history

EPIC grew out of earlier work conducted by Dr. David Conley in the area of high school/college alignment. Dr. Conley began studying this phenomenon in 1993, and between 1994 and 1999 created the nation's first proficiency-based college admission system.

In 2000, he founded the Center for Educational Policy Research (CEPR) to extend his work in the area of college readiness and in response to the need for better policy analysis at a time of unprecedented federal and state governmental activity in education.

The first major project undertaken by CEPR was Standards for Success (S4S), a $2.5 million grant funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts in partnership with the Association of American Universities. This research-based project resulted in the first comprehensive set of college readiness standards in the nation. These standards were published in the report, Understanding University Success, and was distributed to every high school in the United States.

In 2002, Dr. Conley founded EPIC, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, to work in collaboration with CEPR and extend its efforts to a wider range of organizations and projects. EPIC works with federal agencies, state education departments, non-governmental organizations, private foundations, and school districts to support research on a range of current policy issues; most prominent among them is high school/college alignment.