“Walking the talk” of equity and inclusion

“I don't think the binary of humanities versus STEM is as strict of a line as people think,” Grace said. “STEM-focused stuff can have lots of humanities elements to it, like ethics or social bias.”

To Paull, although the STEM elements of Nueva, such as labs and robotics, are often more visible, that doesn’t make humanities any less worth celebrating.

“Embrace it, celebrate it, see it, hear it—[the humanities are] just as invigorating, just as necessary, just as deeply influential,” Paull urged. “I would argue that someone’s interpretation of Cornelius is just as alive as the kelp in the fridge.”

Nueva’s anti-bias hiring approach aligns with its values of diversity, equity, and inclusion

A candidate for a teaching position joins a Zoom meeting for an interview. Soon, instead of discussing the candidate’s experiences in biology, the conversation pivots to the fact that both the candidate and the interviewer went to the same university. And now, they have the same dogs. That must mean they’re better fit for the role, right?

Megan Terra, lower school Division

Head, began researching anti-bias hiring and attending professional development events with former Director of Equity and Inclusion Alegria Barclay for the past several years. The program was piloted at Nueva in 2019; since then, faculty have continued iterating it while training in bias recognition. Nueva has also been in dialogue with other institutions and independent schools to continue developing its approach.

The current practice involves setting up diverse hiring committees of faculty members and rubrics with specific criteria that align to the job description. The candidate interviews conducted by committee members follow the same set of questions to discover the individual who best demonstrates the pre-established attributes and ensuring every candidate has as similar an experience as possible—including how the committee judges their resumes, conducts their interviews, and observes their demo lessons.

“The broader work that we’ve been engaged in as a school has been around how we can make sure that our equity, social justice, diversity, and inclusion practices are reflected not only in our curriculum and community, but also in our systems and structures,” Terra explained.

According to Terra, the program ensures a “clearer sense of the [hiring] process and its goals.”

Terra wants to form a policy that allows the community to “walk its talk in terms of values” and models equity, inclusion, and diversity.

To achieve that, people must recognize their implicit biases, which is innately human.

“We have to institute some policies that get in the way of our own biases because if we don’t interrupt our biases, we can’t stop them even if we want to,” said Liza Raynal, upper school Division Head.

Research has discovered that simply reading a person’s name—whether it reads as female, male, non-white or white—impacts one’s perception of them.

“If you see the name of a person and it’s the same name as your best friend, you can’t help what happens in your mind,” said Jehnna Ronan, upper school science teacher and a hiring committee member. “You get a little warm, fuzzy feeling.”

This “warm, fuzzy feeling” has its benifits and drawbacks.

“In many ways, bias is extremely functional because our brains are setting up these ways to help us make quick decisions,” Terra said, “but conditions us to put a check on our thought patterns.”

Ronan recognizes the value of asking each candidate the same questions in order to avoid biases that may harm the process.

“[In asking] the same questions of every candidate, they have more of an even playing field to show you what they know and what they can do,” Ronan said.

In her early experiences with anti-bias practices, Raynal recognized the threat of becoming overly rigid in interviews.

“We need to also have room to follow up on questions, ask the questions you need to ask because people are still people and they come with all their beautiful complexities,” Raynal said.

Having experienced the anti-bias practice as a candidate, Strong appreciated the “coordinated” nature of the process. While it felt “regimented” at times, Strong ultimately felt grateful for the process’ structure.

“It was clear I was following the same arc as everyone else,” she shared.

At other institutions without anti-bias protocols, Strong feels advantaged in some ways and disadvantaged in others.

“As a Black woman, there are ways in which my narrative gets constructed before I enter the room,” she said. “That’s something that I have to do a lot of work around combating.” is to create an environment of “care and belonging” at school.

An anti-bias system attempts to prevent this situation.

“One of the best ways for students to be seen, known, and understood and therefore stretched, challenged, and successful is by having somebody they can connect to,” she said.

Strong agrees, knowing diversity, equity, and inclusion are the foundation of learning and that representation in the classroom allows for students with marginalized identities to thrive.

“If students don’t feel valued and affirmed, they’re wildly distracted in the classroom,” she said. “I know from being a teacher that it was hard for my students to learn until they knew I cared about who they were and that I respected them.”

Similarly, Ronan recognizes the importance of anti-bias practices in upholding Nueva’s vision for equity.

“The objective is to make sure we don’t have a narrow view of what a good fit at Nueva is,” she said. “Once we decide to welcome people in the community, we want to accept them fully. That’s the point of Beloved Community—you come as you are, and we work you in.”

Achieving a Beloved Community takes time, courage, and continual effort, as does the transition toward a full anti-bias hiring practice.

“There are aspects of hiring where you have to be pretty agile and move quickly as candidates are applying to other places too,” Terra said, “but it’s so important to make sure we’re clear about which structures we can’t surpass because they do uphold the values we have to be really aware of how bias can play into unfairness.”

In order to become more aware of such implicit biases, faculty have attended educational workshops and training to reflect on their biases and explore resources on how bias operates. Beyond the hiring process, teachers have considered how implicit biases impact the classroom and student work.

“The human brain is conditioned to make patterns,” said Savannah Strong, Director of Social Justice and Equity. “What becomes a challenge is when we begin to think the pattern is a rule. Engaging in anti-bias practices

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