DEIB in Program & Curriculum
A Framework for Anti-Bias Education
LEARNING FOR JUSTICE
Westside uses the Learning for Justice Anchor Standards in our entire program from early learning to middle school. The Social Justice Standards are a road map for anti-bias education at every stage of K–12 instruction. Comprised of anchor standards and age-appropriate learning outcomes, the Standards provide a common language and organizational structure educators can use to guide curriculum development and make schools more just and equitable.
Anchor Standards & Domains
IDENTITY
Identity Anchor Standards
1. Students will develop positive social identities based on their membership in multiple groups in society.
2. Students will develop language and historical and cultural knowledge that affirm and accurately describe their membership in multiple identity groups.
3. Students will recognize that people’s multiple identities interact and create unique and complex individuals.
4. Students will express pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of other people.
5. Students will recognize traits of the dominant culture, their home culture and other cultures and understand how they negotiate their own identity in multiple spaces.
DIVERSITY
Diversity Anchor Standards
6. Students will express comfort with people who are both similar to and different from them and engage respectfully with all people.
7. Students will develop language and knowledge to accurately and respectfully describe how people (including themselves) are both similar to and different from each other and others in their identity groups.
8. Students will respectfully express curiosity about the history and lived experiences of others and will exchange ideas and beliefs in an open-minded way.
9. Students will respond to diversity by building empathy, respect, understanding and connection.
10. Students will examine diversity in social, cultural, political and historical contexts rather than in ways that are superficial or oversimplified.
JUSTICE
Justice Anchor Standards
11. Students will recognize stereotypes and relate to people as individuals rather than representatives of groups.
12. Students will recognize unfairness on the individual level (e.g., biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g., discrimination).
13. Students will analyze the harmful impact of bias and injustice on the world, historically and today.
14. Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those dynamics.
15. Students will identify figures, groups, events and a variety of strategies and philosophies relevant to the history of social justice around the world.
ACTION
Action Anchor Standards
16. Students will express empathy when people are excluded or mistreated because of their identities and concern when they themselves experience bias.
17. Students will recognize their own responsibility to stand up to exclusion, prejudice and injustice.
18. Students will speak up with courage and respect when they or someone else has been hurt or wronged by bias.
19. Students will make principled decisions about when and how to take a stand against bias and injustice in their everyday lives and will do so despite negative peer or group pressure.
20. Students will plan and carry out collective action against bias and injustice in the world and will evaluate what strategies are most effective.
PRONOUNS
Creating a Safe Community using Pronouns
Sharing and using correct pronouns is one way to build an inclusive and safe space for all Westside community members. Some ways we model this at Westside are:
- Including pronouns in email signature.
- Wearing pronoun pins on school ID lanyards.
- Having pronoun pins accessible for students.
- Stating pronouns in introductions (My name is____and my pronouns are____.)
- Using they/them or the name until correct pronouns are made clear.
- Respecting that not all students or community members may be comfortable sharing their pronouns or may only share their pronouns in confidence.
WHY DO PRONOUNS MATTER?
In English, pronouns are commonly used to refer to ourselves and others in replacing a person’s name. Words matter in our community. They are powerful tools that we use to convey meaning, build connections, and share information. Names and pronouns are pieces of one's personal identity. Using correct pronouns, much like pronouncing someone’s name correctly, is an affirmation of their identity.
AVOID ASSUMPTIONS
Proper use of pronouns is critical to creating an inclusive environment centered around respect and affirmation for one's individuality, humanity, and identity. Assuming peoples’ pronouns based on their outward appearance or name (even if correct) can send potentially harmful messages that reinforce the gender binary and may leave people feeling unseen, unvalued, or unsafe. Unless you have been informed of someone’s pronouns, you are making an assumption.
Remember, a person might present as (looks like) a female might not use “she” pronouns and might not necessarily identify as a woman. A person who, in your opinion, looks like a man might not necessarily use “he” pronouns. The use of gender-neutral pronouns like they/them or gender-neutral terms like friends, folks, or students when addressing a group is your best course of action when you have not been told someone’s pronouns.
