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 personal attributes—charismatic, committed, intolerant of failure, [Page 706]inspirational, and indefatigable. The complexity of school culture is often reduced to high expectations. In order to improve learning outcomes for racially and ethnically diverse students, educators must improve within-school policies and practices that are particularly relevant to facilitating the learning of diverse students. These policies and practices are the embodiment—the artifacts—of school cultures, and attending to them is among the essential tasks of school leaders.

Two other frequently prescribed sets of strategies for narrowing the achievement gap are: examining inequities across schools—such as allocation of teacher expertise and financial resources—and incorporating characteristics of effective schools. To be sure, students of color benefit from equitable resources, clear goals, alignment of curriculum and assessment, coherent academic programs, professional learning communities, extended learning time, staff stability, and other essentials of highly effective schools. This entry, however, focuses on those conditions within schools that particularly influence racially and ethnically diverse students' opportunities to learn at high levels.

Of course, race and ethnicity are not the only dimensions of diversity. But they are often correlated with other influences on learning, including socioeconomic status, community and family cultures, and English language facility. Moreover, every student is diverse in some way that is relevant to his or her learning. Thus, by focusing on school conditions that are particularly important to the success of students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, this entry identifies school policies and practices that will improve the learning opportunities and outcomes of all students.