Policies valuing cultural diversity improve minority students’ sense of belonging

Societies and schools are facing new, culturally diverse populations and how they respond to these changes can have lasting impacts for everyone involved. Examining middle school diversity policies, a team of researchers from the University of Leuven, Belgium and the Queen’s University Belfast, UK, found that in schools with multicultural-based policies, ethnic minority students achieved just as well and felt that they belonged just as much as their majority peers. They also found that in schools that ignore or reject diversity, ethnic minority students had worse grades and felt that they belonged less in the school than their majority peers.