Students' reflections on their values from Upper School Community Day.
Diversity, Equity & Engagement 2024–2027 Action Plan
A commitment to DEE is at the heart of our school mission.
We believe that diversity is an essential element of Durham Academy’s identity, and that this work is not ancillary but rather core to our mission of preparing each student to live a moral, happy and productive life. It is clear now more than ever that DEE is relevant to all our work and that this work is an iterative journey, a relentless quest rather than a destination definitively reached. You will see our work and commitment come to life in how we hire faculty and staff, how we recruit students and families, how we build and nurture community and belonging, how we teach, and in our governing policies, procedures and practices.
Why This Work is Critical
Academics: DEE is a life skill our students will carry into adulthood.
We believe that embracing diversity and inspiring empathy enlivens, improves and enriches the intellectual and social environment of our school community. Direct exposure to a multiplicity of voices and perspectives woven throughout the pre-k through 12 curriculum is essential to academic success. Learning about a proliferation of ideas, backgrounds and experiences helps students to understand their own influences and beliefs, appreciate similarities and differences with others, and practice how to communicate and lead effectively in heterogeneous communities.
Belonging: Belonging is critical to academic success and personal growth.
We believe that an inclusive community that celebrates and respects each of its individual members and the value they add to the rich tapestry of families, faculty and staff at Durham Academy creates a welcoming environment for everyone to be successful.
Benefit to Everyone: DEE education creates stronger communities.
We believe that when students feel safe, accepted, affirmed and that they belong, they can then be curious about the world around them in ways that foster understanding, learning about their own identity and those of others in order to succeed as global citizens. DA alumni will utilize these same skills as they seek to strengthen the different communities they will inhabit.
Areas of Focus
This three-year DEE Action Plan includes direct instruction, empathy building, critical review, real change and accountability along four areas that together build the capacity to implement policies, programs and practices under which all members of our community feel welcomed, empowered, responsible and safe:
DEE Action Plan Initiatives
1. Admissions and Hiring (Human Capital)
Objectives
Durham Academy will cultivate a talented student body that reflects a robust variety of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and beliefs. This diverse student body should reflect the surrounding community. Similarly, DA will identify and recruit a diverse group of faculty and staff members that reflect and serve the needs of our individual learners.
Upper School history teacher Owen Bryant speaks with students in his World Cultures course.
Rationale
All students thrive when a multiplicity of voices, identities and perspectives come together authentically to solve real-world problems.
Key Action Steps
- Actively recruit and retain students, faculty and staff from underrepresented and marginalized communities.
Measures of Success
- Map and track the demographic composition of DA’s students and faculty/staff.
2. Community and Belonging (Culture and Character)
Objectives
Durham Academy is committed to increasing the diversity within our community and expanding our DEE work to ensure that all students, families, faculty and staff feel a deep sense of belonging.
Rationale
Moral, happy and productive communities must respect the dignity of each individual and feel a shared sense of responsibility for the well-being of one another.
Students partner with the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina as part of the seventh grade's opening-year service-learning experience.
Key Action Steps
- Create and maintain a successful system of support for all members of the DA community.
- Continue to ensure that a DA education and programs are accessible to students and families.
- Regularly communicate DA’s commitment to DEE and highlight annual priorities, programs and progress toward building a more inclusive community.
- Expand DEE programming to include educational opportunities for parents and caregivers.
Measures of Success
- Incorporate targeted questions into annual surveys to assess the sense of belonging reported by students, families and faculty/staff.
- Review trends in annual student bias incident reports.
3. Teaching and Learning (What and How We Teach)
Objectives
Durham Academy will ensure that what we teach reflects multiple perspectives and that the contributions of diverse peoples are embedded into curricula across all disciplines. Students develop cultural competency through positive representations of a wide variety of identities, backgrounds and perspectives. Faculty and staff develop cultural competency through professional development that supports broad empathy and successful learning environments.
Rationale
Diversity enlivens, improves and enriches the intellectual and social environment of an academic community. Amidst our diversity, we stand united in the pursuit of academic excellence and the development of individual capabilities to prepare students to engage in critical conversations and to work across differences to create connections and solutions through the exchange of ideas — critical life skills that students will carry into college and career.
First-graders share their written work with their families at the annual author celebration.
Key Action Steps
- Review current pre-k through 12 curricula to ensure the inclusion of multiple perspectives and the contributions of diverse peoples.
- Create, adopt and implement pre-k through 12 grade-level standards based on DEE transfer goals.
- Provide ongoing, systematic DEE training and support for all DA employees, students and parents/caregivers.
Measures of Success
- Audit the academic curriculum (pre-k through 12) to ensure representation of multiple perspectives.
- Collect student feedback via end-of-course student surveys.
- Track annual DEE topics related to training for faculty/staff, school leaders and trustees.
4. Governance and Leadership (Policies, Procedures and Practices)
Objectives
Durham Academy recognizes the roles that systems of power, bias and privilege can play in influencing individual and collective decisions, and the school will work to prioritize mission-aligned decisions that center diversity and equity.
Rationale
DA has reaffirmed its commitment to diversity, equity and engagement, and school leadership must model the empathy and cultural competence we wish to see schoolwide.
Parents, caregivers, faculty and staff participate in a small-group discussion at a DEE Engagement Night.
Key Action Steps
- Enhance the diversity of perspectives and backgrounds on the Board of Trustees and Administrative Team.
- Audit existing policies, practices and procedures in non-academic departments to ensure cultural competency and equity. (Athletics, Business Office, Enrollment Management, Extended Day, Facilities, Family Association, Marketing & Communications, Philanthropy, DA Summer)
- Provide ongoing, systematic DEE training, professional development and support for all school leaders and trustees.
- Create systems of accountability to measure the efficacy of DEE initiatives and training.
Measures of Success
- Map and track the demographic composition of DA’s Administrative Team and Board of Trustees.
- Present regular updates to the Board of Trustees and the broader DA community — including survey and audit results, the progress of DEE initiatives, and strategic next steps.