DEI Professional Development
All faculty, staff, and administration participate in professional development (PD) centered around diversity, equity, and inclusion. This PD is generally identified, planned and facilitated by a team of volunteers that form our faculty diversity committee, in collaboration with academic administrators. In addition to planning faculty PD, the faculty diversity committee engages teachers in regular discussion and examination of our curriculum, classroom practices, and culturally responsive teaching.
Recent and future professional development and related work initiated by the faculty diversity committee include:
- Planning and organizing diversity and inclusion professional development days for all faculty in October of each school year since 2019. Facilitating organizations have included the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the YWCA Equity Institute.
- Participation in various webinars, including “Tools for Having Courageous Conversations Around Race, Culture & Beliefs” with Homa Tavangar and “What It Means to be Black in the White Spaces” with Julie Lythcott-Haims.
- Creating a process and framework to launch a school-wide curriculum audit to review curriculum, classroom practices, and pedagogies with the focus and goal of enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in all classrooms.
- Ongoing and regularly scheduled curriculum group discussions to further diversify the curriculum and promote culturally responsive pedagogies.