DEI commitment
Mira Education’s work is grounded in creating communities that are intentionally diverse and inclusive. The more perspectives — across roles, cultures, and lived experiences — we can bring to conversations about public education, the more likely we are to build schools, systems, and leadership that serve students well.
Over more than two decades, Mira Education has sought to create bigger circles of leaders and a more diverse profession. We formed the first virtual community of teacher leaders in 2003 to connect educators with rare opportunities to lead, piloted “teacherpreneur” roles to place their voices at decision-making tables, built intentionally diverse teams to address policy and practice challenges, and co-designed a teacher preparation program that would intentionally bring more men and people of color into classrooms.
Today, it’s critical to extend this work and to be explicit about why we do it. Transforming how schools serve students, and engaging the collective leadership of school communities to do so, makes a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) essential. Here’s how we define those words and the commitments they imply in our work:
Diversity – Mira Education invites and involves persons from across cultures, ethnicities, ages, gender identifications, physical and mental abilities, personalities, talents, and interests. The perspectives, differences, and life experiences that each of these individuals bring to our work is welcomed, valuable, and necessary for the success of our mission.
Equity – People who work with Mira Education in any context should have access to the opportunities and the resources they need to participate and thrive in that work. We welcome additional effort or learning that may be required to create an equitable space to model what we all require of our schools and position as many people as possible to co-lead change.
Inclusion – We value and require not only the presence but also the substantive, empowered contributions of culturally diverse persons in all areas of our work. We intentionally involve as many of the people affected by our work as possible in the culture, dynamics, leadership, and decision-making structures of Mira Education.
To achieve our visions of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our work, the Board commits itself to and directs the leadership and staff of Mira Education to actualize deliberate, consistent, proactive policies, structures, and procedures that ensure meaningful access and participation of all persons, including students and their families whenever possible.