What We Measure Shapes What We See

by Just Schools | Sep 5, 2026 | Inclusive Policy Postcards

As the school year gets underway, decisions about what gets funded, what gets measured, and who feels represented at school continue to shape students’ experiences.

This week, we’re watching changes to Arizona’s K–12 education policy, the removal of LGBTQ+ information from federal school data, and a promising effort to bring more representative educators into Arizona classrooms.

Arizona Legislative & Education Policy Update

The Kyrene School District is moving forward with a new social-emotional learning curriculum for its elementary schools.

The district’s governing board has authorized starting the formal adoption process following an evaluation by a committee of administrators, counselors, and educators of potential programs. Families and staff are given 60 days to review and comment on the proposed materials before a final decision is made by the governing board.

Why this matters:

Students learn best when they feel safe, supported, and connected at school. Social-emotional learning can give schools tools to strengthen those environments while helping students build skills for navigating relationships, emotions, and challenges.

School Board And District Updates

At its September 1 meeting, the Prescott Unified School District Governing Board considered a new seventh-grade sexual-health curriculum.

The previous curriculum, Making a Difference, is no longer approved in Arizona. The new one, Promoting Health Among Teens: Abstinence Only, was recommended via Yavapai County Community Health Services. It didn’t go through the district’s usual approval but was publicly available from June 29 to August 31.

Why this matters:

Curriculum decisions determine more than what appears in a textbook. They shape what young people learn about their health, relationships, identities, and choices.

Families deserve transparency about what is being taught, and students deserve health education that provides them with accurate, meaningful, and inclusive information.

Federal Policy Update

Newly released federal civil-rights data no longer includes information previously collected about nonbinary students and gender-identity-based bullying.

The Civil Rights Data Collection is one of the federal government’s primary tools for understanding students’ experiences across public schools.

The newly released data removes information related to:

Nonbinary students.
Bullying or harassment based on gender identity.
District policies addressing gender-identity harassment.
Some information about nonbinary students and athletics.

Why this matters:

Removing these data points doesn’t mean LGBTQ+ students stop experiencing bullying, harassment, or exclusion. It means educators, families, advocates, and policymakers have less information available to identify disparities and respond to them. Students deserve to be seen, not erased from the data used to make decisions about their schools.

Civic Power Series V.24

Representation in the classroom matters

This fall, five male teachers of color are joining classrooms in Phoenix’s Creighton School District through a new partnership with the Man Up Fellowship.

The partnership is designed both to address teacher vacancies and to bring more educators into classrooms who reflect the students and communities they serve. The program hopes to eventually expand to other Arizona districts.

Why this matters:

Students benefit from schools where they can see themselves reflected in the adults around them.

Building inclusive schools isn’t only about responding when something goes wrong. It’s also about intentionally creating school communities where more students feel seen, represented, supported, and connected.