Our Story

Basis Policy Research began with a question: why did the most rigorous research in education so often arrive years after the decisions it was meant to inform?

For policymakers and practitioners, the consequences of that delay were real. Decisions about programs, funding systems, accountability policies, and personnel reforms were being made every day — often without the kind of evidence that researchers were increasingly capable of producing.

By the late 2000s, the field itself was entering a new era of rigor. The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 had established the Institute of Education Sciences, and with it came a strong push toward causal inference, experimental and quasi-experimental designs, and higher standards for what counted as credible evidence. Universities across the country were producing important work that was reshaping how researchers understood schools, teachers, and student learning.

But for all of that progress, something still felt incomplete.

The research was rigorous, but it often moved slowly. Studies could take years to complete and even longer to reach the people responsible for making decisions about schools and students.

There was a growing gap between the production of rigorous evidence and the moment when that evidence could help someone make a better decision — and ultimately improve lives.

Three of us at Vanderbilt University — two of us brothers — began talking about that gap and what it might mean to do something about it. Together, we began to imagine a different way to bring rigorous evidence closer to the decisions it was meant to inform.

David Stuit and Jeff Springer were completing their doctoral training in quantitative methods and education policy, developing the analytic and causal inference skills that would shape the firm’s research approach. Matt Springer was serving as a Research Assistant Professor and directing the National Center on Performance Incentives, a federally funded research and development center studying the effects of strategic compensation reforms. All three of us were deeply engaged in the emerging research traditions shaping the field and shared a belief that rigorous methods could produce insights that genuinely improved education systems — and ultimately the lives of the people those systems serve.

What we began to ask was whether those same methods could be applied in a different kind of setting — one designed not only to advance research, but to deliver evidence in ways that were timely, practical, and useful to the people facing those challenges.

That idea became Basis Policy Research, which we founded together in Nashville in 2009.

From the beginning, our premise was straightforward, though not necessarily easy to execute. We would conduct research and evaluation that met the standards of rigor expected in academic scholarship while operating on timelines and in formats that made the findings accessible to policymakers, educators, foundations, and nonprofit leaders. Just as important, the work would involve genuine partnership — taking the time to understand the context in which decisions were being made and helping organizations interpret what the evidence meant for them.

Our goal was never simply to produce reports or publish studies. It was to provide partners with insight they could use. But getting there took time. Collecting new data and gaining access to administrative records often moved more slowly than anyone wanted, and there were moments when answers arrived after the decisions they were meant to inform. Like many young organizations, we learned along the way — refining how we worked, how we partnered, and how we delivered evidence so that it could reach decision-makers sooner and in ways they could actually use.

In the early years, we operated much like many small research firms do: one project, one partner, one state at a time. We worked closely with agencies, foundations, and school systems on evaluations, policy analyses, and data projects addressing some of the most pressing questions in education — from teacher effectiveness and strategic compensation to charter school performance, school finance, and postsecondary access. Many of those early relationships grew into long-term partnerships. In fact, our very first partner continues to work with us today.

Much of this work never appeared in national headlines or academic journals. Instead, it lived where it mattered most: inside the decisions our partners were making about programs, policies, and investments. Our role — as is still the case today — was often behind the scenes, helping organizations understand what their data revealed, how their programs were performing, and where improvement might be possible, even when the answers challenged assumptions or raised difficult questions.

Over time, that approach proved valuable. Partners returned with new questions, new challenges, and new opportunities to apply rigorous evidence to real-world decisions and to use data more effectively. What began as individual projects gradually grew into long-standing partnerships built on trust and shared purpose.

In 2012, Matt stepped away to pursue his academic career, first earning tenure as a professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University and later serving as the Robena and Walter E. Hussman Jr. Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. By that point, our foundation had been laid. In the years that followed, David and Jeff built the organization into the Basis that exists today.

Over the next decade, Jeff and David, along with our growing team, expanded the firm — assembling researchers, analysts, and policy experts with deep expertise in applied statistics, econometrics, survey design, program evaluation, and data systems. Together, we worked with partners across the country to tackle complex policy questions and evaluate programs aimed at improving outcomes for students, educators, and communities.

As the work evolved, so did our reach. We expanded beyond education into workforce development and child and family welfare — fields that share education’s complexity and its need for credible, practical evidence.

By the time Matt returned in 2024, we had worked with nearly 120 partners on more than 550 projects across 26 states. That footprint — built over fifteen years of careful, relationship-driven work — reflected something larger than any of us had imagined in Nashville in 2009.

Yet the growth of the firm reflected more than scale. Over time, we began to see a pattern in our work. Many partners were not only seeking research and evaluation — they were looking for ways to act on what they learned. Evidence was most useful when organizations could incorporate it into the way they operated and the decisions they made.

In response, we increasingly focused on translating research into practical tools and decision-support systems that help organizations apply evidence in their day-to-day work — from frameworks that help communities measure well-being to analytic systems that help educators identify when students may need additional support.

These efforts reflected a belief that had been present from the beginning: rigorous evidence has its greatest value when it becomes something people can use.

In 2024, Matt rejoined Basis as a co-founder and Managing Partner, bringing the founding team back together and opening a new chapter for the firm. His return added decades of research leadership and policy engagement while reconnecting us with our earliest roots.

But the firm he returned to was no longer the small, three-person venture we had imagined in 2009. Over the years, David and Jeff — together with a growing team of researchers, collaborators, and partners — had built an organization defined not only by its methods, but by the way it works with partners and the practical impact that work makes possible.

Today, we continue to pursue the same idea that first brought us together: producing rigorous evidence and delivering it in ways that help decision-makers act when it matters most.

The philosophy that guided us from our very first day remains the same — Evidence with Impact.