Training and Advisory Services - Equity Assistance Centers

Who We Serve

Equity Assistance Centers (EACs) provide technical assistance and training at the request of school boards and other responsible governmental agencies in the preparation, adoption, and implementation of plans for the desegregation of public schools.  Services may be provided to public school personnel, students enrolled in public schools, parents of those students, community organizations and other community members. 

EAC Clients include:

• State educational agencies (SEAs)
• Local educational agencies (LEAs)
• School Boards
• Schools

A school board or other responsible governmental agency may request services from the EAC located in its geographic region. See the EAC Contacts to find more information about the Center serving your state.

Types of Services

EACs work with clients to understand their needs and design appropriate technical assistance and training services that address education issues occasioned by school desegregation. Centers work with schools in the areas of harassment, bullying, and prejudice reduction. This may include helping clients analyze and interpret data to identify disparities. Centers also develop materials, strategies, and professional development activities to assist schools and communities in preventing and countering harassment based on, for example, ethnicity, gender, or religious background.

Program History

The EAC program is authorized under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Originally referred to as the Desegregation Assistance Centers program, the EAC program is one of the Department's longest-standing investments in technical assistance and plays a vital role in ensuring that all students have equitable access to learning opportunities, regardless of their child's race, sex, national origin, or religion.

Additional Information

Eligibility

A public agency (other than a State educational agency or a school board), a private, nonprofit organization, or a consortium comprised entirely of such agencies or organizations is eligible to receive a grant under this program. 

Fiscal Year 2022 Competition

The Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for the fiscal year (FY) 2022 Equity Assistance Centers (EAC) grant competition was published in the Federal Register on February 15, 2022. Applications were due by May 16, 2022. On September 26, 2022 the Department made four (4) new grant awards, one for each geographic region. The grant awards were made as cooperative agreements to operate one of four Regional Equity Assistance Centers.

FY 2021 Equity Assistance Centers Grant Competition

The FY 2021 Equity Assistance Centers (EAC) grant competition was cancelled.

On March 4, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education published a Notice of Cancellation in the Federal Register that withdrew the notice inviting applications, published in the Federal Register on January 13, 2021, and cancelled the competition.

On March 25, 2021, the Department published a Notice of Proposed Waiver and Extension of the Project Periods for the EAC program and on July 16, 2021, the Department published a Notice of Final Waiver and Extension of the Project Periods for the EAC program. The waiver and extension enabled four projects under Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.004D to receive funding for an additional period through September 30, 2022.

General Funding Information 2011 to 2024

*Indicates estimated amount.

The Equity Assistance Center (EAC) Program is administered by the Office of Program and Grantee Support Services (PGSS) in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. Please find contact information for each Regional EAC below.

Equity Assistance Center Regions

To view the contact information for a Regional Equity Assistance Center, select a state/area from the drop-down menu or click on the map below.

Program Performance

Goal: To support access and equity in public schools and help school districts solve equity problems in education related to race, sex, national origin, and religion.

Objective: Provide coordinated technical assistance and training to State educational agencies and public school districts in addressing equity in education.

Performance Measures

For purposes of Department reporting under 34 CFR 75.110, we have established the following performance measures for the EAC program:

Measure 1: The percentage of clients reporting an increase in awareness or knowledge resulting from technical assistance provided.

Measure 2: The percentage of clients who report changed policies or practices related to providing students with a full opportunity for participation in all educational programs regardless of their sex, race, religion, and national origin.

Measure 3: The percentage of clients reporting an increase in capacity resulting from technical assistance provided.

Measure 4: The percentage of technical assistance requests received from organizations that were accepted during the performance period.

Measure 5: The percentage of clients willing to request additional technical assistance or refer another organization to an EAC for technical assistance during the performance period.

Measure 6: The percentage of clients who report that outcomes, as documented in memoranda of understanding with EACs, were met as a result of the technical assistance provided.

Performance Data

Please see the Department's FY25 Budget Request here for selected program performance information, including, for example, performance goals, objectives, measures, and performance targets and data; and an assessment of the progress made toward achieving program results. Achievement of results is based on the cumulative effect of the Federal resources provided for the program as well as the resources and efforts invested by those served by this program.

Except where stated otherwise, data for the performance measures are collected through an annual survey of EAC clients.

