THE PRACTITIONER’S PULSE
Launch Edition • January 2026
GSW Education Partners | gsweducationpartners.com
This is the first issue of The Practitioner’s Pulse, and we want to start by telling you why it exists.
The three of us have spent a combined 40+ years inside K-12 programs. Not advising from the outside. Running them. Hiring the staff. Sitting through compliance audits. Calling families when attendance slipped. Building budgets at midnight because the grant deadline moved up.
We started GSW Education Partners because we kept seeing the same gap: program leaders doing extraordinary work with almost no strategic support behind them. This newsletter is part of how we plan to close that gap. Every issue will bring you the news, research, and practical thinking that matters for your work. No filler. No jargon. Just the stuff we wish someone had been sending us ten years ago.
Introducing GSW Education Partners - Built by Practitioners, for Practitioners
GSW Education Partners officially launches this month as an education consulting firm focused on one thing: helping K-12 programs get better at what they do.
The firm was founded by Pardeep Guru, Christopher Wren, PhD, and Daniel Santangelo, M.Ed. Between us, we’ve served as Chief Operating Officers, Senior Directors of Operations, and school district leaders across public schools, charter networks, private institutions, and nonprofit education organizations.
We’re based in Wyoming and work with clients nationwide. The model is simple: we bring the kind of strategic depth you’d expect from a large national firm, with the responsiveness and personal attention of a small team that actually picks up the phone.
Our focus areas include program assessment and strategy, curriculum and program design, staffing and professional development, operations and compliance, leadership development, sustainability and growth, and family engagement. But the thread that runs through everything is practical implementation. We’ve spent too many years watching great reports collect dust on shelves. Our work is built around what actually gets done.
Who We Work With
We serve the full spectrum of organizations where education happens:
K-12 Schools and Districts including public districts focused on operational excellence, private schools pursuing growth and differentiation, charter schools and networks managing compliance and scale, and alternative education programs building new frameworks.
Educational Organizations including afterschool and out-of-school time programs, summer learning programs, youth-serving organizations with educational components, and community-based providers working on sustainability.
EdTech and Service Providers including ed-tech companies needing implementation support, curriculum publishers aligning with state standards, professional development organizations, and education service companies building school partnerships.
And anywhere else education happens: libraries, museums, community centers, corporate training environments, and municipalities. If you’re doing education work, we can help.
How We Work - Four Ways In
We structured our engagements to meet organizations where they are, not where a sales deck says they should be.
Essential Support is for organizations that need targeted help with a specific problem: a compliance review, a staff training, a curriculum audit, a policy question. Focused, efficient, and designed to solve what’s in front of you.
Growth and Optimization is for organizations ready to raise their performance across multiple areas. Think program quality assessments, professional development system design, operational efficiency work, and multi-month improvement plans.
Full Transformation is the complete overhaul. Organizational assessment, strategic planning, curriculum redesign, hiring and retention systems, culture change, and long-term partnership. This is for institutions that want fundamental, lasting improvement.
Custom Solutions exist because no two organizations face the same challenges. If the first three don’t fit, we’ll design something that does.
What Makes Us Different
There are a lot of education consultants. We know that. Here’s what we think matters about how we work:
We’ve done the jobs. Every recommendation we make is grounded in research and practice we’ve personally tested. We don’t follow trends. We apply what we’ve seen work.
We build it for you, not for everyone. Every engagement starts with deep discovery. Cookie-cutter solutions don’t survive contact with real programs, and we don’t sell them.
We stay until it works. Implementation is where most consulting falls apart. We provide hands-on support to make sure strategies actually become practice.
We measure what matters. Clear metrics, progress tracking, and honest reporting. If something isn’t working, we’ll say so and adjust.
We transfer capacity, not dependence. Our goal is to make your team stronger, not to make you need us forever. The best outcome is when you don’t need us anymore.
Our Commitment to Equity
Educational excellence should not depend on zip code or budget size. GSW Education Partners commits to dedicating 10% of our annual capacity to pro-bono or reduced-fee services for under-resourced educational organizations.
We also prioritize equity in every engagement: identifying systemic barriers, designing culturally responsive programs, and developing inclusive policies. The goal is to create educational environments where every student can thrive, not just the ones who already have every advantage.
Why Now
The education landscape is under more pressure than it’s been in a generation. Federal pandemic relief funding is ending. Teacher shortages have reached crisis levels. Learning loss from COVID-era disruptions persists. Technology is advancing faster than schools can implement it. And families are demanding better outcomes from every institution.
These aren’t problems that incremental adjustments can solve. They require strategic thinking, experienced guidance, and committed partnership. That’s exactly what GSW Education Partners was built to provide.
FROM GSW
Start With a Conversation
We offer complimentary initial consultations because the best partnerships start with honest conversation, not a sales pitch. We’ll listen to where you are, share relevant experience, and help you think through your options. If working together makes sense, great. If not, you’ll still walk away with something useful.
➤ Schedule Your Free Consultation
Email: contact@gsweducationpartners.com | Phone: (307) 215-8941
A Note from the Founders
Launching GSW Education Partners is the culmination of our individual journeys and the beginning of a shared mission. We’ve each seen both the tremendous potential and the real barriers inside American education. We’ve worked alongside brilliant educators constrained by systems that weren’t designed to support them. We’ve watched students with enormous capacity limited by institutional gaps. We’ve sat with communities that wanted better but didn’t know where to start.
Those experiences are why this firm exists. GSW Education Partners was built on the belief that every educational organization can reach excellence with the right support, the right strategy, and the right partnership.
To the educational leaders reading this: we understand the weight you carry. We know how complex the challenges are. And we know the courage it takes to pursue real change. We’re here to share that work with you.
Pardeep Guru, Daniel Santangelo, M.Ed. & Christopher Wren, PhD
Managing Partners
GSW Education Partners
Connect With Us
Website: www.gsweducationpartners.com
Email: contact@gsweducationpartners.com
Phone: (307) 215-8941 | Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM MT
LinkedIn: GSW Education Partners