June Jordan School for Equity

As a school for Social Justice serving predominantly working class communities of color, the mission of JJSE is not just to prepare students for college but also to prepare our graduates to be agents of positive change in the world. Our mission and vision is to prepare young people in three key areas:

Community: We Live In Respect, Integrity, Courage And Humility.

Social Justice: We Stand Against Oppression, Both Internal And External, And See Ourselves As Part Of The Past, Present, And Future Movements For Justice In Our Communities And In Our World.

Independent Thinkers: We Develop Ourselves As Intellectuals With The Skills We Need To Succeed.

Get to Know this Liberatory School

JJSE supports students from working class communities of color to be change agents through independent thinking, social justice, and community connection.

Location: San Francisco, CA

Size: <300

Demographics:

  • 58% Latinx

  • 19% Black

  • 11% Asian or Pacific Islander

  • 6% Two or More Races

  • 5% White

  • 1% American Indian

Grade Band: 9-12

Governance Structure: Public School

Website: https://www.jjse.org/

Graduate Aims

Design principles

JJSE has four values which form the foundation of our work as a school. We believe these ethical principles are more important than academics, and that our graduation and college access rates mean nothing if our graduates do not live by these basic human values. At June Jordan we say “Get RICH!"

Respect

• Always give respect FIRST!

• It must be in both how you speak and how you move, sit, or stand.

• Listen, listen, and listen before speaking.

• Think of how you would want to be treated.

• Your respect for others is a reflection of your strength.


Integrity

• Do what you say and say what you do.

• Accept responsibility for your success and mistakes.

• Your work or no work.

• No need to lie.

• Have standards in your life.

• Respect deadlines.


Courage

• Face your fears.

• Face your peers.

• Take emotional risks in order to relate to others and change.

• Be vulnerable.

• Be prepared to stand alone.

• Accept the love and consequences that come with doing the right thing.


Humility

• A necessary characteristic.

• No one knows everything.

• Indicates wisdom and confidence.

• One cannot learn without loss or failure.

• More concerned with resolution than victory.

Warm Demander: Develop your students as human beings first

  • Family & Culture: understand & honor the strengths of the community

  • Authenticity: model vulnerability and humility, be an ally, respect your students

  • Clear Boundaries: show strength, listen & affirm, challenge & offer a choice

  • Growth Mindset: believe in the “impossible,” embrace failure


Safe Classroom Community: Protect your students in a potentially dangerous world

  • Prevention: clear expectations, talk about values, teacher voice, one mic

  • Rituals: Mindfulness, talking circle, strong start, strong finish

  • Jedi Awareness & control the mood

  • Intervention: assume positive intent, keep it in perspective, deliberate escalation, when to stop the curriculum and when/how to remove students


Knowledge of Students: Start where your students are, not where you want/imagine them to be

  • Prior Knowledge: What do students know? What are their experiences? (Misconceptions?)

  • Student Voice: What do students care about? What do they think? (examples of activities like sort, chalk talk, dot voting, etc.)

  • Individual Needs: differentiation without tracking, adjusting instruction based on formative assessment

  • Choice: students should have real choices about how and what they learn (this does not mean we let students study whatever they want, but rather that students should be active in driving their own learning)


Students as Intellectuals: Develop your students as a community of warrior-scholars

  • Inquiry: there is no “right answer,” questioning, evidence, students as sources of knowledge

  • Collective Accountability: classroom as intellectual community

  • Code Switching: academic language & discussion formats

  • Intellectual Challenge: high-level multicultural texts, complex problems, big ideas, less is more


Teachers as Coach: Let your students do the work

  • Metacognition: students should know how they learn & how to self-assess

  • Academic Skills: binders, annotations, note-taking skills, etc.

  • Culture of Revision & Practice: models of excellent work, multiple revisions, guided practice

  • Team Work: heterogeneous groups, clear roles, focus on the process, address status


Social Justice Curriculum: Teach a curriculum that helps students understand the real world

  • Clear Purpose: students know what they are doing and why it matters

  • Relevance: the curriculum helps explain the real world & oppression (social justice curriculum in math, science, humanities, arts, language, special education/life skills, multicultural curriculum, community connections, & cross-curricular connections)

  • Encourage Dissenting Opinions: critical thinking is the goal

  • Human Values: the curriculum is grounded in justice, fairness, dignity, & cultural strengths

Featured Student Experiences

Academics and Performance Assessment

JJSE has developed a research-based performance assessment system that provides students with multiple forms of access and is an authentic way for teachers and students to develop and assess learning collaboratively as well as engage with the broader community. The JJSE performance assessment system is designed to generate real, public accountability for student performance and includes the following elements: portfolios of student work, rubrics that embody acceptable standards of performance, oral presentations to a committee, opportunities for revision, integration with everyday curriculum and classroom practice, and capstone projects and exhibitions. The system is organized around six “Habits of Mind” that connect to 20th Century Learning, future college success, and the Common Core Standards: 1) Perspective 2) Relevance 3) Original Research 4) Precision 5) Evidence 6) Logical Reasoning (“PROPEL”). Teachers in each core subject area are required to integrate the Habits of Mind into their curriculum and assign one or more major project-based assignments per semester. Each student is required to produce a portfolio project as a summative assessment in each class. In spring of 10th and 12th grades, students must present and defend their projects (capstones) to a committee which includes teachers, parents/guardians, peers, and community members.

