School Discipline Is a Systems Problem. We Fix the System.
The System Behind the Results
Your School Has a
Discipline Problem.So Did 3,000 Others.
Founded by Bert Simmons · Oregon, 1983 · Carried forward by Dr. Thomas Glanton, Jr.
Teachers who can teach. Administrators who can lead. A system — built over 40 years in real schools — that makes it possible. Here’s where it came from.
Bert Simmons
Founder · The Education Company
Former Principal & Assistant Principal
NASSP National Board Member
Featured: SREB · TASSP · 50+ State Conferences
- The Founder
A Classroom Teacher Who Refused to Accept the Chaos
Bert Simmons began his career exactly where most school leaders do — in the classroom. He spent 12 years as a high school English teacher, then moved into school administration, serving as both an assistant principal and a principal at large high schools.
What set Bert apart was not simply his experience. It was the question he refused to stop asking: Why are teachers so busy managing behavior that they can’t find time to teach?
Rather than complain about it from the sidelines, Bert built a system to solve it.
In 1983, Bert founded Simmons Associates — The Education Company in Sunriver, Oregon. His belief was simple but radical for its time: successful discipline solutions exist. They can be identified, researched, and implemented in any school — but only by people who have actually stood in front of students and run a building. Not consultants reading from textbooks.
- The Record
40+
Years in Service
3,000+
Schools Helped
50+
States Reached
Bert and Betty Jo Simmons personally worked with — and built a team that served — more than 3,000 schools in rural, urban, and suburban districts across the country, from Oregon to Georgia to Texas to Ohio and beyond.
- The Steward
Bert Built the Foundation.
Dr. Glanton Carries It Forward.
When Bert Simmons began looking for a successor, he wasn’t looking for a businessman. He was looking for someone who had done the work — who had run buildings, managed chaos, and understood from the inside what school administrators actually face.
He found that in Dr. Thomas W. Glanton, Jr., Ed.D. — a 30-year K-12 veteran who had served as a high school principal in an urban Atlanta district, Director of Leadership Development, and Area Superintendent of High Schools for DeKalb County Schools. A principal who had won Georgia PTA Principal of the Year and DeKalb County Principal of the Year by doing exactly what Bert’s system was designed to do: transforming discipline culture so teachers could teach.
In 2013, Dr. Glanton acquired The Education Company through Nia Financial Group LLC — including the full methodology, all intellectual property, the client relationships, the 800 number, and the domain. He didn’t inherit a brand. He inherited a responsibility.
- Dr. Glanton's Own Results — Applied at East Central High School
86%
Reduction in suspensions
604 → 84 in one year
93%
Reduction in daily tardies
300 → 20 per day
25pt
Graduation rate increase
52% → 77% in 2.5 years
That’s not the Bert Simmons system working in theory. That’s Dr. Glanton applying it in the field — before he ever took the helm of The Education Company.
What Bert gave me was not just a company. He gave me a mission worth finishing — and 40 years of proof that the mission works.
- Dr. Thomas W. Glanton, Jr., Ed.D.
- The Philosophy
Discipline Is Not a Personnel Problem. It's a Systems Problem.
Long before that framing became the EDCO standard, it was Bert Simmons who insisted on it. He did not believe in blaming teachers for chaotic classrooms or principals for out-of-control schools. He believed that without a system — a structured, school-wide approach that every adult understood and executed consistently — chaos was the inevitable result.
His training sessions were legendary. Bert was known as a humorous, dynamic, and deeply practical presenter who could hold a room of skeptical educators in the palm of his hand. His techniques — including what would become known as Foggers, Paradoxical Responses, the Rule of Three, and the Shelter Card — were not theories. They were field-tested tools that had worked in his own buildings, then in hundreds of others.
Practitioner-to-Practitioner
The Education Company's core model from day one: only former and active school administrators work with clients. No theorists. No bystanders. Only people who have lived it.
Results, Not Rhetoric
From Box Elder, Montana to San Diego, California, Bert measured success in referrals reduced, suspensions eliminated, and time returned to teachers. Proof was always the standard.
- The Journey
Four Decades of Building Something That Lasts
- 1983
Bert Simmons founds Simmons Associates — The Education Company in Sunriver, Oregon. His mission: give administrators the tools to create schools where teachers can teach, uninterrupted by preventable discipline crises.
- 1980s – 1990s
Rapid growth across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Bert and Betty Jo build a team of former administrators and expand into districts of all sizes — rural, urban, suburban. Featured at national conventions, state principal conferences, and school districts across 50+ states.
- 2000s
The methodology matures. The 12 Howitzers, Foggers, Paradoxical Responses, Rule of Three, Shelter Card, and other proprietary techniques are tested across thousands of schools. Bert is recognized by NASSP, SREB, TASSP, and school administrator associations nationwide. More than 2,352 schools served.
- 2012 – 2013
Bert selects Dr. Thomas Glanton, Jr. as his successor. After 30+ years in K-12 education — including high school principal and Area Superintendent for DeKalb County Schools — Thomas acquires The Education Company through Nia Financial Group LLC. The sale includes all intellectual property, client relationships, domain names, the 800 number, and the full methodology.
- 2013 – Present
The mission continues. Under Dr. Glanton’s leadership, EDCO brings Bert’s proven system into the modern era — adding new frameworks, expanding the conference circuit, and deploying the methodology in schools from Ohio to Alabama. The foundation Bert built still stands in every engagement.
The System That Changed 3,000 Schools Is Available to Yours.
If your school is facing the same discipline challenges Bert Simmons dedicated his career to solving, we’d like to help. The methodology is battle-tested across 40 years and 3,000+ schools. Your discipline system starts with a free 45-minute Strategy Session.
● The EDCO Guarantee
This methodology has produced measurable results in 3,000+ schools across every district size and demographic. If you implement the system and don't see movement in your discipline data within 90 days, we come back. No charge. That's not a marketing promise — it's how Bert ran this company for 40 years, and it's how we run it today.
- See the Work, Not Just the Bio
The Credentials Are Real. So Are the Results.
Here's What Schools Have to Show for It.
30+ years of experience is only valuable if it produces outcomes you can put in front of your board. See the documented results from schools that have run the EDCO system.