Chief Diversity Officers Infiltrate Public Schools

Nearly half of K-12 school districts with over 15,000 students have a Chief Diversity Officer position, despite their questionable efficacy.

In late 2021, a report by Dr. Jay Greene and James Paul at the Heritage Foundation found that public schools were increasingly turning to Chief Diversity Officers to ensure equitable educational outcomes.

These officials go by different names: chief equity and diversity officer, assistant director of equity and inclusion, director of social emotional learning and educational equity. Greene and Paul found that they were present in 39% of school districts with over 15,000 students, and the rate in larger districts was more than double, at 79%. Overall, these officials are significantly more common in Democrat-leaning states and jurisdictions than Republican ones.

But wherever they can be found, the basic purpose of a Chief Diversity Officer is always the same: to reduce gaps in achievement between students of different groups.

Whether they are succeeding in this matter is up for question. In fact, Greene and Paul found that districts with Chief Diversity Officers actually have greater gaps in achievement between white and nonwhite students, and rich and poor students, than those without such positions.

A follow-up to the initial report, released in October 2023 by Greene and Madison Marino, reveals new information about just how widespread the phenomenon really is – and how much harm these Chief Diversity Officers may be doing.

Over the past two years, Greene and Marino found, the number of school districts with over 15,000 students who had Chief Diversity Officers had grown from 39% to 48%. The presence of a Chief Diversity Officer was still correlated with greater achievement gaps between white and nonwhite students, as well as with greater pandemic-era learning loss among nonwhite students.

Despite their apparent failures to close achievement gaps, however, these officers have been successful at promoting certain ideological agendas within the classroom, including those which many parents find objectionable. Somewhat alarmingly, the presence of a Chief Diversity Officer in schools was correlated with school district policies which allow schools to keep students’ gender identity secret from parents.

Of course, correlation does not equal causation, and it is unclear whether Chief Diversity Officers are promoting these policies or merely helping to enforce them, but one thing is clear: the presence of a Chief Diversity Officer is a strong sign that a school district possesses a certain ideological bent.

Diversity remains a stated goal for many K-12 schools, although not equally everywhere. According to a 2023 Pew Research analysis, 34% of school districts mention diversity, equity, and inclusion in their mission statements – almost as many as the 38% that mention the development of academic skills. This emphasis is strongly tied in with the political leanings of the district in question, with school districts in Democrat-voting areas being more than twice as likely to mention diversity, equity, and inclusion as those in Republican-voting areas.

However, a recent article in Education Week indicates that some school districts may be toning down the emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion. In a few cases, schools have reoriented their efforts to focus on a gentler and more universal version of inclusiveness instead of focusing on specific identity groups. Whether any of this will lead to a meaningful shift in practice is still up in the air, but it is an encouraging sign for those who are critical of the expansive role of Chief Diversity Officers.

What could lead to a further change in these trends? As per Greene and Marino, the movement towards Chief Diversity Officers was caused in part by the $190 billion in federal funding given to primary and secondary schools during the pandemic, originally intended to prevent student learning loss. But while the origins of the trend are federal, the answer may come on the state level, from legislators passing laws regulating the practice, and on the community level, with school districts and parents taking action to create meaningful change.