About MCS

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

A Commitment to a Diverse Community

“Integration is beneficial to all children,” wrote Manhattan Country School Founder Gus Trowbridge in his 1965 drafting of the school’s First Principles. “Differences must be immediately experienced to be treasured and understood, and a school which avoids differences, directly and obliquely, places education outside the context of living.”

It is with that belief that Manhattan Country School opened its doors in 1966 as a school committed to educating students from a range of backgrounds. Today, Manhattan Country School has a student body with broad socioeconomic diversity and no racial majority.

Diversity Fostered by an Innovative Sliding-Scale Tuition Program

The rich mosaic of our student body is fostered by a sliding-scale tuition policy that makes it possible for nearly 75 percent of our families to pay tuition based on their means. Nationally, approximately 22 percent of independent school families receive financial aid.

Black Lives Matter Week of Action at MCS

The makeup of our staff is more diverse than the average independent school:

List of 2 items.

41%

Faculty of Color
National average: 16%
56%

Administration of Color
National average: approximately 12%

Not only is diversity reflected among our students and staff, it is integrated into our curriculum. From the 4-5s’ home visit program in which children visit the dwellings of classmates of different racial, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds to the Upper School’s Social Justice Data Fair, MCS students learn about the differences reflected in our multicultural world.

Over the years, many schools have sought information about our tuition model as part of their own efforts to further diversity in mission-consistent and sustainable ways. Founders and board members of schools across the United States, as well as economists and policy makers, continue to seek guidance and engage MCS as a thought leader in this area. The following schools have replicated our sliding-scale tuition model:

Harlem Academy in New York, New York
La Escuelita and Yeshiva of Flatbush in New York, New York
St. Philip’s Academy in Newark, New Jersey
New Canaan Country School in New Canaan, Connecticut
Waldorf School in Baltimore, Maryland
The Gordon School, Rhode Island

Greene Hill in Brooklyn, New York
Creative Learning Community in Tallahassee, Florida
St. Elizabeth’s School in Denver, Colorado
Children’s Day School in San Francisco, California
Friends School of Minnesota in St. Paul, Minnesota

Manhattan Country School

150 West 85th Street, New York, NY 10024 | (212) 348-0952
3536 New Kingston Mountain Road, Roxbury, NY 12474 | (607) 326-7049