The Thacher School

Thacher’s mission is to train young people in the art of living for their own greatest good and for the greatest good of their fellow citizens in a diverse and changing world.

This requires a constant (re)commitment to the values of our school: Honor, Fairness, Kindness, and Truth for each and every member of our extensive community. This dashboard represents that commitment to those values as well as transparency. In listening to our alums, and with the partnership of our extensive community (including faculty, staff, and student contributions), we enlisted the help of Hinderlie and Associates to perform a diversity, equity, and inclusion climate assessment of Thacher's practices, culture, and policies.

The following is the culmination of all of this work, a distilled list of areas we continue to work on. This list of aims is not meant to be set in stone, rather it is a tool for accountability that will continue to evolve as we continue our growth as an inclusive space for education. The work never ends, and is a monumental task, but it is work that is always worth doing.

External Accountability

AIMS	PROGRESS	DESCRIPTION/NOTES
Support for Multicultural outreach position	Active, Ongoing	Increased scope of position on Admissions team, greater support by other members of the office.
Building external partnerships to support marginalized communities	Active, Ongoing	Establishing partnerships with organizations such as Building Bridges, giving students opportunities to go to places like Black College Expo.
More nuanced outward facing data on diversity at Thacher	Started	Creating more detailed visualizations of diversity at Thacher in accordance with Admissions and Student Life.
Utilizing alumni relationships to broaden diverse recruitment	Planning Stage	Using alumni network to increase multicultural recruitment efforts.
Building ongoing BIPOC and LGBTQ+ networks	Planning Stage	Working with BIPOC and LGBTQ+ alumni to determine need for affinity spaces, events, and community groups, learning from other schools and universities who do this well, implementing new strategies.
Offer workshops to parents on DEI related topcis	Started	Facilitating Family Affinity groups, offering Zoom workshops on various topics of concern such as AI and learning, etc.
Diversify the board and other external Thacher groups	Active, Ongoing	Ensuring diverse range of perspectives on Board of Trustees, Board committees, Alumni Council, Class Representatives and other volunteers who work with the school.
Acknowledge limitations of support for students	Planning Stage	Expressing both our efforts and limitations in regard to DEI work due to size and other factors specific to Thacher to ensure all families enter our community with realistic expectations.