Honoring Community, Centering Students: College Spark Awards Education Equity Grants
College Spark Washington is proud to announce three new Education Equity Fund grants for 2026—supporting partners who are transforming how Washington students learn, lead, and see themselves reflected in their education.
Grantees—Educurious, The Rural Alliance, and Children of the Setting Sun Productions—are advancing powerful work rooted in community wisdom and cultural identity. Each project builds learning environments that affirm who students are and where they come from, while helping educators and systems grow toward equity and inclusion.
When educators and communities design together, the results are more than curriculum or policy—they’re acts of belonging and justice that shape the future of learning in Washington.
Educurious: Co-Creating Curriculum in North Kitsap
In North Kitsap, teachers, Tribal leaders, and curriculum designers are coming together to bring local Indigenous stories and perspectives into the classroom. Educurious, in partnership with the North Kitsap School District, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, and the Suquamish Tribe, is co-creating high school curriculum that localizes the John McCoy (lulilaš) Since Time Immemorial (JMLSTI) Tribal curriculum.
The new units—starting with U.S. History—will include lesson plans, videos, and teacher guides that reflect the voices and experiences of the Suquamish and Port Gamble S’Klallam peoples, whose ancestral lands North Kitsap students live and learn on. Teachers will receive professional learning designed and co-led by Tribal representatives to ensure cultural accuracy and authenticity.
By grounding learning in local history and community knowledge, this project gives Native students a curriculum that affirms their identities and helps all students develop a deeper understanding of the place they call home.
The Rural Alliance: Strengthening Rural Principals’ Skills in Leading for Equity
In rural communities across Washington, school leaders are stepping up to make education more inclusive, connected, and community-driven. The Rural Alliance’s new project will help principals from across Northeast and Central Washington lead their schools through an equity lens—building relationships with students and families to shape curriculum that truly reflects their lives.
Over the next three years, participating principals will form a learning network where they’ll study culturally sustaining and trauma-informed practices, audit current curricula for representation and bias, and co-create new lessons with Native, immigrant, Latino, and low-income students and families.
The result: schools where students feel seen, valued, and engaged—and where leaders have the tools and confidence to embed equity in every aspect of school life. The project will culminate in a statewide toolkit that captures what works in rural districts and helps others replicate their success.
Children of the Setting Sun Productions: Washington State Learning Standard Alignment Initiative
For more than a decade, Children of the Setting Sun Productions (CSSP) has used storytelling, film, and education to share Coast Salish culture and history with communities across the Northwest. Now, they’re taking that mission to the policy level—working to ensure Washington’s K–12 learning standards authentically represent Indigenous voices.
CSSP is leading an Indigenous-led advocacy effort to reform how the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) develops and revises state learning standards—beginning with Social Studies. The project will bring together Tribal leaders, educators, and policymakers to elevate Indigenous knowledge, strengthen Tribal consultation, and integrate the Since Time Immemorial curriculum as a core part of Washington education.
This work is about more than policy—it’s about visibility, sovereignty, and ensuring every Washington student learns the full and true story of this place.
Investing in Equity, Empowered by Community
Each of these projects reflects College Spark’s belief that equitable education starts with honoring the communities it serves. By investing in partnerships that elevate local voices, build educator capacity, and transform systems, we’re helping to create schools where every student can thrive—academically, culturally, and personally.
When educators and communities design together, the results are more than curriculum or policy—they’re acts of belonging and justice that shape the future of learning in Washington.
