Starting Point
A Lens on Equity
School Administrator, November 2017


In preparation for drafting this editor’s note, I reviewed Matt Utterback’s Twitter feed over the past six months. That made it easy to see how this award-winning superintendent has immersed himself in the work of improving the lives of his students from their varied upbringings and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Utterback leads the 17,000-student North Clackamas schools, a district on the southern fringe of Portland, Ore., where he has made student equity the prevailing issue on his leadership agenda. He describes some facets of that work in his article “Leadership Through an Equity Lens."

The superintendent’s back story involving an adopted brother from Korea, which he relates in an opening narrative, gives us insight into what motivates his work on racial and cultural equity so forcefully — for which he was recognized earlier this year as the National Superintendent of the Year.

His account is one of a half dozen articles in this issue addressing culturally diverse schools and how some educators are raising rigor, integrating students and promoting core democratic values.

Editor, School Administrator
Voice: 703-875-0745
E-mail: jgoldman@aasa.org
Twitter: @JPGoldman