Annual Report

2025

Making Education Equitable
For Multilingual Learners

Annual report

2025

Message From

Dr. Daniel Velasco 
President & CEO Ensemble Learning

Simmons Lettre
Board Chair (2017-2025) Ensemble Learning

Dear Friends and Supporters,

As we close out Fiscal Year 2025, we reflect with deep gratitude and renewed purpose. This year, Ensemble Learning took bold steps forward—expanding our reach, deepening our impact, and strengthening our organizational foundation. Our journey was guided by a shared belief: that multilingual learners deserve schools equipped to nurture their brilliance, language, and full identity.

In partnership with educators, school systems, and communities, we grew to serve over 80 schools in FY2025 across California, Texas, Colorado, Louisiana, and— as we head into FY26 — expanding into Washington, D.C., and New Orleans. That growth reflects not just scale, but trust: schools returning year after year and new partners seeking to reimagine their support for multilingual learners (MLLs). Together, we impacted nearly 60,000 students and over 2,000 educators, demonstrating what’s possible when instructional equity is paired with cultural responsiveness and sustained implementation.

The results speak volumes. In Manor ISD, where we’ve worked across all elementary schools for several years, early evaluation findings show promising gains in reading and math outcomes for emergent bilingual students. These kinds of multi-year, deeply embedded partnerships are at the heart of our approach—underscoring the importance of “dosage,” consistency, and co-design in driving results.

Our impact extended beyond classrooms. We continue to support the design of a national bilingual teacher residency in partnership with the National Center for Teacher Residencies. We are expanding our work supporting dually identified students through our collaboration with the Oak Foundation.

And we continued to support the implementation of dual language programming across schools in Texas through our federal NPD grant focusing on the Texas Dual Language Project (TxDLP), reinforcing fidelity and building the instructional ecosystems these programs require to thrive and in reflection of what our educators, students, and families deserve when it comes to high quality education experiences.

We also strengthened our organizational sustainability. With over $2 million raised in philanthropic revenue and more than $3.5 million in multiyear commitments into 2026 and 2027, we more than doubled our fundraising target. With 100% board giving and new relationships forged with funders such as Stuart, Overdeck, and Emerson Collective, Ensemble is poised for continued growth in FY26 and beyond. While we fell slightly short of our $1.4 million earned revenue target meeting $1.1M, we offset that gap through project-based philanthropic partnerships and are evolving how we calculate and track this revenue to reflect our holistic funding approach.

Internally, we continued to invest in people and culture. This year’s staff retreat was a moment of reflection, renewal, and joy. We’ve navigated transitions with care—welcoming new team members, bidding farewell to others, and deepening our commitment to wellness and trauma-informed leadership supports.

This progress is grounded in our strategic plan, which continues to guide our work with clarity and ambition. And while we’ve achieved much, we know the work ahead is just as urgent. Across the country, schools are grappling with shifting policy landscapes, educator shortages, and persistent opportunity gaps for multilingual learners. Ensemble Learning is here to meet this moment—with the tools, team, and values needed to lead forward.

To our staff, school partners, funders, board, and community—thank you. You’ve helped make this a year of courage, collaboration, and progress. As always, we remain an ensemble: moving together, learning together, and striving together to ensure multilingual learners not only succeed, but thrive.

With gratitude and hope,

Dr. Daniel Velasco & Simmons Lettre 

The Need

The Landscape

California and Texas together serve nearly 40% of the nation’s multilingual learners, with continued growth in metro areas such as Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. States like Colorado and Louisiana are seeing shifts in newcomer populations, and Washington, D.C. is growing with limited system-level infrastructure for dual-language or language-specific programming. Other states like Washington, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island have seen their MLL populations grow as well.

What School Systems Are Asking For

Systems across the country want to provide their educators with the proven skills, tools, and networks necessary to give MLLs the access to powerful educational ecosystems they need to learn and thrive. Over and over we hear about the need to give firm, but kind feedback to teachers in the moment and provide concrete examples for how to improve. Furthermore, as more schools and systems seek to add dual-language models across campuses; we’re often asked for clarity on redesignation, integrated ELD, and implementation of high quality instructional materials. Finally, we hear consistently that teachers need support for students classified as both EL and special education.

How We Respond

We partner as a systems builder — not a stand-alone PD —blending leadership and instructional coaching with data reviews so campuses can implement, monitor, and refine DLI/ELD with fidelity. We integrate research-backed, field-tested teaching and leadership strategies to better activate educators in service of all students and stand next to them through implementation in real-time.

Indicators We Track

Literacy and math achievement rates for multilingual learners 

Progress toward English proficiency; and improvements across teacher and leader self-efficacy at mastering the strategies we promote

Counts of
long-term MLs;

Organizational Overview

Our Approach

We help schools build durable systems that make strong instruction routine.

Our work combines leadership coaching, instructional coaching, and professional learning tied to clear look-fors. We align language-allocation plans, strengthen student talk routines, and use walkthrough data to set campus-specific goals.

Leaders get practical tools and cycles they can sustain; teachers get concrete planning supports; systems get a common playbook so practices spread beyond one classroom or one year. This bridge from planning to daily instruction is how we support grade-level learning for multilingual learners, by making expectations visible, coaching them, and tracking progress together.

Mission

Vision

Our Why

Ensemble Learning, at scale and influence, fosters an environment where linguistic diversity is celebrated as a foundation of unity, understanding, and empowerment nationwide. 

