Wested

Wested, a San Francisco-based nonprofit educational research and development organization, operates as a prime contractor delivering applied research, evaluation services, curriculum development, and professional development to federal education agencies, with 83 percent of its recent awards as prime contracts and 17 percent as subcontractor work. Wested has no SBA set-aside designations and competes full-and-open across all award categories, serving over 900 employees across 12 national offices.

Wested's customer base concentrates sharply in the Department of Education ecosystem. The top five funding agencies account for 49 percent of recent awards by count, dominated by the Institute of Education Sciences (68 awards, $2.28 billion combined potential value), followed by the National Science Foundation (55 awards), GSA Public Buildings Service (54 awards), the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (46 awards, $45.2 million), and the Department of Education broadly (26 awards, $14.3 million). By dollar value, IES anchors the footprint at $2.28 billion across 68 awards — nearly 73 percent of all combined potential value. The Office of the Chief Financial Officer sits second with $563.2 million on just three awards, signaling large-value vehicles. The second and third rankings diverge markedly: NSF places many task orders but lower individual values, while IES concentrates most dollars on fewer, higher-value awards.

Wested holds a multi-billion-dollar indefinite delivery vehicle and multiple master task order vehicles with the Department of Education. The Procurement of Research Evaluation and Statistics Task Orders (PRESTO) IDIQ, a multiple-award contract with a $2 billion ceiling awarded February 28, 2023 and running through February 27, 2028, serves as Wested's primary federal leverage. Work under PRESTO spans five scope categories: education sciences support activities, assessment development support, communications and outreach, recruitment, and operational support. Wested also operates under a Basic Ordering Agreement (GS09B01106) under GSA's Multiple Award Schedule, with 71 task orders worth $39.4 million combined potential value, and holds positions on several other indefinite delivery vehicles including a single-award SAMHSA IDIQ (Domains 1L and 5L). Recent representative prime contract work includes a $2.198 million firm fixed-price delivery order from the National Assessment Governing Board for updates to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Framework for Civics (awarded August 24, 2026, through December 31, 2027); a $1.448 million purchase order from DOD Education Activity for a customizable commercial professional learning series for K-12 educators focusing on leadership, curriculum planning, and data-driven instruction (awarded September 24, 2025, through September 23, 2030); and a $23.365 million cost-plus-fixed-fee Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest Program contract from IES (awarded January 2, 2022, through January 3, 2027).

Activity across Wested's award footprint has remained volatile. Award volume peaked at 37 in 2022, declined to 24 in 2023, recovered to 31 in 2024, rose to 38 in 2025, and stands at 15 through September 2026. Eighteen awards (combined potential value $54.4 million) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, presenting recompete exposure. Across SCI-reportable service contracts, Wested invoiced $81.3 million in prime-contract revenue from FY2022 through FY2025, with FY2025 invoicing of $27.7 million across 31.2 FTEs — an unusual spike compared to FY2024's $18.1 million on 52.2 FTEs, suggesting either higher-value per-capita work or a shift in billing patterns. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable contracts ranged from a tenth-percentile of $122.00/hr to a median of $192.54/hr and a ninetieth-percentile of $305.08/hr, reflecting a mix of research associate, senior research, and senior leadership labor.

On GSA Schedule, Wested offers 33 active labor categories spanning administrative assistant roles at $84.79/hr through senior research fellow and subject-matter-expert positions at $352.66/hr, with education credentials from associate through master's degree and no security clearance offerings. Pricing and role composition align with Wested's pure-research and evaluation posture rather than IT, engineering, or classified-work positioning.

Wested functions as a prime on the vast majority of its contract footprint (83 percent of awards) but engages subcontractors selectively. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors performed approximately 10 percent of total contractor hours, with 39 named subcontractors across the portfolio. Named sub-award primes include Research Triangle Institute, American Institutes for Research, Education Development Center, Edify Technologies, and regional education service providers. Representative sub work includes augmentation and refinement of materials and facilitation of professional development institutes on behalf of American Institutes for Research for the Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest (awarded July 30, 2023) and research and evaluation support under Education Development Center for the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast (awarded March 4, 2022).

Wested's federal grant footprint spans the Department of Education (Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Institute of Education Sciences, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services), the National Science Foundation (Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings, Division of Mathematical Sciences), the National Institute of Justice, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Recent prime grant awards include an $11 million EIR grant from OESE for the Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy - Tutoring (RAAL-T) initiative (awarded August 1, 2026, through July 31, 2031); a $9.103 million EIR grant for Reading Apprenticeship for Academic Literacy Learning (RA4ALL) (awarded January 1, 2024, through December 31, 2028); a $9.021 million EIR grant for the Early Math Initiative providing tiered support to high-need and Native American students (awarded January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2027); and a $1.463 million NSF STEM Education grant for Data Adventures, an open-access curriculum introducing middle school students to data literacy and generative AI (awarded September 1, 2025, through August 31, 2028). Grant sub-award work frequently positions Wested as the external evaluator or co-investigator on STEM and education research projects led by universities and nonprofits; recent examples include evaluation services for Georgia State University's NURTURES program (awarded February 23 and March 15, 2026) and North Carolina State University's computer science teacher preparation initiative (awarded November 25, 2025 and updated February 9, 2026).

Wested's core capability centers on K-12 and postsecondary educational research and program evaluation, professional development design and delivery, curriculum development and assessment alignment, and technical assistance to school districts and state education agencies. The portfolio emphasizes equity-focused interventions targeting underserved populations — multilingual learners, students with disabilities, students of color, rural students, and Native American students. Recent work across contracts and grants reflects deepening engagement with literacy (Reading Apprenticeship variants), mathematics instruction and teacher professional learning, computer science and STEM broadening participation, school safety and threat assessment, and community-based social-emotional and behavioral support. Wested also holds a significant Justice and Prevention Research Center (JPRC) portfolio, reflected in Bureau of Justice Assistance cooperative agreements for community safety and reentry support work in Riviera Beach and Greenville.