This year there has been widespread debate about the value and fairness of universities prioritizing diversity among the students they serve. New research suggests one way to look at the question: by looking at how the mix of students in a given course affects their grades.
TO study published in the journal AERA Open found that students achieve better grades in college STEM courses when those classrooms have higher percentages of students who are underrepresented racial minorities or are the first in their families to participate in higher education.
This was true for all students, and especially for minorities and first-generation students themselves.
“A higher level of representation benefits students of all backgrounds,” study co-author Nicholas Bowman, a professor of educational policy and leadership studies at the University of Iowa, told EdSurge.
This is notable, he adds, because the discussion about diversity on campus often boils down to a “zero-sum game,” where one group of students is portrayed as the loser and another group of students as the winner.
The study was conducted using administrative data from 20 universities. The researchers were able to review the grades for each course taken by students from different personal backgrounds.
In STEM courses with higher rates of underrepresented racial minorities, the gap in grades between those students and their peers narrowed by 27 percent. In STEM courses with higher rates of first-generation students, the grade gap was reduced by 56 percent.
The findings are notable in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines because blacks and Hispanics are not well represented in those fields, either as college students or as professionals in the workplace.
So why did diversity affect students' grades?
It doesn't seem to be the case that students did better because they chose easier courses, Bowman says, nor can easier grades in some classes explain the findings. One hypothesis that remains is that underrepresented racial minority students and first-generation students feel more welcome and have a greater sense of belonging when they look around a classroom and see other people like them.
As for why all students did better in the more diverse classrooms, Bowman said there is a a lot of research suggesting that there are cognitive and interpersonal benefits for people who interact with others who differ from themselves. That's an idea that jives with the “instrumental justification” for why higher education institutions might prioritize recruiting a diverse set of students to campus.
In other words, there is a practical benefit (better grades for students) associated with classroom heterogeneity.
That line of reasoning had long found support among university leaders as justification for their efforts to promote diversity, as researcher Jordan Starck, who is now an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University, previously explained to EdSurge. an explicit “moral justification.” concerned with values and principles such as “equity, justice, equity.”
Of course, neither argument seemed convincing to the U.S. Supreme Court this summer, when the body actually ended affirmative action admissions programs at universities.
Still, Bowman hopes the study's results will encourage university leaders to strengthen efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented racial minority and first-generation students. There may also be promise, he adds, in trying to structure courses more deliberately to include students from diverse backgrounds, although he notes that this is a delicate proposition, as stereotypes about who belongs in STEM courses could inadvertently create a stigma. around them. courses that earn a reputation for prioritizing diversity.
