The Roadmap in Action

The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEI&B) Roadmap includes an overview of action steps towards each of the priorities in the Diversity Mission Statement and Holton’s ongoing commitment to anti-racist education.

For a more detailed summary of progress through August 2021, please enjoy the full report.

Diversity

Recruit and Hire a Diverse Faculty and Staff

In the 2019-2020 School year, 14% of faculty identified as people of color. While this percentage is comparable to local independent school peers outside the District of Columbia, because we know our students will benefit, we are committed to increasing the diversity of our faculty. Half of our 2020-2021 school year new hires identified as people of color.

Equity

Hold Ourselves Accountable

A core feature of our roadmap is developing inclusive School policies that the entire School community can internalize and hold one another accountable to. This year we amended several of School policies and statements to ensure we were living into our DEI&B mission.

Those policy updates include:

Updates to the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Statement & the additions of the Principles of Dialogue statement

In spring of 2021, the DEI&B committee of the Board of Trustees worked together to revisit and refine the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Statement and to compose the Principles of Dialogue. These two documents will work in tandem, the statement serves to articulate our commitment to foster a deep sense of belonging for all members of the community and the Principles of Dialogue Statement communicates the steps we will take in all learning environments to realize that commitment.

Updates to the Honor Code

By implementing Holton’s Diversity Mission Statement and anti-racism policies in conjunction with the Honor Council system, the Holton-Arms School demonstrates that students should “be accountable for the impact of [their] words and actions on others” (as stated in the Diversity Mission Statement). Students may not engage in behavior or language (oral, written, or virtual) that is demeaning, dehumanizing, degrading, or harmful toward individuals or social groups that students may belong to or identities that they may hold, inside or outside of the Holton community.

Addition of the N-Word and Derogatory Epithet Policy

Updating the Employee Contract and Employee Handbook

Policy Against Racism and Racist or Oppressive Language or Behavior

Parent/Guardian Enrollment Contract

The Holton Board of Trustees' Steadfast Commitment

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.

On the education front, the Board:

engaged in several Reading and Discussion Groups. Readings included White Fragility, Whistling Vivaldi, Push Out, How to Be Anti-Racist, Why Are the Black Kids Sitting Together in Cafeteria? Seeing White Podcast
in conjunction with the entire school - read Stamped: Racism, Anti-racism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi
participated in two 90-minute faculty-led Learning Sessions on Anti-Racism and Implicit Bias; these included readings from and jam sessions around “America’s Enduring Caste System”, “Monopoly”, “Racial Equity Impact Assessment Guide”, Miseducation of American Elites: and numerous others.

On the policy and execution front, the Board worked with each of its Committees to identify, establish, and make progress on at least one anti-racist goal for the 2020-2021 school year. These include:

The 403 B Committee put in place sessions aimed at increasing financial literacy and understanding of the 403 B for all employees, particularly those from underrepresented communities.
The Advancement Committee is 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, giving society programs and policies and procedures for dissemination of prospect information)
The Audit Committee’s primary anti-racist objective for 2020-2021 is to begin 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 will:
- 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 is to ensure 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, 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 will increase Board diversity by nominating at least one ethnically and/or racially diverse candidate for the 2021-22 slate.
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.

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.

Inclusion

Review & Revise the College Counseling Approach

In the fall, 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.

READ MORE about the updated college counseling mission and philosophy.

Review & Revise Curriculum

Over the course of the past six years, faculty 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 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.

Throughout the 2020 Summer, teachers reviewed curricular units and courses to support Holton’s priorities of Diversity, Wellbeing, and Global Education through the integration of the Learn Well, Live Well, Lead Well, and Departmental goals and competencies. This process centered on inclusive content, issues of social justice, and authentic ways for students to take action.

Review & Revise Acceleration, Honors, and Advanced Placement

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 for the School year 2021-2022. This information was 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.

Review & Revise Discipline Trends and Policies

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 throughout 2021-2022. Restorative Justice practices are currently being employed in the Upper School and Middle School.

Review & Revise Transportation Routes

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 are actively reviewing and revising 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. Please note that COVID-19 may significantly delay any major transportation changes.

Review & Revise Admissions Process

During School Year 2020-21, 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 admissions process from an anti-racist perspective. The audit was conducted in association with the Glasgow Group and included the following changes to to the admissions 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

Belonging

Increase and Support Mentoring

Holton is committed to hosting safe spaces for our students, parents, and alumnae to connect with peers from similar backgrounds and life experiences. Learn more about our affinity and allied spaces.

Ongoing Advice and Consultation

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, particularly The Glasgow Group (Admissions), Ali Michael (Parent Association-sponsored trainings for families), Racial Equity Institute (Professional Development for all Faculty, Staff and Senior Administrators), as well as peer diversity practitioners at the Wells Collective (Senior Admin/Alumnae).

Our Plan