Living Our Mission Out Loud

By Michelle Belton, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Can you picture a place, a school, that was created to be a community that respects and honors the diversity and uniqueness of every individual? As a young adult interviewing for a job in 1990, I certainly couldn’t. Imagine my surprise and wonder as I learned about a school that encouraged students to use their words and listened when they spoke. A place that recognizes young people for all they are and hope to be? Yes, please! Can I work here?

That was over 30 years ago, and Lowell still holds a sense of magic and wonder for me and the thousands of educators, students, and families who have been a part of this special community.

It Started with a Vision

A commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion woven into the fabric of our school should not be a surprise, given the history and mission.

When Lowell began in 1965, it was a nursery school created by educators and families who felt a new approach to education was necessary. As you know, 1965 was a time of civil unrest that demanded our country live into its ideals of democracy. Beginning a school with socially just and enriching educational experiences was not easy, but at Lowell, inclusion, agency, and belonging have always been significant components of student success and fulfillment. That ideal extends to the adult community of teachers, parents, and staff, making Lowell a place where the complexity of human diversity is recognized, and the community works together to ensure everyone feels valued, seen, and included.

The intentionality behind this work began in 1992 with the formation of the Diversity Committee of the Board of Trustees. The early mission of this committee was to “...assist the Lowell community in its efforts to create and maintain an equitable school environment…” holding that “...an environment that actively promotes mutual understanding of differences will enrich the school climate and enhance social and cognitive development.” The committee began by working to highlight real-life examples of the school mission in action, ranging from multicultural education through music and movement to parent educational programming on race and racism to faculty participation at the People of Color Conference.

Building Our Foundation

While those efforts were vital to sustaining and generating a vision for Lowell’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, in 2010, a more strategic approach was undertaken by implementing the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism (AIM). This self-assessment and climate survey is built on the principles of appreciative inquiry. While we were one of the first schools to implement it, AIM is now regularly used by independent schools across the country.

From the knowledge gained as a part of that work, the DEI Committee developed a number of goals, including:

■ Cultivating a community that continually challenges itself to live up to its values of diversity and inclusion;

■ Providing an outstanding diversity education program with a curriculum for students, training for teachers, staff, administrators, and board members, and a coordinated series of educational opportunities for parents;

■ Providing all children a safe learning environment that reflects the values of diversity and inclusion;

■ Ensuring the school’s recruitment, hiring, and retention practices further the ongoing pursuit of having a diverse faculty, staff, administration, and Board of Trustees; and

■ Effectively communicating and promoting diversity practices, initiatives, and values to internal and external communities.

In the decade since their adoption, Lowell has used those goals as guideposts, allowing us to initiate and embed critical diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into our practice. You see the results of this work in many ways, ranging from our adoption of Social Justice Standards from Learning for Justice and implementation of a Seeking Educational Equity, and Diversity (SEED) program for teachers and staff, to creating a Gender Policy and corresponding implementation training for staff and development of protocols for acknowledging and addressing hiring bias.

In addition, we created a new full-time position, now known as the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Initiatives, to ensure that direct and intentional attention and action would always be at the forefront of planning and programming at Lowell. This position was made part of the Administrative Team, reporting directly to the Head of the School, to reinforce the importance of the work and the school’s commitment. I am so proud to have served in this role since its inception.

Not only have we been able to manage the implementation of Lowell’s first DEI Strategic Plan, we have also launched and supported parent affinity groups, including groups for Lowell Parents of Students of Color and Learning Differences and Neurodiversity. We’ve supported faculty and staff through professional development opportunities and planning support, families through speakers and educational opportunities, and the broader Lowell community through multicultural curriculum auditing and creation, as well as recruitment and retention support for admissions and hiring. We also worked with the Board Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee to update our DEI vision statement in 2018 to speak to the evolution of DEI at Lowell and the aspirational hopes we have for our students.

