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2001 - The Positive Educational Effects of Racial Diversity on Campus

Attribution: Chang, Mitchell J.
Researchers: Mitchell J. Chang
University Affiliation: UCLA
Email: mjchang@gseis.ucla.edu
Research Question:
Link between diversity and positive educational outcomes.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Harvard Education Publishing Group
Journal Entry: Diversity Challenged: Evidence on the Impact of Affirmative Action, 175-186
Year: 2001
Findings:
  • Racial diversity defined as: percentages of students from different major racial groups were combined to create an overall measure that equates diversity with heterogeneity. Racial diversity as an institution’s ability to offer opportunities for maximum cross-racial interaction for all students.
  • Multiracial diversity is a significant, though not strong, positive predictor of students’ likelihood of forming interracial friendships and talking about race and ethnicity, even after students’ background and campus environment are taken into account.
  • Both socializing across racial lines discussing issues of race are positive educational experiences.
  • Because diversity on campus increases the likelihood of student’s having these experiences.
  • Diversity has educational benefits in college.
Keywords: CollegeContextDiversityOutcomesRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeAnalysis Methods: Regression Sampling Frame:National
Sampling Types: NonrandomAnalysis Units: StudentData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) database. CIRP is a longitudinal set of very large student and faculty surveys and research, sponsored by the American Council on Education and the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA.
  • CIRP data used in this study included information from two surveys: 1985 freshman survey and 1989 follow up survey of the same college class in the senior year.
  • Final sample had 18,188 students attending 392 four year colleges and universities. Sample was statistically adjusted for nonresponsive and weighted to approximate the national population of students.
  • Information on students SAT and ACT scores provided by the Educational Testing Service and the American College Testing Program.
  • Information from the 1989 HERI Registrar’s Survey that provided additional information on which student’s had earned bachelor’s degrees, which were still enrolled in college, and how many years of college each student has completed.
  • 1989 HERI Faculty Survey from full-time teaching personnel at 212 of the same institutions for which longitudinal student data were available.
  • DV: Frequency with which students socialized with those of different racial or ethnic backgrounds, and the frequency of their having discussions of racial or ethnic issues.

  • Control variables: SES, race, gender, and measures of student ability, institutional size, location, type, religious affiliation, gender and selectivity.

  • IV: Variables that measured students’ direct involvement and experiences with their institutions (enrolling in an ethnic studies course, attending a racial or cultural awareness workshop, etc.)
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts
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