Diversity-Responsive Schools

This entry identifies research-based policies, processes, and practices that facilitate or impede effective teaching and high-level learning in schools serving racially and ethnically diverse students.

When attempting to narrow the achievement gap, schools most often target the improvement of teaching. Though this strategy is understandable and important, the professional development that is needed for educators to meet the needs of racially and ethnically diverse students, often referred to as culturally responsive pedagogy, is seldom delivered in the context of efforts to improve the teaching of core academic subjects.

Two other frequently heard remedies for racial and ethnic achievement gaps are strong leadership and an inclusive school culture, but neither of these provides much guidance for programmatic school improvement. Effective leadership is usually described in terms of heroic ...