The Value of Diverse Schools

Key Insights

Much research documents the impacts and benefits of diversity in education. A large portion of literature follows United States Supreme Court decisions and subsequent policies. When the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision declared separate schooling as inherently unequal, the law compelled schools to implement policy changes related to racial demographics in schools. As a result, researchers documented the racial and demographic makeup of schools and examined its impact on student performance. In particular, the Coleman Report authorized by Congress in 1966 was the first major study connecting socioeconomic status (SES) and student outcomes. Over time, scholars continue to revisit and re-analyze the report and its data, finding that race plays a larger role in outcomes than SES alone.

Recently, the 2016 Fisher v. University of Texas case on affirmative action and college admissions led to amicus briefs and research studies focused on the impacts of diversity on college campuses. As policymakers work to comply with laws related to educational access, researchers produce studies that examine the effects of policy changes.

Current academic research overwhelmingly demonstrates the benefits of racially integrated and diverse schools. A majority of K-12 diversity research identifies and tracks the achievement gap between majority students and minority students. Studies continuously document minority students’ academic improvements when they attend schools with majority peers.

However, recent literature increasingly addresses the benefits of a diverse school and classroom for all students. Rosslyn Michelson’s 2008 report “Twenty-First Century Social Science on School Racial Diversity and Educational Outcomes” summarizes the benefits of diversity for all students demonstrated by previous research. Michelson’s “Domains of Diversity” provide a framework to understand the benefits of diverse schools. Students from all backgrounds gain academic, interpersonal, and lifelong benefits when they attend diverse schools.

K-12 school diversity research often focuses on the short-term benefits of diversity. Policymakers, administrators, and parents prioritize standardized assessments to measure student performance. For the same reason, researchers tend to use the same metrics to study the effects of diversity. In comparison, higher education diversity research examines the long-term benefits of diverse educational experiences. Because higher education institutions have holistic missions and lack standardized assessment data, academic research tends to focus on the broad impacts of diversity at colleges and universities.