Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Our Mission

THE BALDWIN SCHOOL, AN INDEPENDENT COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL, DEVELOPS TALENTED GIRLS

INTO CONFIDENT YOUNG WOMEN WITH VISION, GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING AND THE COMPETENCY TO MAKE SIGNIFICANT AND ENDURING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WORLD. THE SCHOOL NURTURES OUR STUDENTS’ PASSION FOR INTELLECTUAL RIGOR IN ACADEMICS, CREATIVITY IN THE ARTS AND COMPETITION IN ATHLETICS, FORMING WOMEN CAPABLE OF LEADING THEIR GENERATION WHILE LIVING BALANCED LIVES.

The Baldwin School is committed to the continuous growth and development of our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. This work strengthens our community as home to a vibrant mix of cultures, people and perspectives, where we embrace each person as a unique individual, recognizing and celebrating our differences and similarities.

Over the last few years, Baldwin has reaffirmed its commitment to addressing the needs of all of our students, recognizing the experiences specific to our Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) community members and nurturing a healthy, safe and inclusive educational environment. All of our DEI initiatives aim to foster and model respectful engagement and open dialogue. Thoughtful DEI programming for all of our constituents helps ensure that every student is seen, heard and supported.

Baldwin is committed to strengthening its hiring, staffing and retention processes to ensure the recruitment of faculty and staff with diverse backgrounds. The goal is to ensure that faculty, staff and administrators at Baldwin represent the diversity of the student body and the world.

We look forward to implementing additional initiatives in the future. Within these pages you’ll learn of the direction Baldwin has taken to listen, enact and engage within our Baldwin community. There are also examples of ageappropriate programming within our curriculum. We invite you to learn more about our programming at baldwinschool.org/inclusion.

CURRICULUM

Baldwin has enhanced its student-facing DEI curriculum and programming across all divisions, to ensure that students learn concepts of DEI, in age-appropriate ways, throughout their time at Baldwin. Key elements include helping our girls grasp foundational understandings around identity, race and culture while navigating challenging discussions about anti-racist practices. Baldwin regularly reviews its Pre-K – Grade 12 curriculum through an audit process led by our Director of DEI, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction and the Dean of Academic Affairs. The aim of the audit is to further examine how our course readings and syllabi reflect the experiences, cultures and histories of marginalized groups, and to better understand how to address critical issues like bias, systemic racism and equity.

Lower School

For our youngest learners, our curriculum focuses on building a community of respect and kindness and celebrating our differences. As students progress through the Lower School, they learn in age-appropriate ways about different cultures and people, as well as events from the past and how injustices still occur today. With this foundation, teachers work with their students to identify ways to make change in our community and in the world. The Lower School library and classroom libraries offer a wide variety of books and authors to support this effort and help our students see and learn about themselves as well as others.

Middle School

During Middle School, Baldwin’s curriculum expands students’ DEI-related content knowledge and refines essential social-emotional skills, including perspective taking (the ability to consider how someone else may think or feel about something) and self-advocacy. The Middle School curriculum is designed to broaden the girls’ understanding of the world and their place in it. Courses employ a comparative approach as students study communities in America and around the world. Humanities courses include cultural anthropology, civics and social studies that introduce a variety of cultures, identities and experiences and discuss issues including cultural appropriation and racial inequality.

Upper School

Baldwin’s Upper School curriculum furthers this foundation by helping students practice the skills of deep inquiry, reflective thinking and respectful dialogue that are the background for productive conversations around race, equity and bias. In every grade, courses use a diverse reading list to expose students to a variety of perspectives and stories, so they can appreciate the realities of others and self. Each year, a student-led conference called Building Bridges reaffirms that Baldwin strides to provide a safe and inclusive learning environment that is absent from racism, discrimination and hate of any kind. The Building Bridges student leaders, faculty facilitators and the Director of DEI work to create a supportive and valuable experience that begins with a keynote address and concludes with small group sessions. Past themes have included solidarity and authenticity.

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

Each year, Baldwin faculty and staff attend numerous local, regional and national DEI conferences, including the renowned National Association of Independent Schools’ People of Color Conference. In 2020-21, Baldwin expanded its professional development programs by partnering with various experts and programs that specialize in negotiating racial conflict and racial literacy in schools. Baldwin has provided regular workshops for all faculty and staff, programming for the Board of Trustees and a full year of mandatory training on DEI topics including bias, micro and macro aggressions, white fragility and research on the experiences of BIPOC students in independent schools.

Baldwin faculty also launched a Building Anti-Racist White Educators (BARWE) group, where community members meet monthly to discuss how to build anti-racist systems in our school context to fully nurture the social, emotional and academic well-being of all our students and support the professional wellbeing of colleagues.

PARENT ENGAGEMENT

Listening sessions with parents and alumnae were an important opportunity for Baldwin to engage with community members and learn from their perspectives and lived experiences around issues of DEI. These conversations inspired much of the work underway for our students and teachers, as well as a number of new programs for the wider community.

The Baldwin School Parents’ Association chose the Baldwin DEI Fund as a priority for the largest parent-fundraising event. The parents’ tremendous support will help fund DEI programs that include speakers and special events. The Parents of Black Students Association, newly formed in 2020-21 by parents, launched an impactful workshop series called Courageous Conversations: By Parents, For Parents. The group also organizes a number of events to celebrate Black History Month. Students, parents and community members came together for performances and facilitated conversations.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

There has been significant effort put toward centralizing and accounting for all of the thoughtful DEI-related events happening at Baldwin. DEI planning spans throughout the entirety of the Baldwin community with events specifically targeted to students, faculty and staff, parents and alumnae.

The goal remains to implement and further support sustainable changes while learning how to work on tension points with kindness, honesty and intellect. Everyone in the Baldwin community is encouraged to be mindful and considerate of unexpected intersectionalities and to highlight and honor our differences.

A variety of events are held throughout the year to engage the community in the School’s DEI efforts, including:

• DEI-related field trips for students

• Faculty and staff attendance at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) People of Color Conference

• Student attendance at the NAIS Student Diversity Leadership Conference

• Professional development DEI workshops for faculty and staff

• Asian Cultural Celebration

• Martin Luther King Jr. Assembly and service opportunities

• Holocaust Remembrance Assembly

• Building Bridges Conference

• Parent engagement events, such as “Compassion is the Engine of Belonging,” where parents learn about the science of compassion and belonging and how they can contribute to the values-driven work already underway at Baldwin