Do We Need Diversity?
Whenever we talk about diversity in education, the first thing everyone thinks of is college. Whether it’s colleges advertising how diverse they are or people conducting studies about the benefits of diversity in college it seems like people agree on the value of a diverse college. However, I wonder why people don’t think about having diverse general education? Why don’t we make a point of making our middle and high schools more diverse?
This is what my research paper for my english class is going to focus on.
Benefits
Many studies have been conducted showing the benefits of diversity. Not only do students in diverse classes at diverse colleges have a higher GPA than students at less diverse schools, they also have a higher first-to-second year retention rate. This shows the multiple ways that diversity is beneficial to students. I would imagine that it would also apply to high school students.
Also, numerous studies have shown that as students are exposed to more diverse classes, they tend to seek out diverse jobs and “cross class interaction” after they graduate. Additionally, they are more aware of racism around them and are more likely to make efforts to act on the racism that they see. It seems like there is no reason not to make our schools diverse earlier, in order to expose the most people as possible to diverse classes.
This is the niche that my research will delve into. Not only the benefits of high school diversity, but the ways that it could possibly be accomplished.