Association of Racial/Ethnic Diversity With School Climate: Intersecting Race/Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Identities

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 9:00 am
  In Roundtable Session: Innovations in K–12 School Community, Climate, and Culture: Considerations for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Table 14)

Abstract

Limited research was on how school demographic compositions may explain students' perceptions of school climate. This study, which included Latinx and White students from California public schools, used stratified analysis to examine the relationships between two prominent diversity aspects (i.e., student and teacher racial/ethnic diversity) and students' perceived school climate (i.e., perceived safety and equity, school support, and school attitude toward parental participation). Among students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, increased teacher racial/ethnic diversity was linked with higher perceived school equality and safety and more favorable school attitudes toward parental participation. In schools with higher student racial/ethnic diversity, Latinx students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds perceived that school safety and equality were less favorable. Implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Maggie Chan, University of California - Berkeley

• Jill D. Sharkey, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Karen L. Nylund-Gibson, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Erin Dowdy, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Michael J. Furlong, University of California - Santa Barbara