California

The Achievement Council

The Achievement Council’s stated mission is to help schools build and maintain the internal capacity to improve academic outcomes for all students, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, language, income or education level of parents.

Executive Director: Phyllis J. Hart
3460 Wilshire Blvd, Ste. 420
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Phone: (213) 487-3194
Fax: (213) 487-0879
equity@achievementcouncil.org

Applied Research Center

Established in 1981, the Applied Research Center describes itself as public policy, educational, and research institute whose work emphasizes issues of race and social change. The ARC consists of both academics and activists that work together to develop tools and analysis regarding issues that face those marginalized in society, particularly people of color, gays and lesbians, and women. The ARC also established the ERASE program to challenge persistent and pervasive racism in public education.

Applied Research Center
3781 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94611
Phone: (510) 653-3415
Fax: (510) 653-3427

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

ACORN describes itself as the nation's largest community organization of low and moderate-income families, with over 120,000 member families organized into 600 neighborhood chapters in 45 cities across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has taken action on many of the political and social issues which concern its members. ACORN's priorities include: better housing for first time homebuyers and tenants, living wages for low-wage workers, more investment in our communities from banks and governments, and better public schools. ACORN hopes to achieve these goals by supporting community-based organizations that have the power to affect change locally-- through direct action, negotiation, legislation, and voter participation.

A list of contact information for the ACORN offices in California can be found on the ACORN website.

Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BAYCES)

The Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BAYCES), founded in 1991, describes itself as a nonprofit organization that assists schools, school districts, and community groups in the work of creating or redesigning schools to elevate overall achievement. BAYCES consists of a network of equitable, high-performing small schools (pre-K through 12) and a diverse network of affiliated organizations and individuals. The organization fulfills its mission by recruiting, developing and supporting teacher, administrative, and community leaders through on-site coaching, equity-centered professional development, new school incubation, district redesign and networking services.

BAYCES
1720 Broadway
Fourth Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 208-0160
Fax: (510) 208-1979
info@bayces.org

Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC)

The BASRC describes itself as a regional non-profit organization whose mission is to firmly establish the Bay Area as a vital and innovative place to learn and teach by creating communities of committed teachers, involved parents, and enthusiastic children in and around schools. The Collaborative's members believe that children should be held to high expectations, and that these expectations can be met with the help of the school community, as well as a rich curriculum and creative and effective district administrators.

BASRC wants schools, districts, parents, and the public to recognize that good public schools are the cornerstone of democracy, and that every child, regardless of race, class, or gender, is entitled to a quality education and a concerned community.

Executive Director: Merrill Vargo
181 Fremont St. (between Mission and Howard Sts.)
Second Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105-2208
Phone: (415) 348-5500
Fax: (415) 348-1340
ecutler@basrc.org

California Budget Project (CBP)

The California Budget Project describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. It aims to serve as an information and analysis resource on a variety of issues, including education, to the media, policymakers, and state and local constituency groups in order to affect policy relating to low- and middle-income Californians. To that end, the Project conducts independent fiscal and policy analysis, provides public education, and collaborates with other organizations. The CBP presents testimony, written reports, and briefing materials to state and local policymakers and makes briefs, reports, and a quarterly newsletter, Budget Watch, available to the public.

Executive Director: Jean Ross
921 11th Street, Suite 502
Sacramento, CA 95814-2820
Phone: (916) 444-0500
Fax: (916) 444-0172
cbp@cbp.org

Californians for Justice (CFJ)

The Californians for Justice Education Fund describes itself as a statewide, grassroots organization dedicated to empowering communities that have been pushed to the margins of the political process. These groups -- communities of color and young and poor people of all colors - represent a new emerging majority in California. CFJ is dedicated to winning a vote and a voice for this new emerging majority.

Executive Director: Abdi Soltani
1611 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 317
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 452-2728
Fax: (510) 452-3552
E-mail: abdi@caljustice.org

California Tomorrow

California Tomorrow, established in 1984, aims to identify, design, and implement models that have the goal of improving the schools and communities of people from historically disadvantaged groups, as well as access to education and community services for students from those groups. California Tomorrow works to meet its goals by working with community organizations, setting up dialogues and other alliance-building activities, and publishing the results of its research projects. Recent education-related projects include "Access and Equity in After School Programs" and "Middle School Partnership."

