In accordance with Hunter College Campus Schools’ Mission Statement, it is a responsibility of the School to expose students to different cultures and viewpoints. HCCS has a duty to engage its students in multiple perspectives, so that they can have a more robust understanding of the world around them. A curriculum which reflects the diversity of our world and responds to the changing makeup of our student body is an important part of academic and intellectual excellence. HCCS must ensure a learning environment in which students from all backgrounds can thrive in order to fulfill our mission.

The committee recognizes that due to numerous factors, the population of HCHS is not necessarily static and, oftentimes, not reflective of the demographics of our city. Thus, our curriculum should be dynamic, should affirm student lived experiences and backgrounds, and should be inclusive of all races, cultures and identities. The HCCS curriculum and pedagogy must meet the needs of diverse gifted and talented students through intellectual/academic excellence, while promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and intellectual excellence.

 

The committee believes that the strength of Hunter’s education in large part relies on the expertise and experience of its teachers and academic departments. This Committee does not recommend a centralized plan for curriculum implementation, nor does it seek to dictate specific curricular changes. Rather, the Committee's goal is to create and recommend strategies that focus on a process for curriculum review, and that develop methods for analysis of any future changes and adjustments to the Campus Schools’ curriculum.

 

The Curriculum subcommittee endorses the idea that a more diverse faculty AND student body, with respect to lived experiences, as well as academic experiences and pedagogical approaches, will benefit the community at large. A diverse faculty is critical to achieving our curriculum goals.

 

Changes in our admission policy broaden the definition of what is gifted and talented and will diversify who is eligible to apply to Hunter.  With a more diverse population coming from a larger array of academic, social, and cultural environments, HCCS and in particular The High School’s curriculum and faculty must meet the needs of this new and increasingly diverse student body, and will do so by achieving the following goals:

I. CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AND REVIEW: The goals of the subcommittee focus on methods to evaluate all aspects of HCCS  curriculum now and evaluate any curricula changes suggested through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. We strongly believe that Hunter’s curriculum must address both the academic as well as the social-emotional education of all students.

Our goal is to design and recommend strategies to achieve the following five outcomes:

 

II. FACULTY SUPPORT: We understand curriculum is not just a matter of content and skills, but also of approach and delivery. To that end, it is our goal to help create and recommend strategies which support teachers in developing expertise that enables them to fulfill our mission of educating and supporting a diverse student body, both as it relates to content as well as to methods.

Our goal is to design and recommend strategies to achieve the following three outcomes:

III. STUDENT DEVELOPMENT: The committee recognizes that incoming HCHS students face new kinds and new levels of academic challenges as they enter HCHS from schools all across the city; schools with very different curricula and pedagogical practices. We know that our students have been exposed to a wide variety of preparation, content and habits of learning. Furthermore, as a new admission process redefines gifted and talented education, and the diversity of our students and their academic experiences become increasingly varied, we recommend HCHS respond in kind, expanding our efforts to support all of our students both in terms of academic skills and social-emotional well-being. 

Our goal is to design and recommend strategies to achieve the following three outcomes: