At EJA, we're equipping California school districts with governance leaders who advance educational justice..
We’re a community hub for leaders who want to learn, grow, and represent the diversity and experiences of the communities served by public schools. We work to foster an inclusive democracy by ensuring that all communities have the resources and support to participate in school governance and to create change in school districts.
We are building an equitable and inclusive democracy and school system. We believe in a future where:
- Our democracy truly represents our communities. School boards are the largest piece of our democracy. They were formed in the belief that education should be a local project that reflects the needs and aspirations of each individual community. Our democracy relies on representative and capable local school boards to ensure that our next generation is prepared to be happy, healthy, and courageous citizens.
- We dismantle historical injustice and inequitable practices that prevent schools from providing high quality experiences and outcomes for all students. We envision schools that create inclusive, culturally-relevant, and anti-racist environments for everyone. Each community has their own narrative, story and history - we teach local leaders to explore theirs to better understand what change their community needs.
- We invest in creating more just and resilient schools. School boards are a crucial under-invested piece of improving education systems and capable boards can create more just and resilient schools. This includes addressing equity issues, advocating for evidence-based policy making, building strong school governance, and providing resources and support for school board members.
- We ensure leaders know how to make an impact. Through 100 hours of training, we train leaders to leverage the specific powers of the school board to move schools forward towards educational justice. We don’t choose sides, we choose children.
- We build a community of support and care. Through EJA, participants build a community of peers who are making an impact in their own districts across the state. EJA’s unique recruitment model helps us find leaders who are already deeply rooted in the community and know how to leverage its unique strengths and where improvement is needed.
1. We train leaders at the beginning of their leadership journey. Education Justice Academy is the only organization training leaders before they take on their role, ensuring they have the time and resources to take a leadership role in their communities.
2. We are there every step of the process. Our community includes leaders from every step of the process, from those joining a local school committee, runnings campaigns, to new and incumbent leaders.
3. We focus on key locations in California districts where there is pressing educational justice issues.
4. EJA is built around the EJA Leadership Model, which includes 35 learning outcomes that teach four key competencies and five dimensions of strong school governance.
5. Our leadership team and advisory board has deep expertise in CA education policy from the last five decades, creating key partnerships in the California education ecosystem to scale.
We cannot do this work alone. We are proud to partner with organizations who are working towards education justice.
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