Highscope Educational Research Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 237001501
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2023
- Location
- Ypsilanti, MI, USA
- Phone
- 7344852000
- Rating
- 70
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $9,902,744
- Expenses
- $8,371,076
- Assets
- $8,949,200
- Liabilities
- $1,003,729
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LUZ ALEJANDRA BARRAZA (PRESIDENT AND CEO)
- JEFFREY BEAL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF RESE)
Highest reported compensation
- LUZ ALEJANDRA BARRAZA (PRESIDENT AND CEO): $319,155 total reported compensation
- JENNILYN CAMPOS (DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS): $138,150 total reported compensation
- JEFFREY BEAL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF RESE): $133,193 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Highscope supports the development of children birth through age eight by providing quality, research-based curriculum, professional learning and other supports within the context of families and their communities.
What it reported doing in 2024
Training - conduct training in the highscope curriculum method to disseminate its research and findings related to teaching methods to educators in the united states and abroad.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 59
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 55
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 63%; rating input score 63
- Program expense ratio: 54.3%; rating input score 54
- Fundraising efficiency: $18.81 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 15.5%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.07; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.8%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -4.1% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.1% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1.4% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 63% of revenue deployed · 54.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $4.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $319K · 15 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $844K reported
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 54/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 57/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 39/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 56/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.