equity & belonging work
College Prep aims to fully live its mission as a place where every student can feel cared for, equitably supported, and prepared to participate in the creation of a more racially just world. As the School builds on and expands this critical work, we continue to reflect, learn, and grow. Look below to see some of the highlights of our work.
The Coalition for Coexistence: Discussion Across Difference
In Fall 2024, we launched the Coalition for Coexistence, a student-led initiative that brings together members and leaders of our Muslim Student Union and Jewish Student Union for weekly dialogue and connection. Guided by two exceptional student leaders and supported by faculty advisors and our Dean of Equity and Belonging, this group has created a space for building understanding across differences.
Through storytelling, active listening, and collective learning, students in the coalition are developing skills in empathy and respectful communication while exploring shared values and experiences. Together, they've established norms and a shared vision that honors each person's identity and perspective.
The Vision for the Coalition in their Own Words:
We are the leaders of the Coalition for Coexistence, a student group we started at the end of the 2023-2024 school year for Jewish and Muslim students who feel a strong sense of connection to Israel and Palestine. We come together to share our stories and gain a greater understanding of one another's perspectives. We seek not agreement but empathy: we wish to understand rather than change others' opinions, perspectives, and experiences. We are dedicated to creating a school environment that feels safe for everyone, and we have entered this space to ensure that our respective affinity groups treat the Israel/Palestine conflict with care and respect for other perspectives.
One of the initial commitments our affinity groups made to one another was to share plans for community-wide events and announcements within the Coalition space first, in the hopes of minimizing miscommunication and hurt feelings, with the ultimate goal of working toward an environment that feels safe for students of all identities. While this has remained a critical component of our work, we have also come to model aspects of our approach on groups such as Standing Together and coexistence activists such as Rotem Levin and Osama Iliwat, placing greater emphasis on storytelling and shared understanding."
Belonging Survey: Measuring Our Progress
In 2021, at the behest of our BSU students, alumni, and others in our community, we created systems to help us understand the experience of all students—particularly those most vulnerable in our community. One of those systems was implementing an annual school-wide Belonging Pulse Check.
Here is more about the survey from our Director of Curriculum Innovation and Research: "[The purpose of the survey is] to create a space for formal, regular, and direct feedback to the School. 'Black @ College Prep' and the brave feedback offered by alumni and current students have helped put a spotlight on the need to make College Prep a more welcoming and inclusive place. We heard stories about how aspects of identity—who a person is and what is important to them—have been key components of the situations and structures that have sometimes made people at College Prep feel like they don't belong. Data about how various identity groups feel about their place in the school, collected over time, will help us see patterns of how we are doing in creating a school climate of inclusion and belonging. It certainly isn't meant to be the only mechanism for understanding that climate, but we have research-based reasons to believe that regular pulse-checks could be a valuable one."
Other metrics we use include course and athletic team student/player experience surveys, biannual school climate surveys, campus news, assemblies, advisory check-ins, and interpersonal gatherings at all levels of the school.
If you are interested in learning more about our equity work over the years please reach out to the Dean of Equity & Belonging.
CPS Day: Exploring Our Oakland Roots
CPS Day is an annual, whole-school event that elevates Community, Purpose, and Service while deepening our understanding of the complex systems, spaces, and people that celebrate and sustain our Oakland community. We connect students with Oakland's artists, activists, business owners, and non-profits to build knowledge about the Town's culture, activism, history, politics, and environment.
On this day, students participate in service learning, hear from guest speakers, engage in hands-on workshops, join community panels, take field trips, share student performances, and gather for a communal meal. Through these experiences, students move beyond the classroom to engage directly with the people and places shaping Oakland's present and future. CPS Day empowers students to see themselves as active contributors to their community, fostering relationships and insights that extend far beyond a single day. This meaningful event is made possible by the leadership of dedicated student organizers who work to create meaningful connections between our school and the Oakland community we call home.
Citizenship and Us: Beyond Ballots and Speech Now!
An essential aspect of belonging is understanding who we are as citizens and how we make sense of our political world. Our goal is to help students build skills that deepen their critical thinking, broaden their perspectives, and translate their values into actionable responsibility to their communities.
Leading up to the 2024 election, we created our Beyond Ballots initiative, utilizing various spaces to hold conversations on civic engagement, local and national politics, and the democratic process. In 2025, we added our "Speech Now!" series, where students engage in discussions exploring their values around—and interpretations of—our First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Through these conversations, students exercise their capacity for civil disagreement, connection, and curiosity.
E&B Spaces and Adult Development
Faculty and staff engage in monthly Equity and Belonging spaces. These gatherings are designed to deepen connection and understanding among ourselves and our community. We seek to compile best practices to ensure that students have an experience that is inclusive, accessible, and meaningful.
Some of our spaces take the form of training or lectures; other times we engage in discussions around a shared text or cultural moment. Our ultimate goal is to balance introspection and reflection with personal and professional development.
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