Matiq Labs — Year 1 Impact Report

From Our Executive Director

Darius Fequiere

Founder & Executive Director, Matiq Labs

Year 1 taught us something important: proof of concept is not a finish line. It is a starting point for harder, more honest questions. What does it actually take to stay? To go deep instead of wide? To treat a school's professional culture as something worth redesigning together, not just consulting on from the outside?

This report reflects our first answers. Educators across five Rialto USD campuses trusted us enough to spend a year investigating their own practice: naming what was working, designing what wasn't, and acting on what they found. Then Leadership Public Schools Richmond invited us in. Two sessions. A new site. A second district. The work is spreading because the work is real.

We also listened in ways that went far beyond our school walls. Through four Listening Tour sessions, we gathered educators, parents, students, and civic leaders from across California and the country. What they shared is shaping where we go next.

We built Matiq Labs on a simple thesis: educators are not the problem, they are the solution. That belief shows up in every session, every lab, every number in this report. Thank you for making this first year possible, and for betting on what comes next.

Rialto USD educators across Year 1 · 2025–2026

Why We Exist

The system keeps funding research
about practitioners.

We built Matiq Labs on a different premise: that teachers and school staff are not objects of study. They are the people closest to the problem, and the ones most qualified to design the solution.

The Learning & Design Lab is a year-long, embedded professional development model rooted in Participatory Action Research and Youth Participatory Action Research (PAR/YPAR) methodology. It is not a workshop series. It is not a training. It is an ongoing inquiry practice that lives inside the school year, inside the relationships, inside the real work.

Year 1 was Rialto USD. Five school sites. Eighty-five-plus educators. A full year of designing, questioning, building, and pushing back on the systems that surround them.

"Practitioner-led, community-rooted design is the intervention the field keeps funding around but rarely funds directly."

Darius Fequiere, Founder & Executive Director

What made Year 1 different: by Year 2, Matiq Labs' Learning & Design Lab model was selected as a core component of Rialto Unified's district-wide Healing Plan, a county-commissioned response to a high-profile community incident. Our work was embedded alongside mental health providers, restorative justice facilitators, and family engagement organizations, and formally evaluated by Hanover Research on behalf of the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools.

That is what practitioner-led design looks like when it lands.

Left: Data Walk & Talk, SEE phase in action · Right: Rialto USD administrator participant

Our Method

SEE. NAME.
DESIGN. ACT.

This is not a checklist. It is a loop. Educators move through it continuously, building deeper capacity each cycle.

Jehue Middle School set up before PD begins

SEE

Develop the practice of noticing what is actually happening, rather than what we assume. Data, observation, honest examination of conditions. See your students. See the system. See yourself inside it.

NAME

Naming is an act of power. When practitioners name what they observe, using language that is precise and honest, they begin to shift from reaction to intention. Root causes, not symptoms.

DESIGN

With a clear understanding of the problem, educators design interventions, routines, and practices that are specific to their context. Not someone else's framework adapted to fit. Their own.

ACT

Put it in practice. Gather feedback. Return to SEE. The loop is the model. It continues. Practitioners build muscle through iteration, not instruction.

Year 1 Sites

Six schools.
Two districts.
One full year.

Carter
High School

High School

Eisenhower
High School

High School

Jehue
Middle School

Middle School · Pilot Site

Frisbie
Middle School

Middle School

Kucera
Middle School

Middle School

Leadership Public
Schools Richmond

Bay Area Charter · Spring 2026

85⁺

Educators reached across six sites

240⁺

Facilitated lab hours across Year 1

94%

Participant satisfaction across all sessions

72%

Reported new classroom practices within 90 days

The six sites span Rialto Unified and Leadership Public Schools Richmond, giving the Lab direct visibility into how the same framework lands differently depending on school culture, grade level, and the specific pressures a staff is carrying.

Rialto USD educators during Fall expansion

Left: Jehue Middle School, our pilot campus · Right: Fall 2025 expansion across Rialto USD sites

External Validation

When the county calls,
and Hanover shows up
to document the work.

In SY 2025–2026, Rialto Unified School District was required to respond to a high-profile community incident at Jehue Middle School. The district's response, known as the Healing Plan, was a county-funded, multi-partner initiative evaluated by Hanover Research on behalf of the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. Matiq Labs' Learning & Design Lab was one of the named partners.

The Liberatory Classroom supported staff through workshops, reflection spaces, and professional learning focused on culturally responsive and restorative practice. The L&D Lab sessions were described by Hanover Research as creating structured space for educators to reflect on practice, process ongoing strain, and reconnect with the relational dimensions of their work, specifically addressing the top support needs educators had named going in: strategies for student discipline and restorative practices (52% of staff), and tools for navigating burnout and stress management (37% of staff).