FY 2022 Awards

Project Abstracts

Region I

Mid Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. (MD) proposes the Center for Education Equity (CEE) as the Region I Equity Assistance Center. MAEC is the lead applicant and is partnering with WestEd, AIR [American Institutes for Research], and SRI [Strategic Resources, Inc.] as sub-contractors. CEE builds on MAEC’s 30-year track record of developing and implementing successful applications of evidenced-based strategies and capacity building to produce long-term change and increase outcomes. Contributions to research, policy, and practice: Continuous Improvement for Equity model, MAEC’s Equity Audit Tool, and revisions to inequitable LEA policies.  CEE’s Goals: (1) Improve and sustain the systemic capacity of public education systems to address problems caused by desegregation and inequities. (2) Increase equitable educational opportunities for all students regardless of race, sex/gender identity, religion, and national origin. (3) Increase equity for traditionally underrepresented students through diverse partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Minority Serving Institutions. CEE’s Outcomes: (1) Increased compliance with civil rights laws; (2) Increased student access to educational opportunities; (3) Decreased sexual harassment and bullying; (4) Decreased over-representation in discipline; (5) Increased student access to high quality teachers and rigorous curriculum; (6) Increased use of various sources of data, including disaggregated data, to inform improvement strategies and goals; (7) Increased family, school, and community engagement; (8) Increased collaboration with HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs; and (9) Increased student engagement, achievement, and wellness.  Populations to be served: Region I students 9,898,754, including 4,888,305 students of color.  Primary Activities: A comprehensive, multi-tiered system of TA to address goals and objectives. Tier I: Universal TA develops and disseminates educational equity research, evidence-based practices, resources, products, and information through the CEE and Continuous Improvement for Equity Hub websites, and print formats; and facilitates virtual learning opportunities. Tier II: Targeted TA (short-term) includes designing/facilitating professional learning experiences, coordinating with other TA providers, and creating communities of practice, strategic convenings, and training. Tier III: Intensive TA (long-term) includes school and/or district systems change with partners and/or the Offices for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice, using a multistep process (needs assessment, goal setting, TA planning, implementation, and evaluation).

Region II

Southern Education Foundation, Inc. (GA) proposes a collaboration between the Southern Education Foundation and Westat – “The EAC-South at SEF” – is uniquely positioned to take up EAC work in Region II, given the high-caliber personnel we bring and our exceptional work in equity and technical assistance (TA). Our leadership – including SEF President Raymond Pierce, Director Tonya Gentry, and Senior Advisor Donna Elam – has direct experience working in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and collaborating with and referring school districts to EACs, along with a robust sense of the history that led to the development of the original Desegregation Assistance Centers. We have assembled a team of extremely respected advisors and content experts with deep expertise in all the equity areas of focus for the EAC. Westat, SEF’s sub recipient on this project, will contribute to the design and provision of high-quality TA. Our goals for the project are aimed at closing outcome and opportunity gaps. They include: 1) broadening the work of the EAC-South to address more equity areas, focusing holistically on stakeholder needs and equity at the intersections, and supporting a broader range of stakeholders across more of the region; 2) increasing stakeholders’ use of evidence-based resources and policy to mitigate inequities; 3) drawing on improvement science tools to adapt and customize our TA to partners’ specific needs in context; and 4) increasing stakeholders’ ability to address inequities and issues of desegregation and to increase the opportunities that are offered to all students, ultimately leading to improved educational outcomes and decreased equity gaps for students, as well as sustained ability for stakeholders to address desegregation needs. In order to achieve these outcomes, we will draw on and expand our broad partner networks, including a range of local and national equity organizations; HBCUs, HACUs, MSls, TCUs, and other educational institutions across the region; districts and district leaders in Region II with whom we already have deep relationships; and organizations including and representing children and families. These partners will form a Stakeholder Cadre that will vet and inform our work as we seek to identify and meet the specific equity needs of our stakeholders in ways that bring about holistic and systemic change. Region II is home to more than half of LEAs with active desegregation orders, representing more than one million students. It features major documented achievement disparities for students of color, students with disabilities, English Learners, and those living in rural communities. It also has needs related to issues of sex and gender equity and to addressing religious discrimination, today often tied to ethnicity or national origin. SEF has a 150+ year history of work in this region and a nuanced understanding of its history and current context, and we will continue to sharpen our understanding of the specific needs as we support SEAs, LEAs, federal agencies and programs, TA providers, and professional organizations in supporting this population. We present a tiered TA approach tied to a carefully designed theory of action to assess and address needs in the region that leverages recent understanding of how to measure educational equity. This includes on-site support and virtual coaching, creation of communities of practice, and development of a range of tools and resources that reflect and expand on the equity work we already do. We will continually analyze evidence and stakeholder input to understand the needs of our clients, to monitor improvements in equity outcomes and opportunities, to inform and engage education leaders, and to cultivate and communicate about solutions and improvements that can be scaled and sustained across our networks. We will do this with a focus on expanding what is known about effective and equitable policy and practice for students in the South and by adding to the literature around how innovative approaches and equity ideas can be combined to produce measurable results. SEF is the nation’s oldest education and civil rights organization, and it has been doing work that is deeply aligned with the mandates of the EACs throughout its history. By drawing on this history, teaming with a widely respected and highly effective TA organization in Westat, establishing a Stakeholder Cadre to inform each step of project implementation, and building an exceptional team of advisors and thought leaders to guide us and shape our ability to provide districts with needed support at an appropriate level with clear connections to specific achievable equity goals, we propose to advance the work of the Equity Assistance Centers in ways that are forward-thinking and grounded in historical and contextual knowledge and a holistic and systemic view of equity. Our deep commitment to and knowledge of each state across this region and DC, our many collaborative partnerships, and our compassionate focus on students and the outcomes that matter make us the right people to do this work.

