About
About GDS Consulting
GDS Consulting teaches district and school leaders science-based tools to fix poor student performance — practice you can see in classrooms, and evidence you can put in front of a board.
Section 01
Our mission
GDS Consulting exists for one goal: every student learning at a high level, with adults who share responsibility for getting them there.
Systems change when their leaders do. GDS works at the leadership level — leadership training, leadership coaching, and team building for superintendents, cabinets, principals, and instructional coaches — because a district's instructional culture is set by the adults who run it.
Section 02
The GDS model
Five connected parts. Each one makes the next one possible, and no path reaches “You Do Alone” without passing through the mastery gate.
01 · The umbrella
Collective Efficacy
The shared belief that every student can learn, and shared adult responsibility for results. Everything else in the framework sits under it.
02 · Belief made operational
Instructional leadership
Expectations, support, evidence monitoring, explicit feedback, and accountability. Principals must understand the instructional model to lead it.
03 · What must be taught
The Science of Reading
It identifies what must be taught.
- Phonemic awareness
- Phonics
- Vocabulary
- Fluency
- Comprehension
04 · Classroom delivery
Systematic Explicit Instruction and Gradual Release
I Do → We Do → You Do with a Partner → Mastery Gate → You Do Alone. The gate sits in the path, and it starts closed.
05 · Made measurable
Comprehensive Coaching and the GDS Rubric
Data + Strategy, demonstration, co-plan/co-teach, observation, explicit feedback, teacher self-assessment — rated Beginning, Developing, Proficient, Exemplary.
Section 03
How engagements work
Frameworks taught in GDS engagements. The Achievement-Focused Coaching Cycle; Advice vs. Feedback: The Principal Role in Teacher Performance Improvement; the GDS Gradual Release Rubric (Beginning · Developing · Proficient · Exemplary) with its documented mastery gate; and student achievement goal-setting on the Lexile and Quantile Frameworks. Across all of them the vocabulary is constant: instructional leadership, evidence-based MTSS, The Science of Reading, Systematic Explicit Instruction, Best First Instruction, and Collective Efficacy.
Section 04
Our team
Founder
Gary D. Soto
Founder & Principal Consultant
Gary D. Soto enters his 52nd year in education in 2026-27, and speaks and trains nationally with multiple school districts. He is co-author of Crimes Against Learning and a recipient of the National Educator Award for Reshaping American Education.
Section 05
Company facts
Business qualifications for procurement.
- Legal name
- Gary D. Soto Consulting, Inc.
- Entity
- S corporation, incorporated in California; in business since 2018.
- Location
- Palm Springs, California.
- Principal
- Gary D. Soto, President and CEO; sole owner.
- Ownership classifications
- Minority-owned (Hispanic American — Mexican American), 100 percent owned and controlled by its founder; Small Business Enterprise under U.S. Small Business Administration size standards for NAICS 611710, Educational Support Services. Both classifications are self-certified; the company does not currently hold a third-party certification. Signed self-certification letters are provided with bid packages on request.
- Primary NAICS
- 611710 — Educational Support Services.
- Vendor documents
- W-9, certificate of insurance, references, and self-certification letters are supplied to purchasing departments on request through the contact form.
- Contact for procurement
- Use the site contact form; a team member responds the same business day.