What We Do
The New England Equity Assistance Center (NEEAC) provides technical assistance and professional development services that focus on educational issues related to race, gender, and national origin. Our work aims to close persistent achievement gaps, help all students meet high standards, promote safe schools, and support the implementation of No Child Left Behind.
For more information about the
projects we are undertaking, download our Strategic Plan 
Key areas and examples
of our work include:
Teacher Quality
We work with teachers to build knowledge and skills to deliver equitable and culturally responsive instruction that enables all students, including English language learners (ELLs), to reach high standards.
Classroom Instruction
We train teachers to implement research-based instructional practices to raise the achievement of ELLs and other diverse learners.
Curriculum
We work with schools to ensure that all students are held to high standards and have access to challenging academic materials and programs, which address diversity.
School Environment
We work to foster safe and supportive learning environments by helping schools identify and address problems of harassment, bullying, teasing, and hate crimes.
Family and Community Engagement
We help schools develop plans to more fully engage parents from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. We also train school staff in cultural competencies and offer workshops for parents on NCLB, keeping children safe, and providing academic support at home.
School Choice
We support the development and implementation of desegregation plans (voluntary or court-mandated) and magnet school programs.
Disproportionate Representation
We provide schools with technical assistance to identify and address over- and under-representation of subgroups in gifted programs, special education programs, high- and low-level courses, extracurricular activities, and discipline practices.
Materials
Some of our professional development offerings are based on resources and publications produced by NEEAC staff in collaboration with the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory (2000-2005). NEEAC can customize trainings based on these resources, which include:
- Approaches to Writing Instruction for Adolescent English Language Learners - the basis for trainings on adolescent literacy and writing instruction for ELLs.
- Leading with Diversity: Cultural Competencies for Teacher Preparation and Professional Development - a source for research and practice on skills and awareness related to culture, language, race, and ethnicity that teachers need to work with an increasingly diverse student population.
- The Teacher's Guide to Diversity: Building a Knowledge Base - a comprehensive guide that explores human development, culture, cognition, and literacy acquisition through research, activities, and vignettes.
- Claiming Opportunities: A Handbook for Improving Education for English Language Learners Through Comprehensive School Reform - a tool that presents research on CSR and ELL-responsiveness and suggests ways to integrate the two.
222 Richmond St., Suite 300
Providence, RI 02903-4226
Tel (401) 274-9548 ext. 270 | (800) 521-9550 ext. 270
http://neeac.alliance.brown.edu
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