LEARN MORE ABOUT PRONOUNS
POCC
People of Color Conference (POCC)
Each year, Westside sends a team of teachers and staff to participate in the People of Color Conference through NAIS. The PoCC is the flagship of NAIS’s commitment to equity and justice in teaching, learning, and organizational development. The mission of the conference is to provide a safe space for leadership and professional development for people of color, and networking for people of color and allies of all backgrounds in independent schools. Westside is committed to sending educators to PoCC to not only advance our institutions' learning and growth but more importantly to uplift, sustain, and affirm educators from the Global Majority.
PoCC equips educators at every level, from teachers to trustees, with knowledge and skills to improve the interracial, interethnic, and intercultural climate in their schools, as well as the attending academic, social-emotional, and workplace performance outcomes for students and adults alike.
"Most professional development trainings for teachers are content-focused and led by white educators. This lens is limiting - it's often colorblind, which means it gives us only a handful of ways to access and understand what is being taught. PoCC prioritizes presenters of color, and it is about issues facing People of Color. The conference theme, inherently, puts more effort toward acknowledging the many ways our racial identities influence our experiences as educators.” ~ Kalei Sabaratnam, MS Ethics & Equity Teacher
DEIB at Every Grade Level
EARLY LEARNING
As our children begin their learning journey at Westside, the goal of our Early Learning teachers is to nurture our students towards empathy, inquiry, collaboration, and activism.
Through play, storybooks, classroom conversations, and observations teachers guide children’s understanding of the ways that people are different and the ways in which they are the same. Our purpose is to honor and learn about the identities, cultures, and traditions of the students in our classroom communities as well as the diversity of the world we live in.
We strive to create a learning environment that teaches children to understand, appreciate and respect different identities, beliefs, and cultures; and to have the confidence to speak and stand up to inequity and injustice. We believe that the early development of these skills lay the building blocks for the DEIB and Social Justice learning that is continued in our Lower and Middle Schools.
LOWER SCHOOL
Lower School teachers promote age and developmentally appropriate content to stimulate learning in the areas of identity, diversity, justice, and action.
We believe that children thrive when they are given opportunities to see themselves reflected in the literature they read, the projects they create, and the problems they solve. Additionally, children increase their capacity for empathy and collaboration when they are offered a diversity of perspectives and ideas. As educators, we focus not just on exposing students to multiple perspectives but also on raising students’ awareness of their role as change-makers. Moving from compassion to action happens on the playground, in classroom projects, and in spontaneous teachable moments.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
As our children mature and move to Middle School, one of the goals is to cultivate empathy and interpersonal responsibility in each child.
In Middle School we challenge one another to examine the dynamics of diversity from a global and multicultural perspective so that we can become responsible citizens dedicated to social justice.
Our curriculum and community honor a variety of traditions, value a diversity of cultures, and respect the contributions of all people. We make space for our students to develop skills, such as how to constructively conduct discourse on race, social justice, and oppression, in both historical and current events. These skills enhance our students’ abilities to engage in their study of systematic oppression by providing a means of analyzing and interpreting events and figures from multiple perspectives. By exploring the dynamics of our diverse world and nation we believe our students will be responsible citizens long after leaving Westside.
"Affinity spaces are designed for students to develop and strengthen their own lived identity. Affinity groups provide safe spaces for peers to explore and build a healthy identity formation." ~ Westside Alumni Student
A Place of Belonging with Affinity Groups
At Westside, community is one of our greatest strengths. We believe in intentionally fostering a diverse and inclusive environment to provide all students with a sense of belonging within the Westside community.
Affinity groups are groups of individuals that share a common identity. While this definition is very broad, in our context, we are focusing on creating spaces for groups that are underrepresented and under-voiced within the Westside community.
Affinity groups provide brave spaces where students and adults can explore their shared identity and experience. Affinity groups encourage students to embrace the different parts of their identity and to feel confident and proud about themselves rather than silently suppressing aspects of that identity. Affinity groups affirm emotional and intellectual responses to being part of a distinct subset of the larger Westside community. These groups are an important tool for reducing the sense of isolation, discomfort, and marginalization many children can feel, even in the most progressive school communities. These group meetings help students to feel more visible and more included in our community, and in doing so, they enhance our commitment to inclusiveness.
