EFC launched in 2005 as a partner charter operator to Oakland Unified School District to support the city's efforts to turn around persistently underperforming elementary schools.  EFC converted two OUSD schools to charter schools in 2005 and converted three additional schools in 2012.  We then opened a middle school and high school in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland.  EFC now operates seven schools in the Fruitvale and Elmhurst neighborhoods of Oakland serving over 3,000 preK-12 students.  

Our schools serve a population where 90% count as part of the unduplicated count, the state indicator for high need.  In the neighborhoods in which we operate, half of the children do NOT graduate from the zoned high school.  According to the 2016 Oakland Achieves report, less than 40% of elementary-aged students can read at grade level, and only 20% of low-income elementary children read at grade level.  Less than 40% of high poverty 8th graders are ready for high school math.  

The Education for Change mission is straightforward.  Education for Change Public Schools believes it is the right of every child to have access to a high-quality, 21st-century education.  Our mission is to provide a superior public education to Oakland’s most underserved children by creating a system of schools that focuses relentlessly on our students’ academic achievement.  We aim to transform neighborhood schools into high-performing organizations for the children that are most dependent upon them and build strong secondary school options to ensure all children in the neighborhood have access to a powerful K-12 pipeline to success in college and career.  We aim to disrupt the predictable patterns of performance in Oakland for underserved youth.