Chief Executive Officer: Gregory E. Hodge
1904 Franklin St, Suite 300
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 496-0220
Fax: (510) 496-0225
ct411@californiatomorrow.org

Center For Community Change

The Center for Community Change describes itself as an advocacy organization for other advocacy organizations. Its work includes, but is not limited to education advocacy. The CCC's mission is to help organizations build their community's capacity for self-help by developing strong leaders, providing on-site assistance to grassroots advocacy organizations and connecting organizations with similar missions to encourage them to learn from one another. For almost 30 years the CCC has been committed to connecting community members with the resources they need to build lasting advocacy organizations.

Western Regional Office
100 Bush St., Suite 210
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone: (415) 984-0222
Fax: (415) 773-0477
info@communitychange.org

Washington Office
1000 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20007
Phone: (202) 342-0567
Fax: (202) 333-5462

Coalition for Fair and Caring Schools (Fair Care)

Fair Care states that it works to create a fair and sharing environment in schools. Its areas of focus include curriculum, police in schools, discipline and race, school climate, teacher development, and accountability.

3248 Mission Street, Suite 602
San Francisco, CA 64103
Phone: (415) 243-8808

Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA

The Institute for Democracy, Education, and ACCESS (IDEA) describes itself as a network of UCLA scholars and students, professionals in schools and public agencies, advocates, community activists, and urban youth. IDEA's members believe that all students, regardless of color or socioeconomic circumstances, have the right to a quality public education that will allow them to graduate from high school with the skills for a college education and/or competitive employment. IDEA works to strengthen and improve the public-school system in Los Angeles by advocating and conducting research, empowering parents, and making academic and community connections. Current projects of IDEA include the Parent Curriculum Project, which seeks to educate parents about educational opportunity and to help them become leaders in their schools, and the Teachers as Agents of Equity and Change Project, a three-year outreach program that aims to train teachers to incorporate social-action issues, and particularly those related to equitable school conditions, into their curricula. IDEA also publishes an online journal, Teaching to Change LA, in which the conditions in the Los Angeles public schools are discussed.

Director: Jeannie Oakes
1041 Moore Hall
Box 951521
Los Angeles, CA. 90095
Phone: (310) 206-8725
Fax: (310) 206-8770
idea@ucla.edu

Justice Matters Institute

The Educational Justice Program describes itself as bringing "Justice Matters' vision of racial justice to the educational justice arena." Current education work includes statewide efforts around discipline and curriculum.

1375 Sutter Street
Suite 110
San Francisco, CA 94109
Phone: (415) 353-5735
Fax: (415) 353-5733

Los Angeles County Alliance for Student Achievement (formerly LEARN and LAAMP)

The Los Angeles County Alliance for Student Achievement was created in 2000 from a merger of the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN) and the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP), two education-reform organizations. The antecedent organizations worked to improve student achievement, one by making schools more autonomous and more accountable, the other by creating stable learning communities. The Alliance says that it has assumed the reform agendas of both LEARN AND LAAMP and added more overt public engagement, advocacy, and research to further the goal of school reform.

The Alliance is the Los Angeles affiliate of the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform, which describes itself as a national network of school reformers striving to create high-quality schools that ensure educational success for all urban young people.

President and CEO: Sonia Hernandez
523 West Sixth Street, Suite 1234
Los Angeles, California 90014
Phone: (213) 943-4930
Fax: (213) 943-4931
email@laalliance.org

Parents for Unity

Parents for Unity states that it has worked since 1992 to strengthen the role of community members in school reform and community revitalization issues. In particular, Parents for Unity has trained low-income and immigrant Latino parents in the Los Angeles area on their rights and responsibilities in their children's education. Areas of focus are education equity, class size reduction, reallocation of Title I funds, parental input on programs for English Language Learners, and open door policies at local schools.

