DEI
DEI Overview
Lower School
From the youngest years, students are exposed to and celebrate differences within Sierra Canyon’s diverse community. Because of their training in Responsive Classroom, a platform for supporting affective education, our faculty creatively and effectively sustain this guidance with belief in the importance of DEI instruction.
The program and curriculum in 2019–2020 were emblematic of this DEI effort. Classrooms prepared for our recognition of the March on Washington by holding an assembly with each homeroom, which created picket signs and posters, symbols of activism, honoring the importance of the movement.
In addition, as a part of its thematic units, each homeroom adopted a country in order to celebrate the forthcoming summer Olympics 2020. Students learned about their own countries and those of their fellow community members, culminating in a celebratory assembly where students, parents, and faculty were invited to attend and wearing clothing that represented their background. Culture Week, a period dedicated to exploring different traditions around the world, is also an important fixture of the Lower Campus.
As a part of the Lower Campus’s curricular review, several changes have been incorporated for the upcoming year. Because faculty rely so heavily on regular interactions with “mentor texts” in order to teach discrete skills, an influx of mentor texts that include greater representation of DEI is under review to implement for daily lessons. As further example of initiatives in DEI curriculum, the sixth grade adopted the 2020 Newbery Award Winner, New Kid, by Jerry Craft, which involves an African-American student new to a private middle school and many DEI issues.
Lower School: 11052 Independence Avenue
Middle and Upper School: 20801 Rinaldi Street
Chatsworth, CA 91311 | 818.882.8121
Middle and Upper School: 20801 Rinaldi Street
Chatsworth, CA 91311 | 818.882.8121
Sierra Canyon School is a private, independent, non-sectarian, co-educational, college preparatory school for students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through 12 located in Chatsworth, California. The highly cosmopolitan campus community is reflective of the Greater Los Angeles area and the world at large. Students are empowered to realize their greatest creative, ethical, intellectual and physical promise through small class sizes, a diverse student-teacher culture and a family-like environment.
