Marlborough School

The school announced, "Starting in the 2020-2021 school year, Marlborough will no longer accept the ISEE or SSAT standardized tests for admissions." The school believes that these tests "historically contributed to inequity on multiple levels."

The school's 2020-2025 strategic plan states it commits to "transforming our community so that equity is at the heart of a Marlborough education." It plans to do this through "active recruitment," to "build a student community that more closely reflects the diversity and culture of [the] city."

The school announced, "All new students joining the Marlborough community participate in the Violets 101 orientation program, through which equity and inclusion is an intentional throughline. Each day includes a component that builds on their skills in this realm, including identity work, an opportunity to experience affinity groups, and role playing situations when harm is done and how to repair that harm."

The school offers an "Honors Humanities Seminar: Theories & Politics of Race." The course description partly reads, "Putting these personal experiences in conversation with scholarship on race, we will examine the multiple ways in which our lives are racialized. What is the relationship between race and nation-building? Is our legal system racially codified? What is cultural appropriation? How do socio-economic inequalities get organized along racial lines? What does racial justice look like?"

The school said that it must infuse the "overarching lens of antiracism" into "each classroom, conversation, program, and process."

The school aims to embed "intellectual inquiry related to race, ethnicity, class, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation throughout" the curriculum to "place all students’ voices at the heart of our work."

Marlborough has an "Inclusive Curriculum and Classroom Environment." The school leaders "continuously review the curriculum to enhance this diversity, featuring diversity in authors in English, complex identities in History, and society’s biggest challenges in STEM." Furthermore, "student voices are integral in shaping our materials and frameworks, ensuring [the curriculum] mirrors the world around us." 

The school is "currently conducting an audit of the student discipline process, including renaming it to focus more on restorative practices than punishment, as well as doing a thorough inventory of all school policies using the racist/antiracist lens." Additionally, the school is establishing "a tracking system for incidents of racism and response."

As of January 2025, the school announced it is searching for a new director of equity, community, and belonging who will serve as "head of the Social Justice and Community Partnerships Department." The new director "will be a key resource and strategic planner for DEI efforts across the school" and will "lead efforts to foster a culture of belonging, consulting on curriculum, student programs, parent engagement, and professional development initiatives."

One year's tuition is over $50,000 a year; however, the school states, "Marlborough wants, and is committed to, having a diverse community that reflects greater Los Angeles." As of 2025, "one in five Marlborough students receives financial assistance." The awards range from 5%-100% and can cover other expenses as well. The school includes a financial aid distribution chart which shows that 36% of financial aid recipient families make over $300k a year.

The 2020-2025 strategic plan's commitment to equity states it will "conduct a strategic assessment of the financial aid program and expand access in line with needs expressed in the applicant pool, ensuring no financial barrier stands between any qualified student and a Marlborough education."

The school said, "We commit to transforming our community so that equity is at the heart of a Marlborough education."

The school has student-led affinity groups. The school said of the groups, "Work around equity within diversity is best demonstrated through our affinity groups...These groups openly take on the tremendous responsibility of presenting themes around diversity, equity, and inclusion to the entire school. Within the last two years they have bravely presented, speaking from personal experience, on the topics of microaggressions and identity intersectionality."

Marlborough’s Social Justice and Counseling Departments hosted "a healing circle for all students in early June 2020."

The school's community-based partnerships "closely reflect the diversity and culture of our city." The school is partnered with the Independent School Alliance "to address issues of racial diversity and multicultural education." It is also partnered with the Private School Axis which "opens up new avenues for students and families of color to access paths to success while navigating the independent school system."

The school is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It states "Equity isn’t just a word—it’s our driving force."