The Lopatcong Township School District of Phillipsburg, N.J., recently undertook an action research project that had three goals: One was to increase teacher knowledge and improve teacher attitude regarding diversity. A second was to provide students with opportunities to discover similarities and embrace differences between diverse settings. The third goal was to create an on-going dialogue about diversity issues and infuse an overall ‘diversity initiative’ into the curriculum, values and mission of our district. Two schools became part of the Diversity Project: Lopatcong Township, in Warren County, a mostly White, suburban district, and Avon Avenue, a predominantly minority school, located in Newark. Teachers visited each other’s school district and shared ideas about education, attended diversity seminars and worked with students throughout the experience. The project was funded through a grant sponsored by the Geraldine Dodge Foundation.

Ultimately, we were able to meet all three goals. The results of the statistical component of the research suggest that teacher knowledge and attitude can be increased. T-test and correlation coefficient results suggest that as you raise teacher knowledge about diversity, their attitudes change about it as well. Examples of teacher attitude change were seen in their responses to questions about diversity and student achievement. By the end of the project, teachers stated that they believed a humane, democratic teaching environment has a greater impact on learning than socio-economics. Moreover, each faculty member that was part of the project agreed that deliberate efforts must be taken to counter the negative effects of race and gender stereotypes, or the social identities of students will determine their academic outcomes.

By establishing two experimental and one control group, we were able to test the effects of educational interventions. The “Workshop Group” was administered a pre- and post- survey on diversity, with a three-hour diversity seminar in-between. The “Exchange Group” was administered a pre-survey, participated in several programs (including the seminar, visits to each other’s school, and a culminating event), and took the post survey four months later. The “Control Group” took the pre- and post-survey at successive faculty meetings, one month apart, with no educational intervention. The results of that component of the study suggest that as more intensive educational interventions are administered, both knowledge and attitude will improve. Six hypotheses were tested in the study and each demonstrated statistical significance. Thus, the first goal was met through the action research portion of the study.