Our Plan

The Board of Trustees is committed to the DEIB mission of the school and actively works towards achieving Holton’s goal of being an inclusive environment that sees, values, and supports diverse identities and experiences, cultivates engaging discourse, and empowers our students to be thriving members of the global community.

The DEIB Mission Statement in conjunction with the Principles of Dialogue guide our journey to be the equitable, respectful, and just community we envision.  

2022-2023 Board DEIB Learning 

• Learning Sessions on Antiracism

  • Resources: White Fragility, Whistling Vivaldi, Push Out, How to Be Anti-Racist, Why Are the Black Kids Sitting Together in Cafeteria?, Stamped: Antiracism and You, and the Seeing White (podcast series), “America’s Enduring Caste System”, “Monopoly”, “Racial Equity Impact Assessment Guide”, and “Miseducation of American Elites” 

• Learning sessions on Gender and Sexuality

  • International Coalition of Girls Schools Gender Study: Girls’ Schools in a Multi-Gender World: Leading and Learning Today

Foundational DEIB Statements

• DEIB Statement 
• Principles of Dialogue
• Gender Inclusion Statement

Policy and Procedures

Board Committees identified, established, and made progress on at least one anti-racist goal per year. 

• The 403 B Committee introduced sessions aimed at increasing financial literacy and understanding of the 403 B for all employees, particularly those from underrepresented communities.

• The Advancement Committee engaged in evaluating language used in advancement communications to ensure it is inclusive, fosters diversity and equity, and is not exclusionary (i.e. identify acts of treasure, time, and talent in all communications from all affinity groups, alumnae solicitations, and giving society programs, policies, and procedures for dissemination of prospect information)  

•  The Audit Committee implemented protocols to ensure that all of the service providers and vendors to the school have in-place DEIB policies and track records that comply with HAS’ values and vision for an anti-racist and anti-discriminatory future.

• The Buildings and Grounds Committee has implemented protocols to:

  • Evaluate all vendors through the lens of anti-racism and prioritize those that share our vision and value set as part of the criteria of doing business with them. 

  • Renovate/add to HAS buildings and grounds so that they take into account and are responsive to the needs of all of the humans who occupy and utilize, and who will occupy and utilize the campus.  

• The Finance Committee’s DEIB goal commits to supporting the success (broadly defined) of the Faculty Fellows Program. We believe that the  Faculty Fellows program will be something of a “game-changer” for Holton on the DEIB front, both

  • in the narrow sense of helping us to develop some younger, more diverse faculty members for Holton and

  • more broadly, in highlighting Holton’s commitment to “jump-starting” careers for new DEIB teachers even though many of them would go on to teach elsewhere.

• The Trustee Committee increased board diversity by nominating at least one ethnically and/or racially diverse candidate going forward.

• The Investment Committee’s goal - consistent with its fiduciary duties to realize the School’s investment objectives - is to discharge said duties to embody the school’s institutional priorities of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

The school is committed to becoming an anti-racist, anti-biased school. We recognize that extensive and ongoing training must be part of achieving this goal and we are committed to ensuring that all faculty, staff, and students engage in this effort. We also began efforts to provide similar opportunities designed for parents and guardians and spearheaded by the Parent Association’s DEI&B committee.

Continue and Extend Anti-racist Training

The school is committed to becoming an anti-racist, anti-biased school. We recognize that extensive and ongoing training must be part of achieving this goal and we are committed to ensuring that all faculty, staff, and students engage in this effort. We also began efforts to provide similar opportunities designed for parents and guardians and spearheaded by the Parent Association’s DEI&B committee.

In the 2022-2023 School year, 28% of faculty identified as people of color.