We are committed to advancing multilingualism, aspiring to create a global society where every individual can thrive and contribute, irrespective of their native language.

Values

Collaboration

Transformative Results

Access

Growth Orientation

Human Centered

Year In Review - Impact Metrics

57,543

Students

81 Schools Total

200,000+

Students

300+

Schools Total

Program Highlights

Leaders used our coaching to build campus systems for strategic separation of language and to strengthen oracy routines—moving these from isolated classrooms to schoolwide expectations.

At a district leadership retreat, an Instructional Coach described shifting from checklists to instructional strategy: ILT meetings centered on talk-moves, observations added oracy look-fors, PLCs and PD aligned; all DL teachers were retained and two stepped into mentor roles. Reclassification rates, MLL students, graduation rates, state testing (based on MLL status v non), attendance, teacher satisfaction and retention (correlation), etc. 

PD Feedback & Case Evidence

Manor ISD case study: 96% of PD participants said objectives were met (the remaining 4% said “partially met”).  

In schools supported by our team, emergent bilingual cohorts showed more year-over-year growth than peers at comparison schools. 

Source: Case Study – Manor ISD 2025

Supported schools also saw a smaller decrease in attendance and a smaller increase in chronic absenteeism than comparison schools.

Note: This is a correlational analysis; other factors may contribute to outcomes. (Link the case study card labeled “Manor ISD 2025” to the full write-up).

Innovations Launched

National Center for Teacher Residencies

Launched a collaboration with the National Center for Teacher Residencies to design and pilot bilingual educator residency pathways in Texas and California, expanding the pre-service pipeline for multilingual learner-focused teachers. The initiative extends Ensemble Learning’s model into teacher preparation to increase readiness, certification, and retention of future bilingual educators at scale. 

Urban District Literacy Collaborative

Initiated a multi-district literacy collaborative focused on evidence-based, language-rich instruction that strengthens Tier 1 practices for multilingual learners and all students. The collaborative integrates coaching, walkthroughs, and leadership support to align literacy implementation with district priorities and high-quality instructional materials.

AI Accelerator / AI tool development

Joined a national AI Accelerator backed by leading philanthropies to prototype tools that streamline program design and personalize professional learning, including an internal coaching assistant trained on Ensemble Learning’s research base. Early pilots target reduced development time, tighter alignment across sessions, and data-informed next steps based on observation and walkthrough inputs.

Selena’s work

Advanced “Selena,” an AI-enabled assistant that ingests Ensemble Learning’s professional learning content and research to recommend scope-and-sequence plans and next-step strategies for coaches and partners. Selena is being tested to enhance quality control, accelerate planning, and increase consistency of research-backed supports and policy integrations across regions.

Program Innovation Committee creation

Established a Program Innovation Committee of board and staff to vet emerging ideas, codify the Ensemble model, and accelerate R&D on offerings like dual language transitions, newcomer supports, and AI-enabled services. The committee creates quality gates, aligns innovations to market needs and policy, and guides pilots toward scalable, sustainable program pathways.

Key Focus Areas

Financial Overview

Accrual, FY24-25

$1,172,433 

Earned Revenue

$3,261,674 

Total Revenue FY25 (Cash)

$2,051,479 

Estimated Philanthropic Contributions

$37,812 

Estimated Individual Contributions

$4,516,662 

Total Revenue FY25 (Accrual)

$2,030,420 

Anticipated CY Roll Over for FY26

$2,486,242 

Total Expenses FY25

$2.5M

Anticipated Cash + AR for FY26

171 Days of Projected
Cash on Hand at EOY

Transparency Commitment

At Ensemble Learning, we are dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of financial transparency and accountability.

We have strengthened our financial resilience by adding multiple layers of financial oversight, allowing us to track and report funds accurately and responsibly. As stewards of the generous contributions of funders and community resources, we are committed to using every dollar efficiently to maximize our impact and fulfill our mission of providing multilingual learners and their school systems with the tools, skills, and networks necessary to create the kinds of educational ecosystems where our students can thrive.
 

Transparency Commitment

Clear Agreements

Law-Aligned Use

Secure Handling

Aggregated Learnings

Every engagement starts with a Data-Sharing MOU defining what data we use, how it’s protected, and how it’s shared.  

We comply with federal and state privacy laws; data are used only to inform instruction and improve services—never beyond the agreement’s scope.

We safeguard student data and, at closeout, return or securely delete it per district direction; we do not retain PII beyond the term. 

When sharing lessons learned, we use aggregated, anonymized data and never name schools or educators without explicit permission.  

Supported by

Hays CISD / DSST / Aldine ISD / Manor ISD / Goose Creek ISD / PUC Community Charter ES / PUC Inspire Charter Academy / PUC Lakeview Charter Academy Navigator Schools / Environmental Charter Schools / Vaughn Next Century Learning Center / Denver Public Schools – Columbian ES / McAllen ISD / La Vega ISD Aspire Junior Collegiate Academy / Aspire Public Schools – Bay Area / City Language Immersion Charter / Granada Hills Charter HS / Granada Hills Charter TK-8/ Stride k12

Our Team

Dr. Daniel Velasco 

President & CEO Ensemble Learning

Rick Rodriguez

Managing Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships 

Davis Turner 

Director of Growth

Leigh Mingle 

Vice President of Research and Operations

Amanda Volz 

Operations Manager

Kisha Attar 

Administrative Manager

Julie Lara 

Director of Multilingual Learner Services

Katherine Hamilton  

Vice President
of Programs