St. Mark’s School

The school has an ongoing initiative that aims to "increase the diversity of its applicant pool" by "collaborating with programs that promote access both nationally and internationally."

The school had student-led workshops, such as “Tracing the Roots of Colorism," “A Privilege ‘Walk’,” and "“Navigating Blackness vs. Whiteness."

The school hosts a "White Privilege Conference" that "examines challenging concepts of privilege and oppression and offers solutions and team building strategies to work toward a more equitable world." The conference is "open to everyone and invites diverse perspectives to provide a comprehensive look at issues of privilege including: race, gender, sexuality, class, disability, etc. - the ways we all experience some form of privilege, and how we're all affected by that privilege."

According to the strategic plan, the school has ongoing specialized trainings and initiatives to "eliminate unconscious bias in admissions."

The school has implemented "principles of inclusion and cultural awareness" into the Summer's onboarding program in order to "enhance support for students of all identities."

The head of school announced that the school "will incorporate antiracism content more fully into the St. Mark's curriculum" and "will incorporate antiracism practice more fully into all elements of our educational program outside the classroom."

The school "Completed more intentional antiracist curriculum work, such as developing a IV Form English course focusing on social justice identity development, and an environmental science course unit on vulnerability of Black and Brown Americans to COVID-19 due to urban inequity."

According to the strategic plan, the school has the priority to "integrate principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion throughout the curriculum." It has done this by ensuring that "the student reads texts by authors of marginalized communities... at every grade level."

According to its strategic plan, the school has an ongoing initiative to "evolve [its] curriculum to celebrate diversity and examine how the powers dynamics of race, religion, and sexual identity have shaped society and culture."

The school has a bias incident reporting form "to collect instances of insensitivity, bias, and discrimination." The information will be used "to monitor the campus climate, inform training, program planning, and policy development."

"Faculty and staff members will engage in mandatory antiracist professional development programming," the school announced, "Every year, all faculty and staff members will participate in at least one daylong on-campus professional development program on race. In addition, all faculty will be required to attend a regional or national diversity conference at least every three years."

The school has created an Office of Community and Equity, which "creates the conditions for this kind of self-discovery and growth through programs and initiatives that help every student better appreciate their many identities, as well as the identities of their peers and classmates."

The school launched its Antiracist Strategic Plan, which will "bring us closer to our goal of becoming an antiracist institution."

The school created an "Anti-Racism Task Force" to "identify action steps for St. Mark’s to take both inside and outside the classroom so that St. Mark’s is an antiracist school."

The school's magazine listed Ibram X. Kendi's "How to be an Antiracist" and Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility" on its reading list.

The school created a "Board of Trustees Antiracism: Community and Equity Committee to oversee the School’s progress in its advance to doing the ongoing work of becoming an antiracist school community."

A writer for the school paper, The St. Marker, said that, "This year’s C&E day centered around anti-racism. Although not all 13 student-led workshops on the C&E day may have included the word race in their titles, all of them certainly had an influence in promoting anti-racism in our community, in one way or another."

The school has a pathway group called "white.space" where white faculty and students can "explore their racial identity." The group also encourages "discussion around the various challenges and opportunities facing white faculty and students who recognize issues of equity at St. Mark's and in the world."

The school held a Community and Equity Day.

The school states that it must "become an anti-racist institution." In order to "make good on the promise of equity" that has "always been part of [their] mission," the school launched a "community-wide antiracism initiative."

In 2022, the school hired "Promise54, a leading firm specializing in inclusivity consulting for nonprofit organizations, and Dr. Heather Sanders, a DEI leadership coach and strategist," to complete an equity audit for the school. St. Mark's stated that the audit would be used to "target areas of our programming and school life where we can further promote inclusivity and equity."