Executive Director: Gabriel Mendel
P.O. Box 19151
Los Angeles, CA 90019
Phone: (323) 734-9353

Partners in School Innovation

Partners in School Innovation, an AmeriCorps program, describes itself as a service organization that works to improve public schools in the Bay Area. Partners focuses on high-poverty schools with high concentrations of students of color and English-Language Learners (ELLs), and it seeks educational equity through systemic school-based reform. It establishes multi-year partnerships with schools that are committed to reform but lack the resources for it, and the Partners staff works with school leaders to prioritize, develop, and execute initiatives, and to test innovations in teaching and learning.

Executive Director: Jeremy Singer
1060 Tennessee St., 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94107
Phone: (415) 824-6196
Fax: (415) 824-6198
admin@partnersinschools.org

Public Advocates

Public Advocates, a private, non-profit legal organization founded in 1971, states that its mission is to challenge and overcome the persistent, underlying causes and effects of poverty and discrimination against the poor, immigrants, and minorities in California. Public Advocates strives to bring social-justice issues to the attention of government, business, and other powerful institutions in a number of ways, including litigation, policy, advocacy, education, and coalition-builindg. Public Advocates is one of the lead firms representing the plaintiffs in Williams v. State, a class-action suit on behalf of students who have inadequate teachers, textbooks, and facilities.

Managing Attorney: John T. Affeldt
131 Steuart Street, #300
San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone: (415) 431-7430
Fax: (415) 431-1048
ahamilton@publicadvocates.org

Public Eduation Network Local Affiliates:

Berkeley Public Education Foundation

In 1983, as Proposition 13 was just beginning to be felt in classrooms throughout the state, a group of parents and community leaders established the Berkeley Public Education Foundation with the stated mission of "restoring excellence in Berkeley public schools."

Executive Director: Mary Friedman
1835 Allston Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
Phone: (510) 644-6244
Fax: (510) 644-4865
bpef@berkeley.k12.ca.us

Galef Institute

The Galef Institute describes itself as a nonprofit educational organization whose primary goal is to work with educators in preK-8 schools, schools of education, and other reform agencies to improve student achievement by strengthening the teaching profession.

President: Linda Johannesen
5670 Wilshire Boulevard, 20th floor
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone: (323) 525-0042 or (800) 473-8883
Fax: (323) 525-0408
Linda@galef.org

Linking Education and Economic Development

LEED-Sacramento describes itself an education and workforce development intermediary whose mission is to develop and support partnerships among business, education, community and government to strengthen the Sacramento regional economy through dramatic improvement in education and training.

10680 White Rock Road
Suite 110
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
(916) 858-0686
(916) 858-1371

Los Angeles County Alliance for Student Achievement

The Los Angeles County Alliance advocates on behalf of children and parents to improve student achievement using research to inform grassroots community organizing efforts and to further advocacy.

President & CEO: Sonia Hernandez
23 West Sixth Street, Suite 1234
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Phone: (213) 943-4930
Fax: (213) 943-4931
shernandez@laalliance.org

Marcus A. Foster Educational Institute

The Institute states that it works to channel ideas, energy, and community resources in order to promote excellence in teaching and to provide students with an educational experience that is both challenging and supportive.

Executive Director: Kathleen Dowling
1203 Preservation Park Way, Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 835-0391
Fax: (510) 835-5706
info@mafei.org

San Francisco Education Fund

The San Francisco Education Fund describes itself as a non-profit community-based organization established to help improve and to support San Francisco public schools so that all students in this diverse community have the education necessary for full participation in the economic, civic and cultural life of our society.

Executive Director: Kathy O. Turner
47 Kearny Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94108
Phone: (415) 912-2929
Fax: (415) 912-2930
kathy@sfedfund.org

Urban Educational Partnership

The Partnership's stated mission is to transform public schools in the Los Angeles region into learning communities where all students receive an effective, high quality education.

President & CEO: Susan Way-Smith
315 West 9th Street, Suite 1110
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Phone: (213) 622-5237
Fax: (213) 629-5288
info@urbanedpartnership.org