Students of all races and ethnicities benefit from ethnically diverse middle schools

More than half of school-age youth in the United States are members of ethnic minority groups, yet the nation’s public schools are becoming less ethnically diverse. Recognizing these conflicting trends and the lack of research on the effects of ethnic diversity, a new study sought to determine how the diversity of middle school students and classrooms shapes students’ self-reported well-being and their views on race. The study found that in general, as the ethnic diversity of a middle school increases, students of different ethnicities have better outcomes in these areas – but class composition also plays a large role in their views.