Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Education and Individual Student Development: Understanding the Full Picture in the Era of School Choice

Abstract

A primary through-line of the research literature on the correlates of structural diversity in education has focused on intergroup outcomes, including prejudice reduction and improving attitudes toward racial and ethnic out-groups. Over the past two decades, advances in theory have illustrated how individuals may cognitively adapt to ongoing interactions with diverse others, informing new investigations into the potentially beneficial effects of educational diversity for individual development outside the intergroup context and beyond the impacts of more equitable resource distribution. The current article summarizes the state of research on links between children and youth’s experiences in racially and ethnically diverse schools and classrooms and their individual development in academic, social-emotional, and executive function domains. Overall, the emerging research on these individual effects is promising. Implications within the context of increasing support for school choice are discussed.