Affinity Groups:
- Promote a sense of belonging.
- Allow students to explore their shared identity and experiences.
- Encourage students to embrace different parts of themselves.
- Build community.
- Allow students to feel confident and proud in who they are.
Westside's Middle School has created Affinity Groups in response to student requests for their need to explore their identity with individuals who have the same social identifiers as themselves. Affinity Groups are facilitated by trained faculty members who reflect the same named affinity as the group.
2023-2024 AFFINITY GROUPS
2023-2024 Affinity Groups
- White Racial Justice Allies Group
- Family Dynamic Support Group
- Neurodiverse Community Members
- Gender Identity Boy Group
- Gender Identity Girl Group
- BIPOC Community Members
- Gender Identity Non-Binary Group
- LGBTQIA+ Community Members
Affinity Group Resources
- Learning for Justice: Making Space
- “How Affinity Groups Saved My Life” by Trina Moore-Southhall
- “Identity, Affinity, Reality” by Julie Parsons and Kimberly Ridley
- “What White Children Need to Know About Race” by Eleonora Bartoli and Ali Michael
- VIDEO: Independent School Seniors On The Importance of Affinity Groups
- VIDEO: Expanding Affinity Potential: Affinity Groups in Elementary, Middle, and Early Childhood Education
AFFINITY GROUP RESOURCES
Affinity Group Resources
- Learning for Justice: Making Space
- “How Affinity Groups Saved My Life” by Trina Moore-Southhall
- “Identity, Affinity, Reality” by Julie Parsons and Kimberly Ridley
- “What White Children Need to Know About Race” by Eleonora Bartoli and Ali Michael
- VIDEO: Independent School Seniors On The Importance of Affinity Groups
- VIDEO: Expanding Affinity Potential: Affinity Groups in Elementary, Middle, and Early Childhood Education
AFFINITY GROUP FAQ
"Affinity spaces are designed for students to develop and strengthen their own lived identity. Affinity groups provide safe spaces for peers to explore and build a healthy identity formation." ~ Westside Alumni Student
Student Diversity Leadership Retreat
Westside is proud to partner with other member schools to design and attend the Student Diversity Leadership Retreat. Modeled after the NAIS SDLR Conference, the NWAIS Student Diversity Leadership Retreat (SDLR) is a multiracial, multicultural gathering of middle and upper school student leaders (grades 6-12) from across the Northwest Association of Independent Schools. SDLR is annual, but rotates among middle and upper school student years. Westside sends Middle School students and teachers when SDLR serves the MS population. Westside’s Middle School Director is proud to serve yearly on the planning committee. SDLR focuses on self-reflection, forming allies, and building community. Led by a diverse team of adult and peer educators, participating students develop cross-cultural communication skills, design effective strategies for social justice practice through dialogue and the arts, and learn the foundations of allyship and networking principles. In addition to large group sessions, SDLC “family groups" and "affinity groups" allow for dialogue and sharing in smaller, more intimate settings.
2024-2025 EQUITY & INCLUSION SPEAKER SERIES
Westside School is excited to partner with local independent schools to bring the Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series to our communities. The purpose of this series is to raise awareness, challenge ourselves, deepen understanding, and empower our communities to advance their efforts to actively recreate systems into equitable, inclusive, and antiracist institutions.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Westside School Community acknowledges that we are on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish People. We make this acknowledgment with gratitude and a commitment to justice for the land itself, and the Duwamish People, past, present, and future. We endeavor to join them in honoring and protecting the Water, Earth, Air, and Spirit of our shared home.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Westside School Community acknowledges that we are on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish People. We make this acknowledgment with gratitude and a commitment to justice for the land itself, and the Duwamish People, past, present, and future. We endeavor to join them in honoring and protecting the Water, Earth, Air, and Spirit of our shared home.