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system. To create welcoming and equitable learning environments for diverse students and their families, school leaders must engage the entire school community. Leaders in the East Ramapo C�ntral Schoo� District in New Yark State have committed thernselves to just such a systemwide initiative. The schaol district, which lies across the Tappan Zee Bridge from New York City, has experienced a dramatic shift in student population in the pask 15 years as low-income Haitian, Jamaican, Dominican, Latino, and black families from the city have moved into the comrnunity and middle-class white families have, unfortunately but predictably, fled to private schoals or other less diverse districts. In the midst of this demographic revolution, East Ramapo's broad-based diversity initiative has engaged all groups and constituencies in the school district community, not just teachers and administrators. Far example, the district has provided workshops to help classified employees acknowledge their powerful role in setting a welcoming tone and creating an inclusive climate for students, parents, and colleagues in school offices, lunchrooms, haUways, and on the playground. For bus drivers, this wark has meant gair�ing cuftural compete�ce sicills for managing their immense safety responsibilities while communicating clearly and compassionately across many languages and cultures on their buses. In one session that I led with school secretaries, we worked through their confusion and frustration related to all the diverse languages being spoken in the school offices and, in some cases, their feelings of anger and resentment about the demographic changes that had taken place in "their" schools. Asked what they learned from t1�e session, participants commented, "I saw the frustration people can have, especially if they are from another country." "We ali basically have the same feelings about family, pride in our culture, ancf the Emportance of getting along." "I learned frorn white people that they can also sometimes feel like a minority." In addition to these sessions, East Ramapo has created Eearning opportunities for school board members, parents, students, counselors, and special education classroom assistants. The district has convened reguEar community forums focusing on student achievement and creating conversations across many diverse cultures. White parents wt�o have kept their children in the puhlic schools because they see the value of diversity in their education have been significant participants in these conversations. As a result af East Ramapa's efforts, the achievement gaps i� test scores along ethnic an� economic lir�es have significantly narrowed. In the six years since the distritt consciously began impEementing the professional development model discussed here, the pass rate for black and Fiispanic students combined on the New York State elementary language arts test increased from 43 percent in 2000 to 54 percent in 2006; on the math test, the pass rate increased from 4a percent to 61 percent. During that same period, the gap between black and Hispanic students (combined) and white and Asian students (combined) decreased by b percentage points in language arts and 23 percentage points in math. The achievement gap between low-incame elementary students and the general population decreased by 10 points in language arts and b points in math—results that are particularly impressive, given that the proportion of economically disadvantaged students grew from S1 percenC in 2000 to 72 percent in 2006. A ]ourney Towa�d Awareness Professional development for creating inclusive, equitable, and excellent schools is a long-term process. The school districts ciescribed here are at various stages in the process. Everyone involved would agree that the work is messier and more complex than can be comrnunicated in this brief overview. Nowever, one central leadership commitment is clear in all of these rapidEy transitioning districts: When diversity comes to town, we are all �hallenged to grow.