The Social Justice School

Why The Social Justice School was nominated

This school is designed for equity and has integrated equity centered design into the curriculum., The Social Justice School uses culturally responsive design thinking and social justice to build learners into scholar-activists. There is a deep commitment to empower students to design a more just world., Social Justice School uniquely blends rigorous academics, design thinking, with social justice learning expeditions., The Social Justice School is a 5th - 8th grade school in Washington, D.C.. Their mission is to catalyze an integrated community of middle-school learners to be scholar-activists who are designers of a more just world. In order to design a more just world, students require an education that embraces and lives out a set of core beliefs about what it means to be human. Their academic model is rooted in social justice, built around culturally-responsive learning, active learning through expeditionary learning, steady community through Crew, and empowerment through design thinking projects. On recently released 2023-24 PARCC results, SJS shows consistent and significant academic growth, particularly for Black students, Latino/a students, students with disabilities,and multilingual students. SJS scholars are 12% more likely to experience economic hardship than the average D.C. student,yet are equal or surpass their D.C. peers in ELA and Math.