- Children in racially and ethnically diverse classrooms demonstrate increased knowledge about different racial/ethnic groups.
- Children exposed to racially diverse peers in the classroom show reduced adherence to racial stereotypes.
- Racially diverse classroom environments can also promote a range of positive cross-race attitudes and interactions.
- The daily exposure in the classroom to students of a different race was directly related to students’ willingness to engage in voluntary interactions with peers of a different race.
- Greater interaction with diversity in college helps students develop greater understanding and appreciation of the perspective of groups other than their own.
- In general, research on the effects of desegregation on student academic achievement seem to support: a) African American and Hispanic students learn somewhere more in schools that are majority White as compared to their academic performance in schools that are predominantly non-White. B) The earlier students experience desegregated schools, the greater the positive effect on academic achievement. C) There is no effect on the academic achievement of White students, except when White students are in majority non-White schools, where the effect, if there is one, is likely to be negative.
- Learning with and from persons of different races and ethnicities provides students with what might be thought of as naturally occurring contrasting cases.
- Eliminating stereotypes increase one’s learning opportunities and one’s cognitive capabilities.
- There is growing body of evidence that supports the thesis that diverse learning communities are superior learning environments.
- Studies provide evidence that people learn from participating in diverse groups and that being an effective participant in diverse groups enhances individual and group productivity.
- School context or climate is not just the backdrop for student learning, it is both a source, and a constraint on, learning in itself and a major influence on what happens in classrooms.
- There appears to be growing agreement among researchers that the opportunity tolerant with and from people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds can, under the right conditions, enhance students’ academic achievement and cognitive development, increase cross-cultural competence, and promote dispositions and behaviors that will have economic and social consequences for individuals and communities.