Healing Plan Impact Report, Hanover Research, June 2026

What staff said before the Lab

The Spring 2025 staff survey at Jehue Middle School told a clear story. Nearly half (46%) described staff culture as "somewhat supportive but inconsistent." Staff spoke less about the incident itself and more about what it revealed: uneven discipline, limited safety support, and communication that did not inspire confidence. Only 59% of staff felt somewhat or very safe at school. The top thing educators said they needed and could not find: strategies for student discipline, conflict resolution, and restorative practices.

Spring 2025 · Baseline

46% described staff culture as "somewhat supportive but inconsistent." Communication named as one-sided. Culture described as "tense but trying to heal."

Post-Lab · Shift

Staff left sessions motivated, hopeful, re-energized, and curious about systems change. 4.7/5 for daily-work applicability. A clear demand for more, not less.

Fall 2025 L&D Lab session, Rialto USD

What the data showed after

The Liberatory Classroom Workshop series ran three sessions in Fall 2025, with 12 to 19 staff members participating across Jehue Middle School, Frisbie Middle School, Carter High School, and Eisenhower High School. Participation included virtual and in-person sessions alongside one to two hours monthly of independent reflection.

Participants described the sessions as creating space to examine root causes rather than surface-level problems, to work across roles and school sites, and to use shared reflection and data to identify school-specific challenges. Across all three sessions, the word cloud of exit responses was dominated by: motivated, hopeful, re-energized, curious, inspired.

4.7/5

Average rating for daily-work applicability
across all three L&D Lab sessions
Source: Hanover Research, June 2026

Matiq Labs with Rialto USD leadership at end-of-year celebration

Staff systemic barriers named in L&D Lab applications

Resource Gaps

"Some students have consistent support systems. Others face persistent gaps that limit their ability to fully engage in learning."

Leadership Instability

"In the past few years, our site has cycled through administrators, each with different priorities and approaches."

Student Wellbeing

"The stigma against mental health support often prevents students from receiving the help they need to build hope, confidence, and resilience."

Curriculum Pressure

"Curriculum is shaped ONLY to help students on state tests. The whole year seems built around this purpose."

Data sourced from Healing Plan Impact Report, Hanover Research (June 2026), prepared under contract to San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, in partnership with Rialto Unified School District.

Educator Voice

What practitioners
said out loud.

These are not testimonials curated for a grant application. They are what educators wrote in the moment, in session exit surveys, documented in third-party research.

"For the first time in years, I felt like a learner again, not just an instructor. The lab gave me permission to not have all the answers."

Middle School Teacher · Rialto USD

"Compassionate Fatigue is real and we need to learn to balance it."

Session 1 Participant · L&D Lab

"Validation for the district chaos and lack of support. Iceberg and systems change. I like the formula for systems change."

Session 2 Participant · L&D Lab

"An insight from today that resonated with me was the idea that one comment or connection can change the trajectory of someone else's life."

Session 3 Participant · L&D Lab

"Going forward, I need our leadership to demonstrate a deep, unmistakable commitment to strengthening race relations. Surface-level gestures are no longer acceptable."

Teacher · Jehue Middle School Staff Survey

"I came in skeptical. Professional development has burned me before. But this was different. It respected my time and my expertise."

High School Teacher · Rialto USD

Source: Healing Plan Impact Report, Hanover Research, June 2026 · Participant post-workshop surveys submitted to The Liberatory Classroom / Matiq Labs

Year 1 in motion. Educators across Rialto USD taking ownership of their professional development.

Demand Signal

They didn't want less.
They wanted more.

After three sessions, educators left the Lab with concrete questions about what comes next. That is the most important outcome. Not satisfaction. Appetite.

Post-workshop survey responses named five specific areas educators want to continue exploring. This is not a sign the work is incomplete. It is a sign the work created forward motion.

Putting ideas into practice

"How do we now implement things school-wide to affect change?"

Using practical strategies

"De-escalation techniques for teachers working with students who carry trauma."

Changing systems

"I would like to flesh out policies and procedures that dismantle harmful systems in place."

Building buy-in

"How to implement systems and get 'doubting' staff on board."

Learning from others

"I'd love to explore how other schools have created this change to build."

Partner Spotlight

LPS Richmond:
A New Chapter.

In Spring 2026, Matiq Labs facilitated two Learning & Design Lab sessions at Leadership Public Schools Richmond, co-facilitated with Dr. Kai Mathews. These sessions marked our first Bay Area school partnership and the foundation for a full Year 2 LDL engagement launching Fall 2026.

"Educators walked out of the room with something they could use on Monday. That's not common in professional development. That's the whole point."

LPS Richmond Educator Participant

Richmond, California is one of the Bay Area's most economically and racially diverse communities — and LPS Richmond reflects that reality. The school serves a predominantly Black and Latino student population navigating a range of systemic pressures: high referral volumes concentrated in specific classrooms, limited uptake of restorative tools at the Tier 1 level, and staff who have historically been handed compliance frameworks rather than true professional agency. What Matiq Labs saw in the data — and in the room — was a school ready to do something different. Dean follow-through improved from 59% to 83% across the year, a signal that when educators are given structured space to examine their practice, systems respond. Working in Richmond is not just geographic expansion for Matiq Labs. It is proof that the Learning & Design Lab model is built for the conditions most schools actually face.

LDL sessions, Spring 2026

Educators reached across both sessions

Districts served in Year 1

LPS Richmond educators during LDL session

Matiq Labs team with LPS Richmond leadership

Matiq Labs team tours Kucera Middle School with Principal Cuevas

Beyond the Lab

Listening Tour:
Hearing from the field.

Before we can design for educators, parents, and students, we have to listen to them. In 2025–26, Matiq Labs facilitated four Listening Tour sessions across virtual and in-person formats, creating structured spaces to surface what educators want, what parents need, and what students wish the adults in their lives understood.

172+

Total participants across all four sessions

Sessions, 3 virtual and 1 in-person

25+

U.S. states and D.C. represented

Bay Area nonprofit leaders at in-person event

Virtual Panel

What Students Want

68 participants from 15+ states, gathering to center student voice in school redesign conversations.

Virtual Panel

What Parents Want

36 participants: parents and family advocates from California and 10 additional states.

Virtual Panel

What Teachers Want

54 participants: classroom educators, school leaders, and teacher developers from across the country.

In-Person · Co-hosted with Independent Sector

Public Trust & Belonging

14 Bay Area nonprofit EDs and civic leaders including Youth ALIVE!, The Teaching Well, Hack the Hood, and Mariposa Kids.

SY 2026–2027 and Beyond

Year 2 is already
different.

LPS Richmond is the anchor partnership for Year 2. Building on two Lab sessions in Spring 2026 that reached 56 educators, Matiq Labs has proposed a full-year Learning & Design Lab engagement to Principal Riffat Akram. The proposal centers a confirmed session calendar structured around the SEE/NAME/DESIGN/ACT/SUSTAIN arc — with a direct focus on building systems for educator-led instructional improvement that the school can own independently over time.

The SUSTAIN element is new — and intentional. Year 1 proved the Lab creates momentum. Year 2 asks the harder question: what internal structures, roles, and routines have to exist for that momentum to outlast Matiq Labs' presence in the building? Funders investing in Year 2 are investing in a model explicitly designed to reduce dependency, not create it.

Matiq Labs is also in active development with the Rural Professional Learning Network, building partnership proposals that extend the L&D Lab model into rural educator contexts. This includes a Rural/Urban Learning Exchange — pairing educators across geographies to examine common challenges through different lenses — and a Pilot Teacher Residency anchored by Cal Poly Humboldt's credentialing infrastructure. These partnerships are early-stage, but represent a clear expansion thesis: the same conditions that make urban schools hard to serve exist in rural ones. The framework travels.

The model Matiq Labs has built works across contexts — crisis response, healing, district-wide reform, and rural professional development. Funders looking to support practitioner-led, community-rooted educator development in the Bay Area, Oakland specifically, or in rural Northern California will find a well-tested framework, an independent third-party validation, and a team that has already demonstrated the ability to build trust inside schools where trust is hard to earn. Year 2 is where proof becomes infrastructure.

Matiq Labs is actively seeking

→District and school partners ready for year-long embedded PD

→Funders committed to expanding educator supports in Oakland, the Bay Area, and rural communities

→Co-facilitators with deep roots in culturally responsive practice

→Individuals interested in joining our growing Board of Directors

A Jaguars graduate. The students our partner educators serve every day.

Our Partners

The relationships
that made it possible.

School Partners

Jehue Middle SchoolRialto USD · Pilot Site
Carter High SchoolRialto USD
Eisenhower High SchoolRialto USD
Frisbie Middle SchoolRialto USD
Kucera Middle SchoolRialto USD
Leadership Public Schools RichmondCharter Network · Richmond, CA

Matiq Labs facilitation team after a Rialto PD session

Organizational Partners

Inner Spark Learning LabsPD Partner
Coro California, Bridging the BayFellowship & Civic Network
Design with JoyDesign Partner
The Liberatory ClassroomEducator Development Partner

Individual Donors

Tier I · Architects

Jacob Adams

Monthly · Sustaining

Jacqueline Smith

Monthly · Sustaining

Donald Gore

Monthly · Sustaining

Tier II · Designers

William Mitchell

One-Time

Zuzel Seals

One-Time

Iko Bako

One-Time

Tier III · Fellows

Smith Charles

Marie F. Gore

Magda Patris

Nicholas Wu

Magdalene Napoleon

Year
One
Impact

The system keeps funding research
about practitioners.

SEE. NAME.
DESIGN. ACT.

SEE