model. ^{1  14}

Much of the organization’s programming is built around critical race theory-aligned notions of equity. Case studies published by the organization describe engagements involving “anti-bias and anti-racist” practices in an elementary school, “culturally responsive” and “assets-oriented” instruction for multilingual learners, and efforts to instill “equity mindsets” among teachers and administrators. The organization states its approach to multilingual learners aligns with the California English Learner Roadmap, adopted by the California State Board of Education in 2017. ^{2  15}

Partner districts named in the organization’s case studies include the School District of Philadelphia, the San Jose Unified School District, the San Francisco Unified School District, the West Contra Costa Unified School District, and the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District. ¹⁶

Leadership

As of July 2026, Derek Mitchell was chief executive officer of Partners in School Innovation, a position he had held since June 2009. Mitchell held a Ph.D. in education from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a bachelor’s in English from Pomona College. His prior roles included executive director of the Opportunity Zone at Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland, program manager at the Stupski Foundation, and director of research and equity at the Oakland Unified School District. ^{12  17  18}

As of July 2026, Michael Hornsby, a director of customer success at Salesforce, was the board chair. Other board members included Julien Phillips, who co-founded the organization in 1993 and is the executive director emeritus; Adam Handlos, the chief financial officer of Galvanize Climate Solutions; Joyce Montgomery, the former chief financial officer of Summit Public Schools; Jennifer O’Day, an institute fellow at the American Institutes for Research; Zack Barulich, the chief financial officer of BiRite Foodservice Distributors; and Ellen Moir, the founder of the New Teacher Center, who joined the board in October 2025. ^{11  19}

Financials

In its fiscal year ending July 2025, Partners in School Innovation reported total revenue of $4,712,014, down from $5,982,704 the prior year. Contributions accounted for $1,940,207 of revenue (41 percent), while fee-for-service program revenue from partner schools and districts contributed $2,686,727 (57 percent). Total expenses were $4,692,612, of which $3,007,395 (64 percent) went to program services. The organization reported net assets of $1,786,045 and total liabilities of $786,975 at year’s end. Government grants accounted for $134,445 of revenue, approximately three percent of the total. ²⁰

Chief executive officer Derek Mitchell received total compensation of $313,199, including deferred and other compensation, for the year. ²⁰

Funders included the Leonard Hill Charitable Trust, a Santa Monica, California, private foundation, which awarded the organization $560,000 in general operating support; the W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation, a Chicago-based family foundation, which awarded $90,000 in general operating support; and the Adam R. Bronfman Family Foundation, a New York-based family foundation, which awarded $75,000 in general charitable support. The organization has also received funding from the Gates Foundation as part of its Networks for School Improvement portfolio. In 2012, the Douglas and Maria DeVos Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation jointly funded a multi-year initiative with Partners in School Innovation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that included a $215,625 subcontract to the National Equity Project. ^{6  7  8  21  18  22}