Evaluating diversity training in schools: A narrative review of different measurement approaches

Abstract

Educational leaders have enacted diversity training as a result of persistent racial disparities in educational outcomes. Diversity training is defined as professional development aimed at promoting inclusive attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors among school staff. Despite the widespread implementation of diversity training, research suggests that these trainings are often not evaluated in rigorous or meaningful ways. We provide a narrative review of the multi-disciplinary literature that takes stock of the measurement approaches that could be used to effectively evaluate school-based diversity training. Specifically, this integrative empirical review spans a variety of approaches, including qualitative, self-report, implicit attitudes, vignettes of student behavior, observational, and student-level data. We provide a comprehensive synthesis of the strengths and weaknesses of these measurement strategies by evaluating the extent to which they center the perspectives of students from minoritized groups and are relevant to promoting educational equity. We present a critique within and across different study outcomes as well as implications for advancing research and practice with school-based diversity trainings. Our review reaffirmed the need for more research evaluating diversity training within schools across a variety of different outcomes. Such evaluations will ideally be planned with the school context in mind, driven by a strong theory of change, informed by an understanding of the strengths and limitations of a given measurement approach, and guided by the anti-racist goals that initially motivated diversity training implementation.