Field Cultivation

For over 30 years, the National Equity Project has advanced equity in education by developing leaders, healthy systems, and the capacity for transformative change. Today, we’re tending to the field itself by strengthening and connecting the people and organizations shaping the future of public education.

NEP is both deeply rooted in the educational equity field and cultivating its evolution. We bring a unique combination of practitioner and community trust, research credibility, and systems access to our field-level work. Our work builds the relationships, shared narratives, and coordinated action that enable:

• A bold shared vision, grounding diverse efforts in a common purpose for equitable, thriving public education.

• Aligned coalitions, uniting funders, practitioners, intermediaries, and youth leaders around shared outcomes.

• Coherent innovation, connecting cutting-edge learning models with traditional districts to spread what works.

• Narrative power, telling new stories that redefine equity as essential to democracy.

• Shared knowledge, circulating real-time tools and insights to support adaptive leadership.

• Coordinated resources, aligning investments to field priorities for amplified collective impact.

• Sustained transformation, nurturing the capacity to continuously evolve toward learner-centered systems.

Field Partners & Networks

We continually cultivate strategic partnerships across intermediaries, networks, coalitions, and funders to advance a shared agenda for future-ready learning and youth thriving. Through our partnerships, we work to coordinate learning, align investment, and amplify field-wide impact. Current networks and partner organizations include: