The Thacher School | Faculty and Staff

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.

Faculty and Staff Accountability

AIMS	PROGRESS	DESCRIPTION/NOTES
Recruit more full-time QTBIPOC faculty	Active, Ongoing	Implementing specific recruitment and retention strategy for employees of color, aiming to have leadership and various departments reflect the demographics the school serves, utilizing a data-informed, continuous improvement, and accountability model.
Use external organizations for faculty/staff recruitment	Active, Ongoing	Partnering with recruiting firms, finding organizations who prioritize diverse and equitable hiring practices.
Set standards for job posting, recruitment, interviewing and hiring practices	Started	Hiring managers trained on best practices, unconscious bias, and Thacher's evolving policies. Hiring practices made more transparent and clearly communicated to faculty and staff.
Hire and promote employees with commitment to Thacher's DEI goals	Planning Stage	Hiring managers utilizing established DEI specific questions in interview process.
Diversify senior leadership to reflect faculty/staff	Planning Stage	Attending diversity recruitment fairs, identifying potential leaders from outside of the community.
Improve practices to retain faculty of color.	Started	Conducting exit interviews, regularly meeting with new and existing faculty, creating consistent onboarding practices. Providing specific and targeted support for employees who have the most marginalized identities, from the moment an individual signs their contract, to transition out of the school.
Regular training for all employees on how to address bias incidents among students and adults.	Active, Ongoing	Bias report forms created, faculty/staff trained to incorporate this practice and utilize established protocol
Professional development requirement for senior leadership on DEI to set example to faculty and staff.	Planning Stage	Establishing required benchmarks to ensure all school leaders are continuing their efforts on DEI work.
Evaluate diversity in departments, people and policies	Planning Stage	DEI director sits on academic council, one-on-one work with department chairs, teaching teams to ensure there is up-to-date information on DEI practices across the school.
DEI related feedback channels for School Leadership	Active, Ongoing	Utilizing Schoolhouse and Senior Leadership feedback forms, normalizing opportunities for faculty/staff to meet with Head of School, Assistant Head of School, Dean of Faculty and Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion.
DEI competency standards achieved for all student-facing faculty/staff	Started	Creating and monitoring required DEI competency benchmarks for all student-facing faculty and staff, facilitating easier access to opportunities to help faculty and staff attain the standard.