For 50 years EDC has been a pioneer, building bridges among research, policy, and practice. Our award-winning programs and products, developed in collaboration with partners around the globe, consistently advance learning and healthy development for individuals of all ages. Today, EDC manages 325 projects in 35 countries. Our work strengthens nearly every facet of society, including early child development, K-12 education, health promotion, workforce preparation, community development, learning technologies, basic and adult education, institutional reform, medical ethics, and social justice.

EDC is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) organization. Most fundamentally, this means that no profit accrues to any individual. Our work is supported through grants and contracts from a variety of sources, including U.S. and foreign government agencies, private foundations, nonprofit organizations, universities, and corporations. As a publicly supported, publicly accountable organization, we have a special obligation to carry out work of the highest quality and integrity.

Our Approach

Projects at EDC address critical challenges around the world in education, health, technology and human rights. While the issues we address are diverse, all that we do is united by our conviction that learning is the liberating force in human development. We are committed to education that builds knowledge and skill, makes possible a deeper understanding of the world, and engages learners as active, problem-solving participants.

How Do We Inspire Sustainable Change Around the World?

We bridge research and practice.

EDC's innovative solutions combine the creativity and rigors of research with the realities of practical experience. Each project grows out of current knowledge in the field, and each new tool or approach is informed by extensive pilot-testing and evaluation.

We pursue comprehensive solutions.

We have learned that our work cannot succeed in isolation. It does not work, for example, to confront substance abuse or violence without addressing their causes, or to focus on academic skills while ignoring children's health and the conditions of the communities in which they live. The problems we are working on are systemic and complex. We strive to focus simultaneously on the individual pieces of the puzzle and the puzzle as a whole.

We collaborate.

Starting with our first physics curriculum, PSSC Physics, EDC has specialized in fostering collaboration among people with diverse skills and viewpoints. We believe that people working effectively in groups are often capable of greater vision and creativity than individuals working alone. Internally, EDC is a community of scientists and mathematicians, health professionals and health educators, teachers, administrators, and community organizers, artists, writers, and researchers. Externally, we build collaborations across countries, cultures, generations, classes, and professions.

We focus on questions that matter in people's lives.

At EDC, we believe that learning begins with questions: a teacher wanting to know a new way to solve a mathematics problem; a doctor wondering how to ease the transition for the family of a dying patient; a teenager wanting to know why school matters in life and career; a principal searching for better ways to meet the needs of students with disabilities; a mother considering whether to breastfeed. Over the decades, EDC's projects have helped people raise and explore questions of importance in their lives and develop responses that address their strengths, needs, and concerns.