Lowell's first DEI newsletter, published in June 2000

A Blueprint for the Future

Lowell is not immune to the world surrounding us, but I have been reenergized to see our community’s willingness to self-reflect on accomplishments and the areas where work must still be done. When the country was grappling with the death of George Floyd and so many others, we decided it was time to examine and look deeply at our practices and efforts that support, lift up, and celebrate our community. In 2021, we again partnered with NAIS to implement an AIM assessment. This was the first step in building Lowell’s new Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

The process included many focus groups with families, employees, and others, an online survey including responses from our students and much internal reflection. Statements gathered during the process reflect the complexity of diverse experiences at Lowell but also help to remind us of how important it is to continue our efforts toward being an inclusive school community.

To that end, in the 2021–2022 school year, the Board DEI committee deeply and purposefully reviewed the wealth of data gathered in the AIM process. They acted as a sounding board to determine strategic priorities that would add to our school-wide DEI initiatives. The Committee used a structured protocol in their review that included asking targeted questions.

■ What is the data telling us? What is factual about the data?

■ What does the data suggest?

■ What are the implications for DEI practice?

■ What has been affirmed?

■ What strengths can we leverage in supporting our efforts?

■ What else would you like to see happen?

They used each monthly meeting, from October to March, to further analyze the data, delineate responses into areas of strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats, and determine the implications for Lowell. In that work, the committee found four general areas or themes that connected the data: Governance, Community Engagement, Advancement, and Program. They developed specific goals and objectives for each area to guide the DEI office in the next few years.

As we begin another school year at Lowell, this new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan will serve as our guide for continuing to build bridges and links across our community. Our past work, combined with this strategy, will help Lowell continue to weave DEI into the very fabric of everything we do. By working together as a community, we can live Lowell’s mission out loud for the benefit of all.

Note of Thanks: I want to thank the students, families, faculty, staff, and alums who shared their experiences, ideas, and hopes for our work ahead. We are excited to see how the coming work will shape the future of Lowell, and I look forward to sharing our progress.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan

GOVERNANCE

Goal: Implement a process of viewing Board of Trustees governance through a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens.

Objectives:

■ Develop a budget allocation process that expresses the school’s commitment to equity, inclusion, and belonging.

■ Develop strategies to have Trustees connect to the broader Lowell community.

■ Research possibilities for making the school campus more physically accessible.

COMMUNITY

Goal: Continue to strengthen Lowell’s culture and climate to be an inclusive community fully.

Objectives:

■ Design and implement a system of assessing the morale of all constituent groups.

■ Improve the process for communicating about school policies.

■ Support community members as they continue growing in their fluency of cultural competency.

■ Utilize allies across our constituent groups to expand diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging work and push growth.

■ Create and sustain affinity spaces for adults and students to align with the school’s mission with clear organizational structures and stated purpose.

■ Continue to evolve parent education and involvement.

■ Continue to evolve the onboarding process for new families.

ADVANCEMENT

Goal: Optimize and implement strategies to best communicate all aspects of a Lowell experience for students and community members.

Objectives:

■ Center voices beyond the standard facets of diversity (intersectionality).

■ Debunk the perception that those close to leadership, wealth, and tenure influence school policy.

■ Communicate efforts to increase human diversity and indicate measures of growth.

■ Develop a communication process to fully articulate Lowell’s beliefs and practice supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging via all communication channels.

■ Determine a process to keep the community centered on our diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging vision during all gatherings and parent meetings.

■ Communicate the profile of a thriving Lowell student.

PROGRAM

Goal: Implement structures to ensure that all student programming aligns with Lowell’s mission and philosophy.

Objectives:

■ Establish documented guidelines for age-appropriate curriculum.

■ Establish ongoing processes for reviewing the curriculum and for increasing diversity and representation across the curriculum.

■ Develop consistent and measurable cultural competency training for faculty and staff.

■ Establish guidelines for teacher evaluation that include diversity, equity, and inclusion-related goals.

■ Continue to incorporate the Social Justice Standards across grades and disciplines.

■ Research and implement a social-emotional curriculum to proactively address teasing behaviors.