Academics and DEI

As an educational institution, Saint Mary’s School has the opportunity to “be the change we wish to see.” Education has always been a place for this kind of positive, forward momentum. Outlined below is a plan of action for strengthening the academic department’s equity-centered approach to teaching and learning.  

Curriculum Review: The academic department is building a knowledge base to support a curriculum review through an equity and anti-racist lens. With this shared knowledge base in place, each department will complete a comprehensive review of all curriculum and resources being used in its work with students, including novels, textbooks, online resources, individually created resources, etc. The goal of this review is to allow each department to design and implement equity-centered and culturally competent practices and changes to its curriculum over time.

Assessments: Saint Mary's continues its efforts to ensure equity-centered grading policies and practices are in use at the school. Inspired by Joe Feldman’s book, Grading for Equity, a required reading for faculty this summer, the academic department has begun to implement policies to better support and operationalize equity in our grading processes.

Professional Learning: Faculty continue to utilize the knowledge acquired in their collective reading of the Zaretta Hammond’s book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain. This research-driven resources provides important information and tools to assist faculty in designing culturally competent and culturally-responsive learning experiences. Culturally-responsive teaching designed for all learners is central to the school’s pedagogical practice and teachers are expected to embed these principles into their work with our students.