Emphasizing an experience-centered education with a rich multicultural curriculum that includes real-world experiences through NPES’ own Edventures Program, including service learning partnerships, field studies, neighborhood explorations, and a robust student travel program.

All teaching faculty and full-time staff have completed at least one year of SEED (new NPES employees are required to participate in their first year at the school). SEED seminars help individuals “embrace the challenges and joys of the many kinds of diversity found in their own lives and in the lives of others with more confidence and competence.”

We partner with the Single Story organization to ensure our educational program continues to evolve in multicultural education, social justice education, and culturally-responsive pedagogy and curriculum in all areas of the school. We also provide opportunities for students to grapple with complex world issues that enable them to explore the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizens in a democratic society.

We provide multiple opportunities in our curriculum for students at every grade to explore their identities, develop their voices, and live their authentic truth, as we offer affirming identity mirrors and windows for all. We also curate class meetings, an advisory program, a cross-grade buddies program, community-building events throughout the year, and engagement with our school counselors and all faculty to model, teach, and provide student practice in developing healthy and sustainable social-emotional skills. 

In collaboration with Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, we educate faculty/staff and all students on gender identity development and establishing safe and healthy boundaries, including the differences between sex assigned at birth, gender identity, gender expression, and sexuality, along with important concepts like consent and how to be an upstander against gender-based bias and bullying.

These evolving spaces currently include our faculty/staff Diversity Action Team (DAT), the Middle School Student PRIDE Alliance, our Parents’ Association Cultural Celebrations Committee, and the Board of Trustees’ DEI Committee. Beyond our own community, NPES employees have participated in the National Association of Independent Schools’ People of Color Conference, the White Privilege Conference, and the Lake Michigan Association of Independent School Diversity Job Fair. A member of the NPES faculty also serves on the regional Independent Schools’ Association of the Central States’ Equity & Justice Committee.

While we are not done building and sustaining a school population that reflects the incredibly rich diversity of our city, in the past two years NPES has increased its percentage of enrolled students of color (self-identified through their parents) by 10%. This represents an increase from 18% of all students in the fall of 2022 to 28% in the fall of 2024. Furthermore, over the last three years we have increased our exceptional faculty members who identify as people of color by 500%, now one-fifth of our teachers/associate teachers. Our population includes individuals who self-identify as Asian/Pacific Islander, Latinx, and African-American/Black. The three largest groups are Multi-Racial, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Latinx. We also have a broad spectrum of gender and sexuality identities in our community, and we celebrate the unique abilities, learning styles, and important contributions of NPES students who offer neurodivergence, currently comprising about 20% of our school. We actively work to expand the school’s reach into new communities, now including families from seventeen different zip codes.