Our Mission and Work

Northshore’s core mission is to strengthen the community through excellence in education. To realize this mission requires each and every student to leave their grade, their school, and their district ready for the next level. It also requires each and every student to feel valued, included, and affirmed as they move through their educational experiences. The organization and divisions of the District must focus on increasing the knowledge and skills of the people working with and for students to disrupt the institutional oppressions that minoritized groups of students experience based on their intersecting identities. 

The 2024-27 Northshore School District Racial and Educational Justice Framework serves as a three-year plan to help Northshore School District administrators and staff continue to engage in and expand the implementation of justice-driven, culturally responsive, and culturally sustaining strategies in their schools, classrooms, or departments as they align with the District mission.  

In addition, this accompanying 2024-27 Racial and Educational Justice Handbook serves as a tool to provide examples of concrete adult actions to lead to the fulfillment of each intended student outcome in the Framework. This is a working document and will continue to be updated across the three years of work. Each throughline in the handbook has four intended student outcomes that reflect justice-driven considerations as they relate to power, policy, practices, and pedagogy (the four P’s). 

• Power = to have the capacity to inform and influence decisions. To engage power through a lens of racial and educational justice means to have power be shared, rather than hierarchical. 
• Policy = a system of guidelines that inform decisions and achieve established outcomes. To engage policy through a lens of racial and educational justice means that policies, and their accompanying procedures and protocols, are in service of each and every student. 
• Practices = the application of a policy, theory, concept, or approach. To engage practices through a lens of racial and educational justice means that they are holistic, identity-informed, and justice-driven. 
• Pedagogy = the practice of teaching. To engage pedagogy through a lens of racial and educational justice means it is culturally responsive, culturally sustaining, high leverage, rigorous, identity-informed, and justice-driven. 

Professional learning and supporting resources will be provided across each throughline for the next three academic years, with the recognition that the work of educational justice isn’t always linear and so that administrators and staff have the agency to be responsive to needs based on their own school or department contexts. As a school or department, this may look like selecting one throughline per year, focusing on one of the four P’s at a time, and/or identifying a series of intended student outcomes per year to be responsive to your needs/contexts. As the Racial and Educational Justice Department, this will look like operationalizing the work by focusing on one throughline per year (in order) in our administrative, staff, and Racial and Educational Justice School Team professional learning sessions. 

The 2024-27 Racial and Educational Justice Handbook is separated by throughline as it relates to the intended student outcomes in the 2024-27 Racial and Educational Justice Framework. The Handbook parallels the design of the Framework and lists concrete actions to actualize each intended student outcome. Concrete action ideas are broken down into four categories (ie: Instructional Leaders, Student-facing Staff, Operations Leaders, and Operations Staff) to reflect the range of roles that are represented in our Northshore system and district community. The below chart is designed to help think through the role(s) that are being referred to.

Northshore’s core mission is to strengthen the community through excellence in education. To realize this mission requires each and every student to leave their grade, their school, and their district ready for the next level. It also requires each and every student to feel valued, included, and affirmed as they move through their educational experiences. The organization and divisions of the District must focus on increasing the knowledge and skills of the people working with and for students to disrupt the institutional oppressions that minoritized groups of students experience based on their intersecting identities. The 2024-27 Northshore School District Racial and Educational Justice Framework serves as a three-year plan to help Northshore School District administrators and staff continue to engage in and expand the implementation of justice-driven, culturally responsive, and culturally sustaining strategies in their schools, classrooms, or departments as they align with the District mission.  

This is not an evaluative tool for staff, but a tool to 1) measure system progress on justice-driven student experiences as indicated by each intended outcome listed in the Framework and 2) provide administrators and staff with guidance to nurture the “everydayness” of educational justice in their schools, classrooms, or departments. The accompanying 2024-27 Racial and Educational Justice Handbook serves as an additional tool to provide examples of concrete adult actions to lead to the fulfillment of each below intended student outcome in the Framework. Professional learning and supporting resources will be provided across each throughline for the next three academic years, with the recognition that the work of educational justice isn’t always linear and so that administrators and staff have the agency to be responsive to needs based on their own school or department contexts. As a school or department, this may look like selecting one throughline per year, focusing on one of the four P’s at a time, and/or identifying a series of intended student outcomes per year to be responsive to your needs/contexts. 

The development of this Framework was led by the Racial and Educational Justice Department and co-designed with students, families, staff, and administrators in Northshore. The three throughlines are: anti-discrimination and microaggressions, identity-affirming environments and experiences, and student and family co-design. Each throughline has four intended student outcomes that reflect justice-driven considerations as they relate to power, policy, practices, and pedagogy (the four P’s). 
 

 As we think about discrimination, identity-based microaggressions and slurs, and identity-affirming strategies, we continue to keep diversity and intersectionality in mind. The “Intersectional Diversity Flower” is included here as a visual aid to help us consider that range of dimensions and considerations as we activate our work. Note: in the Flower, Indigeneity and Race are consistent intersecting factors with, between, and across each petal; so, in thinking about the diverse populations and communities within a school or department, we ask educators think about 1) the ways that Indigeneity and Race intersects with the identities represented on each petal and 2) the intersectionality that occurs within and across each identity petal. 
 