Because we know all of our students benefit from a diverse faculty, we have taken the following steps:

• Initiated a partnership with a premier BIPOC-owned search firm for schools seeking Candidates of Color for teaching and leadership positions.
• Eight administrators/program leaders attended a workshop, Overcoming Obstacles to Recruiting Faculty of Color
• Three administrators and the HR Director attended a workshop, Safe, Seen, Supported, and Satisfied: A Look at Faculty of Color Retention

• Seminar (Grades 3-12) Students

• Professional Learning-Faculty/Staff
  • Summer Reading Our Problem, Our Path: Collective Anti Racism for White People, Ali Michael and Eleonora Bartoli, Gender: Your Guide, Lee Airton, PHD, and Understanding Anti-Semitism: An Offering to Our Movement: A Resource from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice

The Office of College Counseling participated in anti-racist training specific to their field and conducted a thorough review of the college counseling process to include but not be limited to how they work with students to develop college lists. 

The College Counseling Office has long provided an annual workshop on financial aid that includes college financial aid officers; they also distribute scholarship information and advise individual families. The financial aid programming will also be part of the review of their processes. Additionally, Holton has integrated content for exploration of college choice, HBCUs, and affirmative action into the Live Well, Learn Well, Lead Well Seminar curriculum for grades 10 and 11.

For multiple years the faculty has worked in departments and cross-divisional teams to create a set of school-wide and content-specific goals and competencies to support Holton’s institutional priorities of Diversity, Wellbeing, and Global Education. Teachers researched and leveraged resources from the following organizations throughout this process: Teaching Tolerance, The Center for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, Facing History and Ourselves, The Asia Society, The International Society for Technology in Education, and national standards from discipline-specific organizations.

This has resulted in a robust set of School-Wide Learn Well, Live Well, Lead Well and Department-specific goals and competencies that inform all programs and academic classes at Holton.  This nuanced and expansive curriculum aims to reflect the students on our campus and the world around us.

The administration, program leadership, and individual departments conducted an audit of honors and advanced class placement. Informed by this audit, we reviewed, revised, and published placement policies and practices that were included in the course proposal and course planning processes. This information is included in curriculum night presentations and other communications relevant to course planning.

We also piloted a placement process based on rubrics and proficiency benchmark assessments in science and math.

The Head of School, the Upper School Director, the Dean of Students, Grade level Deans, the Director of Diversity, Wellbeing, and Global Education, and the Upper School Counselor will audit Upper School discipline by examining which students receive points and detention and the reasons for those points and detention as well as disciplinary cases that come before RA and Honor Council. This audit will inform a review of disciplinary policies and practices to align them with the Diversity Mission Statement. We will also determine where to implement restorative justice best practices.  The Administrative Team and Upper School Deans will continue Restorative Justice training. Restorative Justice practices are currently being employed in the Upper School and Middle School.

Division Directors, Director of Finance and Operations, Director of Diversity, Wellbeing & Global Education, Director of Enrollment Management, Director of Admissions, and Facilities Manager for Transportation actively review and revise bus routes and evaluating the equity of quality across the fleet of busses. Additions were made to the Prince George’s County route, and there is an ongoing examination of how we are increasing access to community-wide events for everybody.

The Admissions Department engaged in anti-bias/anti-racist education, including:

• Examining bias in a school’s admission process
• Participating in the Kirwan Institute Implicit Bias Module Series
• Taking part in individualized anti-racist work (such as reading White Fragility or, How to Be an Anti-racist or listening to the “Seeing” White podcast series)

The Admissions Office conducted a thorough audit of the admission process from an anti-racist perspective. The audit was conducted in association with the Glasgow Group and included the following changes to to the admission process:

• Eliminated external standardized testing requirements
• Implemented an in-house assessment with additional fees for applicants
• Implemented a fee waiver option for families
• Accepted teacher recommendations from pre-COVID
• Added choice in essay options to the application
• Reviewed and renewed the Financial Aid Policy Manual
• Updated Admissions Committee Application Reading Training
• Changed Focus of Admissions from fit to Learn Well, Live Well, Lead Well goals and competencies
• Assembled an admission team that included a wider variety of stakeholders

As Holton engages in the ongoing process of becoming an anti-racist institution, we will continue to seek input from various constituents. Several alumnae from the Black Alumnae Union have generously agreed to serve as an advisory committee on issues related to anti-racism. We will also continue to work with outside experts (updated list to come).