MISSION:

Cranbrook Schools prepares students to thrive in and shape a complex world. A community that values diversity and inclusion, we cultivate wonder and, through our comprehensive programs and world-class campus, create opportunity for intellectual, creative, and athletic excellence, personal well-being, and social accountability.

We nurture and challenge, inspire and empower students to be caring, passionate, and purposeful.

VISION:

As one of the largest independent boarding and day schools in the country, for students in early childhood through 12th grade, we envision:

• • All members of our community will have a transformational journey as each develops a unique and abiding sense of self, forges empathetic and enduring relationships, and harnesses the power of creative and critical thinking;
• 
  
• • All will find life-long joy in inquiry and discovery and will relish collaboration and enrich the lives of others.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School is a college preparatory day and boarding educational institution. We are structured to recognize and respond to the developmental, cognitive and creative needs of students and are dedicated to excellence in all aspects of education.

The following principles guide us:

• • We offer a college preparatory curriculum designed to inspire and promote intellectual curiosity, creativity, and individual growth through the integration of academics, fine and performing arts, athletics, physical education and a variety of enrichment activities.
• 
  
• • We seek to attract, retain and enrich an outstanding faculty and staff who are dedicated to the teaching and development of students.
• 
  
• • We provide an educational environment that fosters teaching excellence, stimulates learning and facilitates communication and trust among students, faculty and parents.
• 
  
• • We seek to attract families and students of diverse backgrounds who value and support excellence in education.
• 
  
• • We recognize and benefit from the opportunity to be part of an exceptional educational community, that integrates uniquely beautiful physical facilities with an unusually comprehensive educational program.
• 
  
• • We expect to graduate young adults who have developed well above-average academic skills, are well- rounded and emotionally-maturing, and who have, as a result of their Cranbrook experience, enhanced significantly their potential to make a meaningful contribution to society.

Upper School Goals

The following are the goals of Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School:

• • To provide all students with a challenging academic program through which they can develop intellectual and communication skills that will best prepare them to meet the expectations of their chosen college programs.
• 
  
• • To foster an appreciation for the breadth and richness of the liberal arts tradition by offering a program that incorporates a full range of academic, performing and fine arts opportunities.
• 
  
• • To nurture in each student a sense of respect and personal responsibility for learning and the process of inquiry, and to promote a desire to confront intellectual problems with imagination, resourcefulness, common sense, critical reasoning and academic and moral integrity.
• 
  
• • To hold as central those characteristics of a boarding school which embrace and celebrate the unique relationship between a residential faculty and a student body.
• 
  
• • To encourage students to explore and appreciate their own physical potential, and to recognize their responsibility to a team or a group, by participation in intramural and interscholastic athletic competitions.
• 
  
• • To offer co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities that extend the challenge of learning beyond the classroom, and promote personal initiative, individual creativity, student leadership, and a sense of service to the school and the broader community.
• 
  
• • To provide a program and a climate which encourage students to develop a personal framework for making moral decisions, while accepting such community values as respect for every individual, appreciation of personal and cultural differences, and the importance of equality of opportunity.
• 
  
• • To inspire in students those qualities of honesty, perseverance, sensitivity, compassion and selflessness,

EMPLOYMENT

Cranbrook is a PK-12 school with a vibrant boarding component in grades 9-12, allowing the school to provide teachers with the opportunity to live and work on our architecturally famous 319-acre campus. Often living and working in our residence halls, faculty engage students and support their development as members of a shared community. Eagerness to live among students, and to engage them in the evenings and on the weekends as a part of an exciting residential program, is considered significantly beneficial.

The campus also hosts a Graduate Academy of Art, a Science Museum, and an Art Museum, which together comprise the Cranbrook Educational Community.  The art and architecture that shape the campus are designed to complement the surrounding natural environment, making for a truly stunning campus.  The campus is located about 10 miles north of Detroit.  For more, please visit our website: www.cranbrook.edu, and take an aerial tour of campus.

THE CRANBROOK SCHOOLS’ INCLUSION, DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND ACCESS (IDEA)

Originally, an All-Schools Diversity Committee was formed in August 1994.  This committee's purpose was to provide leadership and support through resources and programs that make Cranbrook Schools a welcoming, respectful, safe, and healthy place for all who choose to come here. 

The objectives of the original committee were: (1) to promote ethnic, religious, cultural, gender, socio-economic and racial understanding and respect; (2) to work in collaboration with the Director of Community and Multicultural Programs (now Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Access) and Heads of each campus to design and support activity and programs in multicultural education; (3) to support the work of parent organizations in their diversity activities; (4) to encourage parents to share resources and provide support to enhance multicultural education and sensitivity; and (5) to serve as a resource for the community in matters of multicultural concerns and to make recommendations regarding such concerns. 

This work continues through specific campus energy which includes students, faculty, administration, board, and parent representatives from the entire school community.  These groups seek diverse membership of people invested in the pursuit of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access that affect the culture and climate of the community. All groups work closely with each campus’s leadership team in identifying and developing programs supportive of Cranbrook’s mission. 

Examples include: ECC/Brookside’s Diversity Committee and DEI Task Force to support professional engagement; Middle Schools’ Diversity Committee, student diversity groups; Upper School IDEA Coordinators, and student affinity/identity groups. All campuses have Wellness Teams. There are vibrant, campus wide Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) seminar cohorts and a cross-campus Gender Support Team.

Cranbrook’s Multicultural Awareness Think Tank (MATT) began in 2014 as diversity representatives of Cranbrook parent groups sought to extend their work with the parent community and further their support of campus activity. Now renamed Family Inclusion Network or FIN, our family inclusion network offers programming, learning, and dialogue in support of Cranbrook’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) strategy.  Each year, FIN supports a variety of educational and community enrichment opportunities for our students and their families.  Families have shared professional development programs such as SEED, an internationally renowned program supporting an inclusive curriculum, and the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS) Parent Series Webinars, an annual 6-part evening series for families to help support children in our schoolhouses.

For more information, contact Carla R. Young, Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access 248.645.3683.