Welcome to Brass Tacks Innovations

As partners in a new and exciting venture called Brass Tacks Innovations, we wanted to welcome you to our new website and first blog personally. With great anticipation and a sense of urgency, we decided to create a new and unique consulting firm in the educational space to develop people to do more innovative work. While we know the pandemic will end at some point, the aftermath will remain for students, teachers, and parents. Many things still feel uncertain, and many leaders and educational systems don’t know where to turn for help. That’s where Brass Tacks Innovations can help.

Who We Are
With over 70 years of experience of the three partners (Elana Feinberg, Randy Weiner, and James Bailey), we have experience and insight in a variety of areas.
We have experience as teachers, principals, college readiness coordinators, superintendents, turnaround leaders, tech designers, coaches, and consultants.
We have experience in rural and urban systems, public, private and charter schools, and at all levels from elementary to middle school to high school and college.
We have worked in schools, districts, and charter management organizations, along with state departments of education and private funders.
But most of all, we believe that our society will not fulfill its promise to all children until innovation and adequate implementation become a de facto way of work for all schools.

That is the brass tacks of our vision: effective innovations X effective implementation= significant outcomes.

What We Believe
At Brass Tacks Innovations, our primary purpose is to collaborate with school leaders and consultants to create pragmatic and agile solutions for more equitable learning. Within this purpose, we especially center equitable learning, trying to discontinue the structural racism that still divides our schools and communities by race and class in all of our work. We also center on working with leaders to develop their innovation capacity as we continue into the 21st century.

Additionally, we center on pragmatic solutions: those solutions that work for you, in your context with your students, teachers, and community. While we may have lots of ideas, we work with you to find the best answers to your problems coupled with reliable implementation drivers.

At Brass Tacks Innovations, we work with our clients around this set of beliefs:
• The current school system is not preparing all students for the future of society or work
• Most schools want to improve but do not have access to additional expertise
• Well-defined problems lead to customized, superior solutions
• A focus on equity is non-negotiable
• We must support leaders in adapting to future demands

Each of these beliefs helps us ground our day-to-day work with our clients and help them adapt to an ever-changing world.

Where we Focus
Brass Tacks Innovations specializes in helping all types of educational institutions in the areas of
Adult social-emotional learning
Student agency
Educational consultants’ overall practice
Innovation through improvement science
Leadership coaching
School design or redesign

In our next few blogs, we will explore our thoughts and ideas behind each of these service areas. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have or just to talk. We are always open to good ideas and discussions.

Until next time, stay safe and healthy.