Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED)

Background

In 2018, critical race theory-aligned education consultant and activist James E. Ford began planning a nonprofit dealing with race and education issues in North Carolina K-12 schools. Later, in November 2019, Ford registered the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED) as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization in Charlotte, North Carolina, publicly launching the organization with the publication of two reports. ^{1 2}

The reports, “E(race)ing Inequities: The State of Racial Equity in North Carolina Public Schools” and its companion report, “Deep Rooted: A Brief History of Race and Education in North Carolina,” argued that ethnic minority students enrolled in North Carolina public schools have worse outcomes relative to white students “directly” because of differences in access to educational resources. ³

Activity

The Center for Racial Equity in Education runs two fellowship programs: The North Carolina Equity Followship, a year-long professional development fellowship for teachers, principals, superintendents, school board members, and journalists in North Carolina; as well as the Charlotte Equity Fellowship, a year-long funding fellowship, which offers community-based organizers aligned with the Center’s mission a stipend and resources to aid in their work. Additionally, the Center also offers CREED Academy to “public school stakeholders”: a “web-based professional development experience,” which the Center provides to “create competence and confidence” in its “anti-racist approach to equity.” ^{4 5 6}

The Center also offers school districts “Equity Audits,” which evaluate school curriculums, the allocation of a school’s resources, and teachers’ experiences; “Book/Podcast Studies,” which consists of structured programs of study for educators on the topic of “racial equity in education”; and “Principal Academies,” which offer k-12 principals a “virtual learning experience” that “focuses on consciousness raising to become more culturally responsive (self).” ⁷

People

James E. Ford

James E. Ford is the executive director, founder, and a board member of the Center for Racial Equity in Education, as well as the principal of the Filling the Gap Educational Consultants, LLC, a critical race theory-aligned consulting firm. Previously, Ford was a member of the North Carolina State Board of Education (representing the southwest region of the state) and a program director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, a pro-public education issue advocacy organization. ¹

Brian Collier

Brian Collier is a board member of the Center for Racial Equity in Education as well as the executive vice president for the Foundation for The Carolinas in Charlotte, North Carolina, a donor-advised fund provider. Previously, Collier was the vice president for marketing and development at KaBOOM!, a Washington, DC-based youth recreation-oriented nonprofit; the founding president and executive director of Victory Junction, a healthcare facility in Randleman, North Carolina; a deputy director of Phoenix House; and a trial attorney with Rumberger, Kirk and Caldwell, a liability defense law firm based in Orlando, Florida. ^{8 1}