2025 Progress Report on Anti-Bias Recommendations
While the work of creating a diverse community that meets its needs for equity, inclusion and justice is necessarily ongoing, we are proud to share some of the below accomplishments from the year. Stay connected for future updates.
Clarify Sequoyah School’s institutional vision, philosophy, and mission for DEIJ.
- DEIJ language and policies have been reviewed and revised in school handbooks to ensure consistent understanding across the community.
- Leadership Team members established personal and team DEIJ goals in August, with regular progress reviews scheduled throughout the academic year.
Establish clear responsibilities for DEIJ in program design and position descriptions.
- K-8 faculty have adopted a distributed model of responsibility to ensure we are celebrating heritage months and cultural holidays throughout the year.
- A dedicated K-8 faculty committee has developed a comprehensive scope and sequence for social-emotional learning and DEIJ skills to ensure consistent instruction across grade levels.
- The school hosted seven family affinity potlucks in fall, with spring programming currently being developed in collaboration with affinity group conveners. Opportunities for affinity-based engagement have increased from casual get togethers to facilitated discussions.
- Bias incident protocols have been revised in handbooks and communicated directly to students to ensure clarity and consistent application.
- An identity-conscious pairing process has been implemented for new faculty to support their integration into the community.
- Administrative teams continue to enhance recruitment, hiring, and onboarding processes through anti-bias training and equity-focused practices.
Articulate expectations for baseline DEIJ fluency for community members and support ongoing practice and growth.
- Administrative leadership participated in professional development with educator Lauren Porosoff focused on integrating DEIJ principles into everyday practices rather than treating them as separate initiatives.
- Ongoing collaboration with progressive educator Monique Marshall provides teachers with specialized consultation to reimagine curriculum units through an anti-bias lens.
- School counselor and DEIJ team members have developed a three-step framework for respectful dialogue, accompanied by practical strategies that are being shared through student-created resources.
- High school Equity Alliance students created a DEIJ glossary with accompanying Advisory lesson plans to build common language and understanding across the school community.
- The high school hosted interfaith leaders Aziza Hassan and Rabbi Susan Goldberg for community conversations about solidarity, conflict resolution, and respectful dialogue.
- Staff members attended the NAIS People of Color Conference to gather insights on topics such as, disciplinary reporting, inclusive fundraising, and HR/DEI collaborations that inform our practices.
- The DEIJ team maintains active participation in a network of independent school DEIJ practitioners, ensuring our approaches reflect current best practices and legal considerations.
- Faculty teams have developed student competencies as part of our mastery framework for positive identity formation, conflict resolution, and upstanding behavior to guide instruction and assessment.
Build an internal system to track vital data about DEIJ in design and demonstration.
- The school is reviewing recommendations from the “Data-Informed Decision Making” guide by the Center for Institutional Research in Independent Schools to strengthen DEIJ initiatives.
- A comprehensive demographic dashboard has been created for internal use by lead administrators to visualize community data including race, geography, language, and gender to inform decision-making and resource allocation.
- Analysis of nine years of enrollment data in Sequoyah Advanced Studies courses is underway to examine gender diversity patterns and inform program development.
- A secure platform has been adopted for confidential documentation and tracking of discipline and bias incidents to identify patterns and measure progress.