Our Work Together: Inclusion, Multiculturalism, Respect
Our Work Together, Lakeside’s equity and inclusion initiative that launched in 2018, has led to significant changes at the school. It followed more than 50 years of ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion work by generations of Lakesiders.
While we have met many of Our Work Together’s goals and objectives, we have revised and added others in response to what is happening in the world — particularly related to racism against Black and Indigenous people and communities. For Lakeside to take an active role in the national movement against racism, we must start by looking at ourselves and systemic and institutionalized biases and racism at Lakeside.
Receiving feedback
In summer 2020 — during a time of national reckoning about systemic racism and bias — we listened and learned about the experience of Lakeside community members who identify as Black, African American, or African.
At listening sessions, administrators heard from members of the Upper School Black Student Union, and separately, with parents and guardians of African, African American, and Caribbean students.
We read stories and experiences shared on @BlackatLakeside and @nbpocatlakeside on Instagram.
We reviewed a letter and materials regarding diversity and inclusion from alumni.
Our Work Together Dashboard
In order to graduate students with an equity and inclusion mindset, we — as individuals and as an institution — must live that mindset and interrogate and change our own systems using anti-racist and social justice filters.
This dashboard tracks and measures how we are doing on each of the initiative’s four goals: what’s going well and what needs improvement. Information will be added and updated throughout the year, and new information will be dated so people can understand our progress.
As part of our work on each goal of the initiative, we are changing our approach in four key areas.
Hiring faculty of color
Transforming the curriculum and our ways of teaching
Formalizing a system of DEI feedback and support in employee evaluations
Revamping the student discipline system
- Goal 1: Increase the racial/ethnic diversity of the faculty, administrators, and trustees through focused recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies.
- Goal 2: Ensure faculty actively seek to understand their own implicit biases, use diverse pedagogies, and incorporate diverse perspectives into their curricula.
- Goal 3: Empower students, employees, and families to bring their full selves to Lakeside School and actively build relationships with people who are different from themselves.
- Goal 4: Continue to nurture a school culture that acknowledges and honors difference, leading to an increasingly inclusive school where every individual is listened to, respected, and valued.