Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Awards Nearly $7 Million Toward Efforts to Improve Equity in Education

REDWOOD CITY, CALIF. — The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) today announced nearly $7 million in grants to programs and initiatives that identify, develop and support diverse education leaders, with an aim of helping to  eliminate race and income as predictors for student success.

The grants are in service of CZI’s mission in education, which is focused on ensuring that every student—not just a lucky few—can get an education that’s tailored to their individual needs and supports every aspect of their development.

“These grants are a next step as part of our ongoing commitment to equity because we hope to ultimately contribute to creating a system in which differences in achievement are not correlated with race and income, which is how difference in achievement too often shows up in our education system today,” said Sandra Liu Huang, Head of Education at CZI. 

Through its education-focused grantmaking, CZI has been working to help create a future where diverse education leaders—from classroom teachers to school board members—are equipped with the skills and opportunity to design solutions that address varying outcomes and persistent gaps across our school system.

The organizations we support are taking a variety of approaches in service of this goal: building the capacity of existing organizations to keep diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront of decision-making and hiring; training diverse teachers and school leaders in equity-informed practices and the science of learning and development; and recruiting a more diverse bench of people to serve as entrepreneurs and leaders in school districts, education nonprofits, education startup ventures and education management organizations. 

“We are proud to support organizations in their efforts to help create a future for every student where they are valued and recognized for who they are and  the unique assets they bring to the classroom,” said Margarita Florez, an education program director for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Through these grants, CZI’s hope is that every young person will enter adulthood with the skills and abilities they need to reach their full potential and that every teacher is equipped with the evidence-based tools and practices they need to help get students there. CZI plans to continue its ongoing support for this focus in the future. 

The grants, were awarded to the following organizations: 

• Promise54, $1,675,000: to support its work providing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) talent services and research to education organizations and its work supporting our grantees’ DEI strategies and goals.
• Alder Graduate School of Education, $1,650,000: to redesign its education preparation program to increase the pipeline of diverse teachers and leaders designing and delivering equity-informed practices anchored in the science of learning and human development.
• Camelback Ventures, $1,350,000: to support Camelback’s fellowship for underrepresented education entrepreneurs and its Capital Collaborative aimed at developing an equity lens in the leadership of social impact funders.
• New York City Leadership Academy, $600,000: to refine its equity leadership development program model and plan a multi-year study of the program.
• Woodrow Wilson Graduate School of Teaching and Learning, $500,000: to support its Teaching for Justice work, which consists of embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion across its programming and organizational operations.
• Latinos for Education, $400,000: to support its work to build a bigger bench of Latinos serving as board members and other educational leaders.
• Surge Institute, $400,000: to support the Institute’s education leadership accelerator programs, which are designed to identify and groom emerging diverse talent.
• Education Leaders of Color, $250,000: to support EdLoC’s community and capacity building work in service of its goal to elevate the leadership, voices and influence of people of color in education, leading to more inclusive efforts to improve education.

About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Founded by Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg in 2015, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is a new kind of philanthropy that’s leveraging technology to help solve some of the world’s toughest challenges — from eradicating disease, to improving education, to reforming the criminal justice system. Across three core Initiative focus areas of Science, Education, and Justice & Opportunity, we’re pairing engineering with grant-making, impact investing, and policy and advocacy work to help build an inclusive, just and healthy future for everyone. For more information, please visit chanzuckerberg.com.