Helping DC design a public school system worthy of all children.

Our Mission

CityBridge Education is DC’s trusted partner in designing a public school system worthy of all children. We incubate the people, ideas, and conversations needed for equity-driven innovation in DC’s public schools.

Our Work

We invest in educators and education entrepreneurs—especially leaders of color—by providing the curriculum, coaching, connections, and capital they need to create innovative solutions to the intractable problems facing public education in DC.

Our work is rooted in design thinking, research and evaluation, and community building. We build and lead coalitions that boldly transform systems, tackling problems that require a coordinated citywide approach.

Over time, the cumulative effect of our efforts—at all levels, within and beyond the existing system—is a public school system that provides every DC student with an excellent and equitable education.

Our Commitment

The glaring racial and economic inequities that exist in our public schools are largely the product of an inequitable design that was established to serve the privileged. 

It is not enough to reform our education system. We must redesign it so it works for all students and families.

Given the long history of racism in schools, we center race in our work. That means empowering innovators who already understand the many ways that students and families are marginalized in the classroom and beyond. We build equity into our work through:

Design thinking

Our design practice leads with empathy, centering the experiences of those who are most directly affected by the problem being addressed. The projects we incubate are designed with, not for, DC.

investment

We prioritize investing in Black and Latino/a leaders because we aim to change the profile of who succeeds and who leads in the city, and because we know that leaders of color have historically received less support and access to capital than their White peers in entrepreneurial spaces.

community building

We create an environment where entrepreneurs, especially BIPOC entrepreneurs and individuals from historically marginalized backgrounds, not only receive the tools and supports they need to be successful, but also feel seen and celebrated for the ways their identities and experiences have shaped their approach to leadership in the education sector.

Our Values

These values guide our interactions with each other and with our colleagues in the field:

We set a high bar for our work—both the process and the product—to realize the impact we want to have in the world. What we produce is thoughtful and rigorous, delivers on its stated purpose, and is ultimately worthy of our children.

We model the future we want to occupy—in our relationships with each other, our entrepreneurs, and our external stakeholders. We invite diverse perspectives, build inclusive coalitions, and work in authentic partnership with all who want to create a better world for DC students.

We embrace the curiosity and boldness needed to envision—and build—what does not yet exist. We dream expansively, learn voraciously, and dare greatly in all our endeavors.

We embrace the learnings from our successes and failures and hold ourselves and our partners accountable to ever-increasing standards of equity and excellence. We set clear goals, assess tangible progress, and prioritize meaningful improvement and development.

We acknowledge that the work of eliminating racism and other forms of bias in ourselves and in society is continuous, hard, necessary work—and that no one can do it alone or perfectly. We extend generosity and forgiveness when mistakes are made and learn alongside each other in our journey toward a more free and inclusive society.

Highlights from Our History

Katherine and David Bradley launch CityBridge Foundation (originally called the Advisory Board Foundation).

1994

CityBridge begins national research on successful interventions addressing entrenched, multigenerational poverty.

2000

CityBridge launches the Early Years Education Initiative, a five-year, $8 million portfolio invested in building capacity and improving quality in early childhood education in DC.

2006

CityBridge expands its focus to serve the full PK-12 continuum. Initiatives include Catalyst Schools, Tools to 100 Schools, and the Innovation Portfolio.

2010

CityBridge Education, a public charity dedicated to advancing equity and opportunity for all children, is launched out of CityBridge Foundation.

2017

Our Team

We are determined to make Washington, DC, the first public education system where race and income do not predict a student’s ability to thrive and succeed. Meet the passionate changemakers behind CityBridge Education.

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