National Equity Project

NEP was established in 1995 as “BayCES” before becoming “Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools” in 1998. The group initially helped establish and design emerging schools in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2007, LaShawn Route Chatmon became executive director. She led the group to rename in July 2010 as it expanded geographically and to refocus its efforts on consulting on racial disparities in schools. ^{2 3 4} In 2024, NEP announced it had expanded its advocacy focus toward non-education areas. ⁵

NEP was cited favorably in a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights April 2021 report on unequal education outcomes in Pennsylvania schools. The report referred to the Equity Design Team, a strategy developed by NEP in tandem with the Southern Education Foundation and the Learning Policy Institute as an effective means of reducing education inequalities through liberatory design methods. ⁶

Background

The National Equity Project (NEP) was initially founded in 1995 as BayCES to develop new school facilities within the San Francisco Bay Area. As the regional branch of the national Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), BayCES focused on incorporating the CES’ “Common Principles” into local curriculum, specifically “personalized learning, project-based instruction, and democratic education principles.” ⁵

In 1998, the organization changed its name to “Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools” to shift focus towards “addressing historical and institutional racism, classism, and other biases” and “unapologetically centering equity” into its work. ⁵

In 2007, LaShawn Route Chatmon became executive director. She led the group to rename itself as “National Equity Project” in July 2010 to focus on consulting regarding alleged racial disparities in schools. ^{5 3 4}

Clients

As of March 2026, Defending Education (formerly Parents Defending Education) had tracked $2,899,655 in payments from school districts to the National Equity Project since 2012. ^{7 8}

As of 2026, NEP’s largest education client over the course of its existence was Grand Rapids Public Schools, which spent $1,024,195 between 2012-2015 and an additional $30,500 from 2020-2021 on NEP’s services. NEP’s first major contract as a racial equity consultancy, for $215,625, was part of a joint program with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Douglas and Maria DeVos Family Foundation, and Partners in School Innovation to improve education outcomes in two Grand Rapids public middle schools, particularly regarding non-white students. The program was described in its official proposal as having “a focus on social justice and equity.” NEP received three more contracts from Grand Rapids Public Schools over the following three years for “equity leadership development” and “district equity strategy management.”  ^{9 8}

NEP’s foundation clients have included the Gates Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Flora Family Foundation, the Stuart Foundation, the Raikes Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ¹⁰

In 2016, NEP became the fiscal sponsor of the Black Teacher Project (BTP), a program focused on developing the leadership of Black teachers. BTP formally became a program of NEP in 2020. ⁵

NEP joined the Building Equitable Learning Environments (BELE) Network in 2017, a collaborative effort to develop evidence-based practices for what the network described as equitable learning. From 2019 to 2023, NEP led the BELE-NEP District Network, working with a national cohort of school districts. In 2023, NEP launched its District Redesign Network, described as building on lessons from that effort. ⁵

Consulting

The National Equity Project (NEP) provides consulting services based on “equity,” with its “Executive Coaching” service providing one-on-one training sessions where attendees are provided “listening, teaching, provoking, guiding, and supporting” practices they claim “interrupt historical patterns of inequity.” ¹¹

Its “Networks and Communities of Practice” focuses on advocating community change “within and across systems and sectors” while working with groups it claims help “reimagine and create equitable systems and structures that challenge and disrupt the status quo.” ¹¹

NEP also conducts research towards providing potential future consulting services. These include “Listening Campaigns,” where the group interviews “diverse stakeholders” and “potentially silenced voices” and “Equity Analyses” to identify “specific equity issues and achievement gaps.” The group claims that its data research “often includes outcomes disaggregated by race, gender, socio-economic status, and other relevant categories.” ¹¹

Activities

Starting in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Equity Project (NEP) focused on “delivering virtual services” for schools as well as organizations in health care, media, and technology. ⁵

As of 2025, NEP appeared to be serving as a fiscal sponsor to DEI consultancy group LiberatED. ¹²

In 2025, as part of its 30th anniversary, NEP projected that by 2035 it would “transform experiences and outcomes for 5 million young people” by creating environments where young people are “supported” and “prepared to learn, thrive and contribute to a diverse society.” ⁵

In 2026, NEP began its “District Redesign Network,” a two-year “immersive journey” program towards training teachers and administrators in school districts in developing “comprehensive” plans to “sustain system-level change.” This includes providing staff retreats, virtual learning and coaching sessions, coaching, and student partnerships. Such services would be informed by the “Building Equitable Learning Environments (BELE) Framework.” The program is scheduled to begin in July 2026 and end in June 2028. ¹³

Financials

According to its 2023 tax returns, the National Equity Project (NEP) reported $7,683,063 in revenue, $9,418,034 in total expenses, and $13,119,074 in net assets. ¹⁴

According to its 2024 tax return, NEP reported $6,462,371 in revenue, $9,418,034 in expenses, and $10,171,876 in net assets. ¹⁵ Also in 2024, NEP spent roughly $5.5 million on its “organizational consulting and leadership consulting” programming and $1.5 million on its fiscal sponsorships including LiberatED. ¹²

Funding

In 2000, National Equity Project (NEP), then known as the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES), partnered with Oakland Unified School District and Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) to implement a “community-driven school reform” effort. This project received over $40 million in funding from several groups including the Gates Foundation (then called the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). ⁵

In 2007, the group received $1.8 million from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to expand its “Leading for Equity” programs. ⁵

In 2008, NEP received $1,600,700 from the Carnegie Corporation. ¹⁶

In 2024, the organization reported that LaShawn Route Chatmon was compensated with a salary of $212,933 and additional compensation of $47,284. ¹⁵

Leadership

In 2007, LaShawn Route Chatmon became executive director of the National Equity Project following previous director Steve Jubb’s retirement. She led the group in two major transitions. First, the group changed its name from the “Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools” to “National Equity Project” as the organization expanded its operations geographically. Chatmon has also been credited with pushing NEP to focus on consulting on racial disparities in schools, rather than school design and development ¹⁷

In 2014, Chatmon gave a presentation at Race Forward’s Facing Race national conference on how to introduce anti-racial inequity policies in school districts where such initiatives have “led to increased marginalization and upset” parents and administrators. ¹⁸

Controversy

In March 2019, a group of parents formed the group, No Racism in School #1865, to advocate for the Clark County School District to take stronger measures to oppose racism after an incident of racial harassment occurred in one of the district’s high schools. In response to the group’s eight demands, the district hired National Equity Project to provide training to teachers and administrators. ¹⁹

In January 2020, Northmont City Schools district apologized to parents after sending out a survey asking parents and students about their racial attitudes, including, “What do you wish white teachers at Northwood knew about teaching your black child?” The district explained to parents that the survey was designed by five teachers and administrators who had received training from NEP, and they were attempting to address equity concerns in the school district. ²⁰

In September 2020, the National Equity Project signed an open letter with the Burlington Area School District superintendent, district school board, the Burlington Police Chief, and the Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism, asking the school district’s staff and families to confront “racism, discrimination and harassment” after racist comments were discovered written in wood chips in an elementary school playground. ²¹