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A Path that Starts Here Can Take You Anywhere.

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Civic Collaborative

The Civic Collaborative at Berkeley Carroll is a school-wide initiative that brings together educators, students, and outside partners to develop and practice deliberation—thoughtful, good-faith reasoning in pursuit of shared understanding and a common future.

The initiative reflects a central tenet of Berkeley Carroll’s mission: to prepare students not only to think critically, but to engage thoughtfully and responsibly with the world and with one another.

At the heart of the Civic Collaborative is a commitment to bringing together two strands that are often treated as distinct:

  • Civil discourse, which engages a range of viewpoints
  • Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, which attends to identity, experience, and the conditions for productive, expansive participation

At Berkeley Carroll, these are understood as mutually reinforcing practices. Critically analyzing issues of public concern and affirming one another’s humanity are not opposing acts; they are essential, interconnected aspects of building a just and inclusive society.

In practice, the Civic Collaborative will feature shared deliberative protocols, expanded professional learning for faculty and staff, and structured opportunities for Upper School students to serve as facilitators. This approach will extend across PreK–Grade 12 through curriculum design and shared practices for meaningful engagement.

A Vision Comes to Life

A Foundation for Learning

The Civic Collaborative builds directly on Berkeley Carroll’s Portrait of a Learner, which identifies curiosity, empathy, resilience, and discernment as essential habits of mind.

Students have structured opportunities to practice these capacities as they engage a central and enduring question:

How do we wish to live together?

EE Ford Foundation Grant

Berkeley Carroll has been awarded a $250,000 Educational Leadership matching grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation in support of the Civic Collaborative.

The Foundation’s Educational Leadership Grants are among the most selective awards in independent education, supporting a small number of schools each year whose work is intended to have impact beyond a single institution and to shape practice and thinking across the independent school field.

This recognition affirms both the strength of Berkeley Carroll’s proposal and the work already underway across divisions to engage students thoughtfully around complex and contested questions.

Looking Ahead to the Future

Over the next three years, the Civic Collaborative will focus on thoughtful implementation, assessment, and refinement. This includes:

  • expanding classroom-based deliberative practices
  • supporting faculty through professional learning
  • strengthening opportunities for student leadership
  • sharing our work with peer schools through publications, partnerships, and an annual symposium

As this work evolves, the Civic Collaborative will continue to grow as both a practice within our community and a contribution to the broader independent school field.

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Philanthropic Opportunity

As a matching grant, this award presents an opportunity to build the philanthropic support needed to sustain and extend the Civic Collaborative over time. We invite members of the Berkeley Carroll community to be in touch to learn how they can support this work. 

To learn more, please contact: 

Director of Advancement Emily Quay