The Edward E. Ford Foundation is pleased to announce that Deerfield Academy has been awarded a leadership grant based on a proposal submitted by Head of School Dr. John P.N. Austin. This grant will support work led by Dr. Austin and a team of secondary school leaders drawn from across the United States to develop a practical, school-based framework in support of inquiry, expression, and viewpoint diversity, with a goal of advancing shared understanding and consensus building among various school constituencies, including boards, school leaders, teachers, students, parents, and alumni/ae. Ultimately, the goal of this framework is to deepen student learning and provide a broad and sturdy foundation for citizenship.In his proposal to the Ford Foundation, Dr. Austin wrote: The last few years have seen unprecedented levels of conflict on independent school campuses and among boards, faculty, parents, teachers, and school leaders. Frustration with responses to the pandemic and a series of national events (the elections of 2016 and 2020, protests over the murder of George Floyd, and the Capitol riots of January 6, among others), fueled by rising levels of partisan rancor and polarization, have combined to upend shared assumptions about the role of independent schools in public affairs and called into question longstanding commitments to principles of free and open inquiry, expressive freedom, and non-partisanship in the classroom.
Following a model set by educators and institutions beginning in the early 20th century and continuing today—in which teams research and write on political and social action and freedom of expression—Dr. Austin and the working group will research, develop, and write a framework for excellence in teaching and learning based on:
- Fostering an intellectual culture for students that actively promotes expressive freedom and curiosity without fear;
- Developing guidelines to help schools determine when—and if—to assert neutrality on matters of politics and social action;
- Promoting impartial, nonpartisan teaching in support of student agency and the development of personal views on matters of public interest;
- Integrating diverse arguments and perspectives in the design and teaching of courses and in all school activities.
Once completed, publicized, and discussed, schools could adopt the framework, revise the framework in the context of their own missions, or reject it entirely. Each of these outcomes is a positive one, supporting educational pluralism and the diversity of purpose and mission that is the defining strength of American independent schools.
As of January 2023, the Edward E. Ford Foundation, which seeks to improve secondary education by supporting US independent schools and encouraging promising practices, had awarded nearly 2300 grants approximating $133,000,000 to approximately 1000 different schools and associations since its inception in 1957.