National Equity Project
The National Equity Project, formerly known as the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools or BayCES, is an education reform organization that specializes in leadership development and changing culture and conditions in order to further equity objectives. It is a coaching and consulting organization based in Oakland, California; its name change in July 2010. The name was changed as the organization had expanded into new regions and began offering new services. In addition to schools, they also work with many districts and nonprofits on educational equity initiatives. The stated purpose of the organization is to create the conditions for better educational experiences, outcomes, and life options for historically underserved students. It is best known for its leadership in Oakland small school reform, which led to the creation of over 40 new small schools in one of the largest, most successful in terms of district Academic Performance Index (API) increases, and most community-driven school reform efforts in the country. Early History and Small Schools Work The National Equity Project began in 1991 as a regional office of the Coalition for Essential Schools, then based at Brown University. In 1995, it was founded as an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization called the Bay Area Coalition for Essential Schools, or BayCES. In 1998, under the leadership of Executive Director Steve Jubb, BayCES changed its name to the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools to emphasize its focus on addressing achievement disparities among student groups that they argued arise from racism, classism, language bias, and other forms of systemic bias. From 1995-1999, the organization coached over a dozen comprehensive high schools in the wider Bay Area to help them enact the practices of essential schools, and to put the values of equity in practice, meaning to shift practices and re-allocate resources to help students of color, low-income students and other vulnerable students improve their academic performance. They also developed an increasingly sophisticated coaching methodology in response to the challenges of facilitating significant change in urban schools. In 1998 the Project, then BayCES, first partnered with Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) to plan a small schools initiative in Oakland. OCO activists were working with parents who were frustrated with overcrowded, dilapidated, low-performing schools, and saw small schools in the northeast, as detailed in books and articles by Deborah Meier and others, as a way to reduce overcrowding and anonymity and improve the quality of teaching and learning. BayCES' Role in Oakland School Reform In 2000, BayCES partnered with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) to write and implement a small schools policy. The New Small Autonomous Schools (NSAS) movement was initiated by parents, teachers, and activists committed to improving education in Oakland, which had a long history of poor urban school conditions including high dropout rates, school overcrowding and violence, and teacher turnover. No new school had been built in Oakland in the 30 years before this policy was passed. These egregious conditions prevailed in the mostly Black and Latino flatlands while