2002 - Diversity in Higher Education: Theory and Impact in Educational Outcomes

Attribution: Gurin, Patricia, Dey, Eric L., Hurtado, Sylvia, & Gurin, Gerald
Researchers: Eric L. DeyGerald GurinPatricia GurinSylvia Hurtado
University Affiliation: University of Michigan
Email: pgurin@umich.edu, dey@umich.edu
Research Question:
Explore relationship between students' experiences with diverse peers in the college or university settings and their educational outcomes.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Harvard Educational Review
Journal Entry: Vol. 72, No. 3, pp. 330-367
Year: 2002
Findings:
  • In the national study and the Michigan study, diversity experiences had significant effects on educational outcomes for all groups of students, to varying degrees.
  • Diversity was significantly positively related to learning outcomes even when controlling for individual characteristics of students. The observed effects were positive for nearly all students.
  • In the national study informal interaction with diverse others was more influential than classroom diversity for all groups of students.
  • In the Michigan study, all three diversity experiences were influenced for at least one group of students and for at least one kind of learning outcome, suggesting that students of color respond differently to opportunities for diversity experiences and have distinct interaction patterns that affect different outcomes.
  • The most consistent effects were found for white students. Results were consistent across both the national and the Michigan studies.
  • The effects of the different kinds of diversity experiences are significant after controlling for the other diversity experiences.
  • The models explain 3%-49% of the variance across both students, across the various groups of students, and across the various outcome measures.
  • In the national study diversity experiences explain 1.5%-12.6% of the variance in educational outcomes for the four groups (White, Black, Latino, Asian American).
  • In the Michigan study, the three diversity experiences explained 1.9%-13.8% of the variance in educational outcomes of the three racial groups.
Keywords: Affirmative ActionClassroom CompositionCollegeDemocracyDiversityOutcomesRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Secondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Regression Sampling Frame:University of Michigan and UCLA students
Sampling Types: RandomAnalysis Units: StudentData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • The data are from two longitudinal databases:
    • (1) MSS (Michigan Student Survey) – single institution survey of students who entered U of Michigan in 1990 and follow-up survey in 1994. Sample includes 1,129 White, 187 Black, and 266 Asian students.
    • (2) CIRP (Cooperative Institutional Research Program)- national survey by the Higher Educational Research Institute at UCLA. Sample is taken from 184 schools in 1985 and follow-up survey four years later. Sample includes 216 black, 496 Asian, 206 Latino and 10,465 white students. This study uses the CIRP respondents in their fourth year (1989) who participated in the four year and ninth year follow-up.
  • Control variables: The MSS and the CIRP the control variables were comparable- racial composition of high school and precollege neighborhood, gender, high school GPA, SAT score, and SES measure (parental education).
  • IV: Each study included measures of classroom and informal diversity experiences, taken as independent variables for this study.
  • DV: The dependent variables are measures of learning outcomes (active thinking, intellectual engagement and motivation, and academic skills) and democracy outcomes (citizenship engagement, perspective-taking, racial/cultural engagement, and compatibility of difference and democracy).
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts