A Systems Approach to Creating an Ecology of Equity in a High-Poverty School District

This memo, which is the sixth in the series, highlights the ongoing work of the Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD) to create an ecology of equity. Their efforts focus on developing a school system that fosters a belief in each person’s capacity to learn (administrators, teachers, and students alike) and increases students’ opportunities for success by helping them take responsibility for their own learning through the use of evidence. SUSD is also changing the conditions under which students learn by creating multilevel professional learning opportunities for adults in the district.

The leadership of SUSD is committed to ensuring that its students will graduate high school being college, career, and community ready. In support of these goals, the superintendant of SUSD works in colloaboration with the chief acadmeic officer and cheif school officer to support, develop, and strengthen the leadership of principals, a cadre of instructional coaches, and a growing number of teacher leaders in schools.

The Assessment for Learning Project (ALP) is a multi-year grant program and field-building initiative designed to fundamentally rethink the roles that assessment can and should play to advance student learning and improve K-12 education in the United States. If assessment is to become a lever for improving individual students’ opportunities and capacities to learn, then assessment must also become a lever for achieving more equitable education outcomes because it is not possible to achieve excellence without equity.