Advisory

At JJSE all students are part of an advisory; a small and intimate group of students with 1-2 teachers who serve as their support system at school. The student's advisor is their primary home contact and implements student-led conferences twice a year. The 9th grade Academy that serves to integrate them into the school community. 9th grade teachers intentionally teach students about social justice, health and wellness, and study skills. The 10th grade advisories concentrate on community service, the RICH values and start to do development work on college/career readiness. The 11th grade advisories integrate rigorous academics with a strong Internship program and career readiness skills. The 12th grade advisories support students in college access, financial aid, development of the senior capstone. In all grade levels, health and wellness, college and career, and student culture are scaffolded throughout the students' four years.

Intersession

JJSE’s Intersession is comprised of three weeks of experiential learning courses where students learn by doing and actively engage in a variety of real-world experiences that challenge them physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. Conducted outside of the four walls of the traditional classroom, these intensive courses create an opportunity for students to interact with adults and community members in new ways as they become immersed in unfamiliar environments, attempt new activities, or pursue longstanding passions in a more in-depth way all over the Bay Area. Students visit locales such as Yosemite, Santa Cruz, Alameda, Marin, and Camp Mendocino to hike, bike, run, dance, place soccer, or do yoga. It is during Intersession that students most often learn about their personal limits, their capacity for growth and what they are willing to do to overcome obstacles.

Extended Day

The June Jordan Extended-Day Program (EDP) provides a wide array of opportunities for our students to develop the essential skills needed for both academic success and personal growth. The free program integrates youth development principles and practices to ensure quality programming in a safe and supportive environment. The following are available every day in the EDP program until 6pm: Free supper, Tech access, Academic support, What Works Club, Athletics, Dance, Poetry/Spoken word, and Motorcycle Mechanics.

Electives/Activism Blocks

Although JJSE is a small school, they offer a rich series of elective courses students may choose from. Specific electives vary from year-to-year depending on student interest and staff capacity. In 2018-19 school year JJSE offered courses from Yoga and Wellness, to Urban Gardening and Food Justice, to Art and Activism, Computer Science/Coding, to 415 Unidos: Immigration Rights.

Key School-Wide Practices

Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment

JJSE's pedagogy is expressly designed to help our students understand the forces of marginalization they have experienced growing up, and thus to begin the process of freeing themselves from oppression, including especially the internalized oppression (or self-imposed limits) which we see preventing so many students from meeting their potential. JJSE developed a performance assessment system that provides students with multiple forms of access and is an authentic way for teachers and students to develop and assess learning collaboratively as well as engage with the broader community.

Community & Culture

JJSE greatly values community both within and around the school. Part of their mission is for students to live their community values: Respect, Integrity, Courage, and Humility. This is reflected in student experiences like Advisory and well as their pedagogy which focus on creating a safe classroom community and developing community of warrior-scholars. JJSE also operates a wellness center which provides an identity-safe, supportive place for students to go and discuss a variety of issues.

Schedule & Use
of Time

JJSE offers an extended day program (EDP), which provides a wide array of opportunities for our students to develop the essential skills needed for both academic success and personal growth. The free program integrates youth development principles and practices to ensure quality programming in a safe and supportive environment.

Adult Roles & Learning

JJSE is in the process of clearly defining the JJSE pedagogy, in order to support JJSE teachers on their path to becoming masters at the art of teaching for social justice, which in turn will provide all JJSE students the opportunity to develop the self-confidence and self-discipline they need to become not just authentic intellectuals, but also leaders who will work on behalf of their communities and create a more just and humane world. All JJSE are expected to be warm demanders.

Family & Community Partnerships

JJSE has many community partners for both institutional and financial support which you can read about here.

Space &
Facilities

JJSE's intersession is conducted outside of the four walls of the traditional classroom for students to interact with adults and community members in new ways as they become immersed in unfamiliar environments, attempt new activities, or pursue longstanding passions in a more in-depth way all over the Bay Area. Students visit locales such as Yosemite, Santa Cruz, Alameda, Marin, and Camp Mendocino to hike, bike, run, dance, place soccer, or do yoga.

See It. Hear It. Feel It.

Learn more about the JJSE experience

Activism at JJSE