February, 2002

The Impact of Racial and Ethnic Diversity
on Educational Outcomes: Lynn, MA School District

By Michal Kurlaender and John T. Yun

Introduction

The Lynn public schools are quite racially and ethnically diverse and have been integrated at the primary school level by the district’s voluntary desegregation plans since 1988. This city, with a population of more than 81,000, has three high schools, most of which have students who attended primary schools desegregated by the district’s plan. As the nation’s public schools are being forced by court decisions to consider the future of integration in their communities, it is appropriate to ask students who have experienced desegregated schooling about its impacts. Although neighboring Boston has abandoned its desegregation efforts under pressure from conservative federal courts, the Lynn schools are attempting to preserve racial and ethnic diversity in a time when policies based solely on race are under attack.

This memorandum addresses the impact of racial and ethnic diversity on the eleventh grade student population in the Lynn School District. It provides information about students’ thoughts and feelings about people of other racial and ethnic groups, as well as about how students believe their schooling has been affected by the presence of a diverse student body. It is part of a series of studies by The Civil Rights Project on what students in diverse and more segregated schools learn both in specific content areas and in preparation for adult life and work. Our findings are based on the Diversity Assessment Questionnaire (DAQ), a survey instrument developed with the help of leading experts on school desegregation research across the country. We administered the DAQ to all juniors attending Lynn’s three high schools in the Spring of 2000 and received responses from 634 students (a response rate of roughly 78%). The survey includes 73 question items, which were created to test several distinct dimensions of experiences and attitudes (four of these dimensions are highlighted in this report)¹. Since our results on these grouped items were quite consistent, we have compelling evidence that the data in this report represents the actual experiences of the responding juniors, and that our findings are not simply byproducts of question wording, instead we believe these responses reflect a broad and consistent pattern.

These data allow us to examine– in the aggregate –how school level desegregation can affect educational outcomes. School level desegregation, of course, does not guarantee the presence of a curriculum that recognizes diversity, fair treatment of all groups of students, or deep and positive interactions between different racial or ethnic groups—all important factors that contribute to positive educational outcomes associated with diversity. It does, however, create a situation within which such interactions may occur, depending on many factors within the school and among the groups of students. Although we have not studied all the factors that can maximize the benefits of diversity, we have examined a number of very important educational outcomes. In this memo we provide basic responses, by race, to a number of questions from the survey². Four distinct areas are explored, (1) future educational aspirations and goals; (2) perceptions of support by the school; (3) student learning and peer interaction; and (4) citizenship and democratic principles. These areas are all well established as important goals of education, and build essential skills that students need in order to achieve academic and professional success, and to become responsible citizens.

Students responded to the survey anonymously and were assured that their teachers and school officials would not see it, so there was no pressure to give answers officials might want to hear. The Civil Rights Project made the survey available and prepared this study without cost to the Lynn public schools and this report is totally independent of district control or direction. The DAQ results indicate many positive attitudes about diverse educational experiences; in addition, these results also pointed to areas of possible future improvement.

[1] On any given survey question between 0-7.0% of all students did not respond, these non-responses were not included in the calculations of these tables.
[2] The racial/ethnic categories that we use are all self-identified, that is the students choose how they wish to describe themselves from an established list. Our categories are: African American, Asian, Latino, White, and Other.

To view the COMPLETE REPORT and study conducted by The Civil Rights Project go to:

The Impact of Racial and Ethnic Diversity on Educational Outcomes: Lynn, MA School District (in PDF Format)