• Racial and Educational Justice School Teams
  • Racial and Educational Justice School Teams work to promote an inclusive and equitable environment within their respective schools by examining issues of institutional racism and equity; partnering with their building administrators; facilitating professional development with their staff; and advising District staff on responses to incidents of racism, bias, and harassment. Find more information on Racial and Educational Justice School teams on this page.
     
• The District Racial and Educational Justice Committee
  • The Northshore School District’s Racial and Educational Justice Committee meets throughout the academic year and act as an advisory committee to the Northshore School Board.
  • In our first committee meeting of the 2025-2026 school year, the Racial and Educational Justice Department (REJ) will outline a range of projects and bodies of work that can be accomplished to continue to advance justice across our district community. This list will then be narrowed down based on member interest and teams will be formed through this process. To get an idea, the work that was done last year supported and extended the REJ Toolkit, the REJ Religious and Cultural Observances Calendar, REJ Community Panels, videos on microaggressions and anti-discrimination for students, and sentence stem cards on how to address microaggressions and discrimination in the moment. 
  • The committee is comprised of parents, students, teachers, and administrators who strategize and guide initiatives, strategic plans, and system-wide efforts to support equity-driven change.
     
• Student Justice Collective
  • Northshore School District’s Student Justice Collective serves as an advisory to the Racial and Educational Justice Department and advocates for our community at large. The Collective’s aim is to build community, organize in solidarity, and (re)imagine what a justice-driven education can and should look like. Northshore School District students from all of our high schools are encouraged to apply.
  • The Racial and Educational Justice Department believes it is important to expand opportunities for youth leadership and agency, help students come together across schools, and co-construct a space in which students can learn with and from one another.
     
• Partnership with all high school Black Student Unions
  • We support our Black student Union organizations by helping our students learn about their histories, network with community partners, experience a sense of belonging at school, build positive racial identities, and organize to engage in school/community outreach.
  • Black Student Union leaders are part the superintendent’s Student Board and involved in conversations about racial justice in the District.
     
• Staff of Color Coalition (SOCC)
  • The SOCC is a place for staff of color to share common experiences and an intentional move to continue to amplify the voices of staff of color in an effort to grow a thriving coalition that fosters belonging, mentorship, networking, and professional development. 

The Intersectional Diversity Flower prompts educators to think about what types of diversity are within our district community. In the Flower, race is a consistent intersecting factor with, between, and across each petal; so, in thinking about the diverse populations and communities within a school or department, we ask educators think about 1) the ways that race intersects with the identities represented on each petal and 2) the intersectionality that occurs within and across each identity petal.

• Collaborative processes with Human Resources (HR)
  • Collaborated with Human Resources to include a diversity statement for job applicants for full-time faculty, staff, and classified positions.
  • Worked with HR to develop an anti-bias video that is mandatory for all hiring committees to view prior to interviewing staff and administrators.
  • Continuously work with HR to increase the percentage of staff and administrators of color, including culturally competent administrators and staff, to build a diverse and equity-driven community of educators.
     
• External collaborations for recruiting educators of color
  • In the 2019-20 school year, the Racial and Educational Justice Department, along with other District leadership initiated discussions with the University of Washington Bothell School of Educational Studies. Faculty in the Leadership Development for Educators Program (UWB LEDE) met with District administration to explore initial opportunities for partnership and engagement to collectively support and develop teacher and instructional leadership across the district. 

• 2024-2027 Racial and Educational Justice Framework 
• 2024-2027 Racial and Educational Justice Handbook
  • The Department developed a 4-year plan to roll out equity-based initiatives.
• Professional development opportunities for district administrators, building administrators, and staff with/during/at:
  • Leadership Learning Meetings
  • District Directed Content
  • Racial and Educational Justice School Teams
  • Staff of Color Coalition
  • All staff
  • All schools
     
• Online resources for staff, students, parents/guardians and the community

• Policy, Procedure, Programs and Practices Review Tool
  • Earlier in the Department’s work, staff developed a training tool to support administrators in their review and revision of policies, procedures, programs, and practices. The information from that training tool has been absorbed into the Northshore School District Framework and Handbook.
     

• Executive Cabinet Protocols

  • In Executive Cabinet, the goal is to align with and apply the District’s Racial and Educational Justice Policy. Cabinet leadership will develop formal structures to ensure that we design, implement, sustain, and institutionalize racial and educational justice initiative(s) to address the inequities in our system.

• Community Panels (in-person)
  • Collaborating with students, staff, families, and community members to facilitate quarterly Racial and Educational Justice Community Panels to honor national months of recognition. In the 2024-25 school year, Racial and Educational Justice Community Panels will honor Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month, Hindu Heritage Month, Disability History and Awareness Month, Native American Heritage Month, Universal Human Rights Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Arab American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Pride Month. Northshore students, staff, and family and community members speak on these panels about their experiences, perspectives, and ideas.
     
•   The Religious and Cultural Observances Calendar
  •  Our calendar aims to expand the awareness of the diversity among our students and families, the days that students may not be at school due to religious observances, and the days that students may be fasting. We continue to work with community and faith leaders to update our information.
     
• Celebrating Black Lives and Black History
  • Celebrating Black Lives and Black History