Upon arriving at Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) their freshman year, junior bassist Alex Bennett noticed a stark difference from their middle school: BSA was significantly more diverse.
“My middle school was majority Black, and I was also the only out gay person. Coming [to BSA], it was completely different: everybody is way more open here. This school is a safe space for everybody to just be themselves like that,” said Bennett.
BSA is diverse in various ways – just look at the wide-ranging student groups around different races, religions, and gender identities – which puts BSA in a unique position, especially as institutional diversity efforts in schools are being scrutinized by the government.
Diversity initiatives were formally implemented at BSA in 2018, when after Black students revealed their experiences with racism at BSA on social media, the school commissioned an audit from an external consulting firm to address discrimination within BSA. The 2020 audit summary led to new committees and programs that the school dubbed “DEI initiatives,” using that storied moniker for “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Now, one of those initiatives focus on addressing the performance gap between different demographic groups: recent data from the Maryland State Department of Education shows that only 15.1% of Black students at BSA are math proficient, compared to 73.7% of White students. Even though this data includes middle school performance on standardized testing, it still reflects a range of academic needs.
“[Some of our students] haven’t always been given the same opportunity as some of their other students. Part of my work here is still around that: What do we need to do to make sure that they have equal opportunities to be met with achievement and success?” explained BSA Principal Rosiland Cauthen.
Cauthen, who was tapped to lead BSA’s equity efforts before being appointed principal in 2021, quickly dove into the 2020 equity audit. A part-time DEI Coordinator was hired, and the Foundation’s Board of Trustees formed a DEI Committee. For both students and staff, there were anti-racism training sessions, guest speakers, book clubs, and lunch bunches – efforts which led Cauthen to be named a Leader in Diversity by Baltimore Business Journal in 2022.
This school year, however, BSA consolidated its various diversity practices into one group called the “school equity action team” (SEAT).
The SEAT at BSA consists of Cauthen, Theatre Department head Becky Mossing, 9th Grade OTG coordinator Yolanda Morgan-Mobley, academic faculty Megan Bremer, and other staff. They work with the BCPSS Office of Equity to advance BSA’s diversity and equity work.
BCPSS’s Equity Office was created in 2019, and it has no power over curriculums or regulations: rather, they help other departments comply with a rigorous equity policy that requires the district to eliminate inequalities and improve “staff capacity for equity-based teaching.”
School SEATs are one way that the Equity Office assists individual schools with implementing equity practices. SEATs are not mandatory for BCPSS schools.
“[BSA’s SEAT] has monthly meetings where we look at student data, discuss things that are happening here at the school, and work on a school equity action plan. That action plan will roll out soon: it looks at how to support students who are coming from underserved communities and middle schools that maybe came to BSA and struggled a little bit,” said Cauthen.
However, those institutional DEI efforts have come under strong political fire: the Trump administration recently issued a memo ordering public school systems to either end DEI initiatives or risk losing federal funds, a legally complex threat that’s complicated by Maryland’s education system.
But at BSA, some of the strongest diversity efforts don’t come from institutional DEI programs. In addition to the racial and ethnic diversity that has been reflected in the larger clubs and showcases, other students have formed clubs around shared interests and other aspects of identity, such as gender expression.
“I find that when these spaces are created for people, it goes really well, because I think that part of girlhood is bonding over that experience,” said sophomore visual artist Frannie Santelises, who founded the feminism-oriented Venus Association this year.
“I think [student groups] are very important for letting people know, ‘We see you and we recognize you.’ The Venus Association is saying to anyone on the femininity spectrum, ‘We recognize you, and now we’re taking the next step to try and make life as comfortable as possible.’”
Cauthen agreed that supporting BSA’s diversity was not only the administration’s responsibility, but also the students. She concluded, “We just had the Black History Month showcase, where nearly 100 students in the cast created original work, collaborated across departments, collaborated with people of different backgrounds, and it was all student-led. More showcases, like the Asian Student Union’s, are coming up. As a community of artists, empowering the student voice is some of the most powerful diversity work that we can do, period.”
To contact this writer, email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.
Featured design by Hassan Hunt for The Muse.
