From a Single Question to a New School Model

“Our scholar-activists are resilient and actively involved in their community,” explains Myron Long, New Leaders alum and executive director and founder of the Social Justice School (SJS) in Washington, D.C. SJS first opened its doors (virtually) to fifth- and sixth-grade students in 2020. This year, their second cohort of eighth-grade scholar-activists will graduate.

What began as a question grew into the school’s mission to catalyze an integrated community of middle-school learners to be scholar-activists who are designers of a more just world. Grounded in social justice, design-thinking, culturally responsive teaching, and expeditionary learning, SJS follows three main principles: love, learning, and liberation. 

“We believe that young people will be change-makers in their communities.”

“We believe that young people will be change-makers in their communities,” adds Long. “Once you create the conditions for young people to be known and loved, they will learn from you and you from them. And the ultimate purpose for any knowledge acquired is liberation and change.”

We had the privilege of learning more about Long’s leadership journey—from history teacher to principal to founder of a new school. As a participant in our Exploring New School Models program, Long and his team visited other new schools and over the course of several years, turned their initial vision into a reality. Here’s how. 

How did SJS begin and evolve into the school it is today? 

SJS started out as a question, and it's a question that still drives us to this day. The question we asked ourselves is this: When students engage in real world experiences that are rooted in community issues, does that increase their engagement and overall student achievement?

In order to answer that question, we created a process in designing our school where we build with the community and not for them. We’ve seen other organizations come into communities and bring in their values without engaging the community. As a native Washingtonian, I did not want to assume that we knew the current needs of our young people and their communities. 

So we engaged in a series of pilots that informed the model we created. Our first pilot was a 12-week version of the school, and our students created six episodes of a podcast called “The Reality of Intersectionality.” From that pilot, we learned that when young people know that their end product is going to be viewed by the community, they increase their scholarship and precision to their craft. So we knew our model needed to have students demonstrating their learning in authentic ways. 

Our longest pilot was our Freedom Academy, which was a two-month one-classroom version of our evolving school model. We had 25 students and four staff members. We studied mass incarceration by looking at suspension and expulsion rates in D.C. The students read from rich texts, including The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness, and traveled to The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Students shared with us how their lives were changed as a result. So we knew we needed real-world experiences in our model too. 

Then we had our dodgeball moment. 

Your dodgeball moment? Please say more!

Yes, our dodgeball moment was a pivotal moment. I was with our students in the Freedom Academy, and they asked me, “Can we play dodgeball?” And I was like sure, but I’m not sure how that fits in with social justice. You may have to write me an argumentative essay… “And, they said, ‘No, Mr. Long, we just really want to play dodgeball.’” 

So we played, and when we talked with the students afterward, we learned that social justice can be heavy for students and that we need to have opportunities for them to play. 

That radically shifted our model and mindset: Yes, we want young people to understand historical context but the real essence of our school is that we want young people to see themselves as designers and the world around them as malleable. So we added more opportunities for students to be in the designer seat and become change agents. 

"Yes, we want young people to understand historical context but the real essence of our school is that we want young people to see themselves as designers and the world around them as malleable."

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Can you give us examples of current design projects?

Our current fifth graders are conducting empathy interviews on the topics of playgrounds and playground safety. We also brought in an organization that designs community playgrounds, and now the students are using the 3D printer to make prototypes of the playgrounds they have designed, with the idea that one of the prototypes will be chosen to be built in our community. 

Another example is our sixth graders are doing a unit on the hero’s journey and what it means to be a hero. They are seeing themselves as heroes and will convert one of our hallways into a museum to showcase their portraits. The title will be: Every Scholar-Activist Is a Hero.  

We’re also excited to pilot a Parent Activist Academy. We want to redefine family engagement and create the conditions where our families and community members see themselves as designers too. The pilot is focused on gun violence and includes learning expeditions around D.C. We plan to give participants seed-investment to help turn their solutions into a reality. 

You started your career as a teacher. How did New Leaders shape and influence your leadership?

Making the jump from a history teacher to an aspiring principal was significant. The beauty of New Leaders is the cohort experience. It affirmed for me that being a school leader can be lonely, but that it is not as lonely as we think. Our cohort became really close. We still talk today, 13 years later.

I also continue to value and lean into the adaptive leadership and change management that I learned from New Leaders. Sometimes leaders think decisions are all about the technical aspects, but leading for change is more about the process and the impact of our decisions. That framework for facing adaptive challenges has definitely stuck with me. 

And now as an executive director, I try to be very thoughtful about naming decisions through our core values and inviting people into the process so they can understand why and how we operate. I also balance “being on the balcony,” or zooming out to plan for the future, with “being on the dance floor,” which is the day-to-day. I learned that from New Leaders too. 

"The beauty of New Leaders is the cohort experience. It affirmed for me that being a school leader can be lonely, but that it is not as lonely as we think. Our cohort became really close. We still talk today, 13 years later."

As an education leader, what keeps you going? 

What inspires me is when our young people say that they can use their voice to make change. The two things we hear the most from our students are: one, they can show up as their authentic selves and two, they feel they have ownership in their school. 

That gives me hope every day because I believe I’m seeing the faces of young people who are going to make this world more just. 

What advice do you have for leaders right now?

I would say that it is okay to be a leader who centers on tenderness. It’s easy to think of leaders as having to make decisions that show authority. But in tough situations, I think about human-centered decision-making where I am moving beyond sympathy to empathy and considering the whole child, the family, and our staff. 

And remember that there is always a third way. We talk about black-and-white, but the color gray exists in the color palette for a reason. Go for the gray.