Road Map Improvement Collaborative

The Road Map Improvement Collaborative (RMIC) serves as a space for collaboration, adaptive leadership, learning, & transformation to actualize, in the words of Renton Superintendent Dr. Damien Pattenaude, "a blood oath of regional commitment" to creating just and humanizing schools, together.

Our Journey

The launch of the 2020 Road Map Improvement Collaborative (RMIC) occurred during an unprecedented opportunity for transformation. The collision of pivotal events - the 2020 police killings of African Americans, recognizing racism as a public health crisis in King County, and a pandemic that’s magnified long-standing inequities and mandated the redesign of teaching and learning as we know it - offer an opportunity for Road Map districts to further galvanize emotion and action to reimagine systems for students and families furthest from educational justice.

Our Shared Vision & Action Priorities

We analyzed strategic plans and racial equity policies across our seven Road Map districts and developed a shared regional vision organized around six 'buckets' of work:

In early 2021, we collectively identified three shared priorities as Cultivating a Racially Diverse & Thriving Educator Workforce, Elevating Youth of Color Voice & Leadership, and Seeing & Feeling Progress in Our Racial Equity Work.

Later that year, we launched year-long learning & action collaboratives organized around each of the first two priorities. These collaboratives were designed so that teams could pursue share problems of practice through discussion of regional and national bright spots, thought partnership, technical assistance and coaching from regional and national experts. Superintendents assembled cross-system teams to participate in the collaboratives.

Cultivating a Racially Diverse & Thriving Educator Workforce

Elevating Youth of Color Voice & Leadership

This learning collaborative aims to:

Support self-assessment of district practices and policies to elevate Youth of Color voice and leadership.
Increase Youth of Color voice and engagement across district decision-making tables.
Build school and district capacity for valuing the time, space, and opportunity for Youth of Color voice and leadership.
Strengthen and sustain within- and cross-district Youth of Color-centered communities and connections.

For More Information Click Here

This Learning Collaborative was created with the support and expertise of the Kingmakers of Oakland Street Team. To learn more about the Street Team's programs, mission, values and goals, click here.

Seeing & Feeling Progress in Racial Equity Work | Coming Soon!

Community Conversations

In 2020, Puget Sound Educational Services District invited local leaders to join a Wisdom Council to elevate voices, expertise, and partnership opportunities for our Communities of Color across school districts in South King County (‘the Road Map region’). In Spring and Summer 2021, the council launched an ongoing process of community conversations with Youth, Community Leaders, Parents, and Educators of Color. The first round of conversations focused on learning during a pandemic and returning to school in-person. Forty-four community members representing all 7 Road Map school districts engaged in over 35 hours of conversations with trusted peers. Community members engaged in collaborative meaning-making, developed recommendations, and shaped reporting and communication strategies.

In the Spring of 2022, a second round of Community Conversations with Youth of Color in the Road Map Region is currently underway, with a focus on Educator Diversity.

Community Conversations 2022
Community Conversations

Community Conversations 2022

Share your voice. Transform the system. The Wisdom Council, a community partnership of the Road Map Improvement Collaborative, is seeking Black, Latino/a, Indigenous, and Other Youth of Color to share your thoughts about what needs to be done to better support, keep and attract more Teachers and Staff of Color in South King County schools. Participate in a short conversation or upload your own video recording. Your voice will be part of a multimedia report shared with school districts across the region. You will also receive a small token of gratitude for your time and wisdom.

Click here for more information and to sign up!

Minor Student Participation Consent Form & Photography and Video Release

Thank you for your interest in sharing your voice in Community Conversations 2022. If you wish to participate, but are currently under 18, please click on the image to the left or this link. Please note that the form must be saved and opened as a PDF, the signature line does not appear if opened in your web browser.

Return the signed form to Angelica Alvarez at aalvarez@psesd.org or to Adam Kay at akay@psesd.org.

Community Conversations

In Community Conversations: Pandemic Learning & Returning to School in South King County, we center Youth of Color voices (23 conversations), and then share perspectives of parents (9 conversations), community leaders (7 conversations) and educators (5 conversations). We are excited for you to hear what we have to say and ask that our perspectives inform school and classroom decisions for the coming year. We also encourage you to ask questions of your own students, families, and communities impacted by the pandemic AND systemic racial inequities and adapt your responsive decisions in partnership. Together we can return to school in ways that value and cultivate the well-being of our Youth, Families, and Educators of Color.

Read the report: Community Conversations: Pandemic Learning & Returning to School in South King County

Resources

RMIC Launch 2020

RMIC Overview 2021-2022

Regional Bright Spot: Auburn School District's Youth Equity Stewardship (YES!) Initiative

Questions? Contact:

Adam Kay
Director
Collaborative Improvement Networks
akay@psesd.org

Angelica Alvarez
Manager
Student, Family & Community Engagement
aalvarez@psesd.org

Brad Brown
Executive Director
Learning, Teaching & Leadership Development
bbbrown@psesd.org