Lakeside School

Lakeside's Admissions Team hosts "admissions-focused gatherings for students and families who identify as Black/African/African American, Hispanic/Latino/a/x, or LGBTQIA+." At the events, prospective students and families can "hear from current students, parents and guardians, and alumni who share these identities about their Lakeside experience." 

In 2020-2021, the diversity, equity, and inclusion team led "a schoolwide professional development program focused on connection and intergroup dialogue; recent professional development topics for faculty included white privilege, equitable grading, and the impacts of redlining."

Students in the Middle and Upper schools "regularly participate in developmentally appropriate, structured dialogues with their peers regarding aspects of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging." The school mentions several examples including "bi-annual retreats and other activities," which aim to "increase awareness, conversation, and action about a wide spectrum of socio-political issues, including those pertaining to race, gender, and class."

The school stated, "We have developed and communicated regularly about an extensive catalog of professional development opportunities, websites, articles, and books for faculty to use to investigate their implicit biases and evaluate their curriculum and pedagogy (teaching practices)." It continued, "All faculty engage in professional development in the areas of inclusion, equity, and justice, and submit reflections on how they use an inclusive pedagogy in their teaching."

In 7th Grade American History, students read “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You.” Furthermore, "students apply and extend this learning by creating their own narratives that detail other marginalized groups’ challenges, contributions, and progress."

In 2024, a school article titled "Racial Education at Lakeside: Examining the Past, Present and Future" examined "Lakeside’s approach to racial education."  According to the Upper School Director, "racial education curricula is structured off of their community expectations, as well as the belief that racially diverse communities are richer when all participants respect and honor each other’s values." The article concluded, "the ultimate goal of racial education is to promote understanding and to inspire action."

The school states, "We continue to move toward a curriculum with diverse perspectives, materials, and texts, in which all our students can see their backgrounds and experiences" and "We are committed to addressing biases, stereotypes, inaccuracies, and absent perspectives in curricular content."

In the School's 5-12th Human Development and Health Department, "the curriculum was designed using a DEIB lens and students learn about systems of power and oppression as it relates to wellness and identity development."

According to the 2024-2025 Middle School Curriculum, the 8th Grade "Foundations of the Modern World" course "requires students to bring an equity and inclusion lens, to develop their ethical mindsets, and to layer a sustainability mindset into each unit of study."

Lakeside announced it would "roll out a reporting tool and system that enables students and adults to report incidents of racial bias and aggression." The tool was the "result of a year’s worth of work by the employee oversight committee, including sessions with experts and educational leaders in equity and inclusion work to collect information about strategies and pitfalls related to employee oversight... One takeaway was the challenges that students and adults of color face in reporting racial bias and aggressions." The tool's "focus will be on support and helping build our community as a safe space."

According to the 2023-2024 Lakeside Family Handbook, bias incidents are defined as "comments, aggressions, slurs, 'jokes,' pictures, objects, threats, physical contact or gestures, intimidation, and other actions not aligned with our Statement of Community Expectations; institutionally or culturally racist and biased policies, practices, and norms; and unequal or biased treatment based on any of the protected categories listed in this policy." It also includes behaviors and actions "that are not intentional but result in harm." The school also has a bias incident reporting form.

The school stated, "Lakeside’s teachers participate in ongoing education and training in the areas of diversity and equity in curriculum and teaching practices. We strive to foster inclusive and equitable classrooms..."

The school has made several efforts to help with the "recruiting, hiring, and retaining faculty of color." Ongoing DEI initiatives for faculty include "robust anti-bias training," "improving our onboarding and mentoring programs for new faculty," and "cultivating leadership and advancement for employees of color, including regular meetings for all faculty with division directors."

Educators at Lakeside "receive extensive professional development on equitable pedagogy" and "actively seek to understand their own implicit biases, use a broad range of pedagogies, and incorporate diverse perspectives into their curricula." The school states it is "adding time and space for faculty to practice and implement inclusive teaching practices in curricula, activities, assessment practices, etc."

Administrators and DEIB team members work with departments and faculty to "ensure they are progressing toward culturally responsive teaching." Furthermore, the team supports "teachers’ skills in teaching with a culturally responsive lens and adopting equitable assessment practices."

On August 6, 2020, Lakeside posted a letter on its Facebook page, outlining its plans to integrate anti-racism in its curriculum.

According to the 2024-2025 DEI info card, the school hosts many Affinity Groups for Upper and Middle Schools including "Multicultural Initiators experiencing and Encouraging Diversity" and "Lakeside Anti-Racist Students."

In 2023, an article titled "Students Say They Want DEI in Course Selections. Registration Says Otherwise." was published in the school paper. It reported on issues with DEI classes not running due to "low enrollment." The article noted, “We have an interesting tension since we know students and adults want more diversity in our curriculum, and when new courses are proposed, students often seem a little shy to try something new because they don’t know what it is.”

Students in the Upper and Middle Schools attend "regional and national conferences focused on DEIB, including the annual Northwest Association of Independent Schools’ Student Diversity Leadership Retreat."

Lakeside is a member of the "People of Color Seattle: a consortium of schools, within the Northwest Association of Independent Schools, that exists to help people of color thrive in independent schools." The consortium hosts an annual "Virtual Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series" which "provides opportunities to connect, learn, and engage in topics around equity, inclusion, and antiracist education and action."

Several classes in the Upper School 2024-2025 curriculum cover topics such as "structural racism," "social justice," "environmental racism" and "racism against indigenous populations."

On August 5, 2020, Lakeside tweeted a letter discussing its commitments to becoming an anti-racist school.

On June 5, 2020, Lakeside posted a letter from the Student Government president on Facebook, responding to the death of George Floyd and others. This post was also featured on its Twitter account.

On June 1, 2020, Lakeside announced on Facebook, “We cannot and must not turn away from realities such as racism and the continuing violence against Black people in our country.” This post was also featured on its Twitter account.

On July 10, 2020, Lakeside released a statement on Instagram, saying it is dedicated to resolving “systemic racism and bias.”

The school has a list of terms and definitions for concepts such as "equity" and "anti racist."

The school's 2024-2025 mission statement states, "We are committed to sustaining a school in which individuals representing diverse cultures and experiences instruct one another in the meaning and value of community and in the joy and importance of lifelong learning."