Research by Amy Stuart Wells, Professor of Sociology and Education, found that children of all backgrounds can benefit academically and socially from learning in racially diverse classrooms.

A story on The Atlantic magazine's website says Wells's study, released on February 9 by The Century Foundation, shows that, for students and parents who prioritize and seek out diverse educational experiences, "racially integrated schools improve education for students of all races and accomplish one immeasurable advantage: helping youth challenge stereotypes and their implicit biases toward people of different races and ethnicities."

In addition to the benefits that children receive from attending school in integrated classrooms, Wells says in The Atlantic article that her research “shows that white parents increasingly want their kids to go to diverse schools. If you ask, ‘Do parents want diverse schools?’ whites are saying yes.”

But fully realizing the benefits of diversity requires teachers who are trained in facilitating courageous conversations about race and skilled in racially and culturally relevant teaching practices, Wells told The Atlantic. “Research emphasizes how students learn from each other, but there are different things that teachers can do to foster that learning,

“We wrote the report to help people see the need for more research on teaching in more diverse classrooms. [We] need to do more work to help educators cultivate those benefits.”

The study, "How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms Can Benefit All Students," is also the subject of an article on The Huffington Post, Segregated Schools Could Be Keeping Us From Fixing Police Brutality, Suggests Study. This article suggests that the recent racial unrest and police brutality might have been prevented if more students had attended racially integrated schools.

“Interacting with different races at school helps students address their implicit and explicit biases about other racial groups, while promoting intergroup understanding and reducing prejudice,” according to The Huffington Post article. “Wells... posits that if most students – including those who go on to become police officers – were to grow up attending racially integrated schools, they would not harbor the biases that allow for discriminatory policing."

Published Tuesday, Feb 16, 2016