NCSD member Susan Eaton discusses her book, “The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial,” with an audience at the Stowe Center and the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, CT (2014).
Many studies have shown that racially, culturally, and economically diverse school settings are strongly associated with a range of short and long term benefits for all racial groups. These benefits include gains in math, science, reading, and critical thinking skills, as well as improvements in graduation rates. Research also demonstrates that diverse schools are better equipped than high-poverty schools to counteract the negative effects of poverty. Over the long-term, students who attend diverse schools are more likely than students from homogeneous schools to choose diverse colleges, neighborhoods, and workplaces later in life. They possess better critical thinking skills and analytical ability and are more likely to form cross-racial friendships. Synthesized research on the benefits of diverse schools is available below.
- Research Brief No. 1: School Racial and Economic Composition & Math and Science Achievement
by Susan Eaton (March 2011)
- Research Brief No. 2: How the Racial and Socioeconomic Composition of Schools and Classrooms Contributes to Literacy, Behavioral Climate, Instructional Organization and High School Graduation Rates
by Susan Eaton (October 2010)
- Research Brief No. 3: The Impact of Racially Diverse Schools in a Democratic Society
by Susan Eaton and Gina Chirichigno (October 2010)
- Research Brief No. 4: What We Know about School Integration, College Attendance, and the Reduction of Poverty
by Philip Tegeler, Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, and Martha Bottia (October 2010)
- Research Brief No. 5: School Integration and K-12 Educational Outcomes: A Quick Synthesis of Social Science Evidence
by Roslyn Arlin Mickelson (October 2016 – large print edition)
- Research Brief No. 6: Magnet School Student Outcomes: What the Research Says
by Genevieve Siegel-Hawley and Erica Frankenberg (October 2011)
- Research Brief No. 7: The Reciprocal Relationship Between Housing and School Integration
by Roslyn Arlin Mickelson (September 2011)
- Research Brief No. 8: How Non-Minority Students Also Benefit from Racially Diverse Schools
by Genevieve Siegel-Hawley (October 2012)
- Research Brief No. 9: Regional Educational Equity Policies: Learning from Inter-district Integration Programs
by Kara S. Finnigan and Jennifer Jellison Holme (September 2015)
- Research Brief No. 10: The Complementary Benefits of Racial and Socioeconomic Diversity in Schools
by Jennifer Ayscue, Erica Frankenberg, & Genevieve Siegel-Hawley (March 2017)
- Research Brief No. 11: How to Support the Social-Emotional Well-Being of Students of Color
by Carole Learned-Miller (July 2017)
- Research Brief No. 12: Can Socioeconomic Diversity Plans Produce Racial Diversity in K-12 Schools?
by Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Erica Frankenberg, and Jennifer Ayscue (July 2017)
- Research Brief No. 13: Re-Weaving the Social Fabric through Integrated Schools: How Intergroup Contact Prepares Youth to Thrive in a Multiracial Society
by Linda R. Tropp and Suchi Saxena (May 2018)
- Research Brief No. 14: Is There Systematic Meaningful Evidence of School Poverty Thresholds?
by Roslyn Mickelson (September 2018)
- Research Brief No. 15: Do School Choice Programs Contribute To The Resegregation Of American Schools?
by Casey Cobb (March 2022)
- Research Brief No. 16: Accountability Systems and the Persistence of School Segregation: Research Evidence and Future Directions
by James Noonan and Peter Piazza (January 2023)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Diversity in Education Archive (formerly the “Spivack Archive”)–a searchable database of research on the effects of school and classroom ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic composition on student outcomes, developed by Professor Roslyn Mickelson
NCSD RESEARCH NETWORK AND RESEARCH ADVISORY PANEL
Click here to learn more about NCSD’s Research Advisory Panel and School Diversity Research Network.