Cultural Diversity

"Exposure to classmates from diverse ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds not only enriches the educational experience, it helps make the world up-close and real for our students." (CCDS Faculty)

Charlotte Country Day School is committed to cultivating a school community that reflects cultural, ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic diversity. We believe a diverse community is essential to providing a rich learning environment for all children.

Established in 1998, Country Day's office of Diversity Planning firmly believes that all children should be afforded the highest quality education. As a result of planning, substantive action, and commitment by the school's board of trustees, administration, parents, faculty, and staff, the school is embracing the changes necessary to become a more diverse and inclusive community supported by appropriate resources, policies, and curriculum.

Accomplishments

We believe students benefit significantly from an education that affirms diversity as a value that is central to educational and academic excellence. As a result, in an effort to strengthen our school's commitment to diversity, we:

• Host an annual diversity conference in July entitled "Building an Inclusive School Community" that is open to teachers and school administrators in the Southeast.
• Instituted a Parents of Color In Independent Schools (POCIS) action group.
• Enhanced the school's curriculum to reflect the needs of our multicultural world.
• Became the first school in North Carolina to become affiliated with A Better Chance (ABC), a national organization that helps identify and place qualified minority students in schools and colleges.
• Established three endowed scholarships specifically for minorities.
• Instituted the William Randolph Hearst Teaching Fellowship Program, which introduces minority first-year teachers to Charlotte Country Day and to the teaching profession.
• Hired a full-time director of diversity planning to oversee the school's diversity programs.
• Increased enrollment of students of color.
• Became the first independent school in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area to implement a national faculty development seminar called "SEED" (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity).