The Effect of Racial Diversity in College Friend Groups on Academic Achievement Much attention is paid to the effects of individuals’ race on their academic achievement. Focus on the effects of race tends to be centered on a purely individual level – from whether perceptions of one’s own race affects experience to whether stereotypes of one’s own race leads to negative individual life events. The diversity of these social networks is undoubtedly significant in personal academic achievement, but what about personal ties that are made of free choice outside of family and classmates? Does racial diversity in friend groups affect people of different races equally in terms of college academic achievement? Educational institutions boast their …show more content…
Racially diverse educational institutions ultimately improve preparation for a more racially diverse society. More racial integration in high schools leads to increased diversity in workplaces for African-American and white students (Stearns). School desegregation can also result in more integrated residential patterns (Orfield and Luce). A survey of parents and students in one large metropolitan district that uses controlled choice was conducted, in which controlled choice is a method of assigning students to public schools to voluntarily achieve racially integrated schools (Alves). 64% of white students and 68% of African-American students felt very comfortable discussing controversial issues related to race, and an even higher proportion felt very comfortable working with students from various racial backgrounds on group projects (Orfield and Frankenberg). Minimizing implicit racial biases and stereotypes is occurring via the encouragement of racial diversity in education – such results are likely to be echoed in racially diverse friend …show more content…
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