Region III

Trustees of Indiana University (IN) proposes, as the continuing Region III Equity Assistance Center, the Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center’s mission is to ensure equitable educational access, participation, and outcomes by expanding state and local education agencies’ (SEA/LEA) capacities to provide effective opportunities to learn for all students, regardless of race, sex, national origin, religion, as well as language, disability, and income, and to eliminate inequities among and between groups. Our TA services are of outstanding appropriateness and quality to meet the needs of Region III’s SEAs and LEAs. We will provide TA upon request of and in relation to needs of school boards, SEAs, LEAs, and other government agencies for the preparation, adoption, and implementation of plans for equity, including desegregation based on race, national origin, sex, and religion, and development of effective methods of coping with special educational problems occasioned by desegregation. Our TA goals include: (1) Ensuring student civil rights and integration related to race, sex, national origin, religion, income, and disability (2) Mitigating adverse educational effects of COVID-19 by increasing system capacities to facilitate continuity of learning for all students, including via online learning; (3) Building supports for students’ mental and social health, especially in underserved communities; (4) Improving climate through prevention of and response to sexual, racial, and other forms of bullying and harassment, including online; (5) Ensuring recruitment, retention, and distribution of effective, diverse educators, and addressing teacher shortages exacerbated by COVID-19; (6) Building cross-stakeholder partnerships, including those toward safe, welcoming environments for refugee students and English learners; (7) Ensuring appropriate integration of students with disabilities at race, sex, national origin, and religion intersections; (8) Supporting data-based decision making on research-based policies and practices; (9) Addressing discriminatory discipline policies and practices; and (10) Supporting LEAs transitioning to unitary status in desegregation cases and restructuring for racial and socio-economic diversity.

Region IV

WestEd(CA) a private, non-profit organization, in partnership with subcontractors Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL), Attendance Works, and the Utah Education Policy Center (UEPC), proposes the Western Educational Equity Assistance Center (WEEAC) to (1) provide technical assistance (TA) at the request of school boards and other responsible governmental agencies across Region IV in the preparation, adoption, and implementation of plans for the desegregation of public schools based on race, national origin, sex, and religion and (2) in the development of effective methods of coping with special educational problems occasioned by desegregation. The WEEAC will serve over 12.4 million public school students across Region IV’s 13 states and three territories – Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawai’i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Through combination of universal, targeted, and intensive TA, the WEEAC aims to provide desegregation assistance and address special educational problems occasioned by desegregation to provide more equitable educational opportunities for all students, regardless of race, national origin, sex, and religion. In Year 1 of the project, the WEEAC plans to focus universal TA projects on addressing chronic absenteeism and reducing bullying and harassment through an online learning series. The WEEAC will provide 5 intensive TA projects focused on specific regional needs and context. We propose regional learning communities that include Tribal Colleges and Universities. Minority Serving Institutions, and/or HBCU alumni networks. We will create resources and tools that address research, policy, and practice for the benefit of specific student groups for use by whole region. We will disseminate those using our communications plan, which includes community engagement through Advisory Councils.

FY 2016 Awards

FY 2011

FY 2008

FY 2005

FY 2002