Swimming Between the Rocks: Navigating Equity Detours in Diverse-by-Design Schools

Diverse-by-design (DbD) schools intentionally recruit students to create a racially/socioeconomically diverse student population. They seek to address historic segregation patterns in neighborhoods and build bridges across differences by intentionally developing diverse learning environments. DbD schools often demonstrate an increase in academic outcomes for youth, yet no valid reliable tools exist to investigate how these schools are evaluating themselves against non-academic outcomes of diversity, equity, and inclusion, particularly for Black students. This paper reported on the initial results from a mixed methods exploratory cross-case comparison of two DbD schools. Specific themes included demographic shifts, hiring practices, discipline practices, and COVID impacts on parental engagement.