Embracing Diversity
What happens when a community's longstanding demographics change? Does the change affect a student and/or school staff's perceptions, attitudes and beliefs about diversity? Does the change create unease, stress or barriers to learning? Spring Lake Park, a Minneapolis/St. Paul suburb, began to answer these questions with a carefully thought out data-gathering process. They wanted to determine whether the transformation from a predominately white, middle-class community to a community with increasing numbers of Spanish-speakers, African Americans, Asian Americans and a greater range of low- to very high-income families was affecting students' ability to learn. Further, they wanted to learn whether students were relating to and/or embracing an increasingly diverse community.
Over a seven year span, Spring Lake Park school district's enrollment figures revealed that the community had shifted from a homogeneous white, middle class community to a racially, ethnically and socio-economically diverse community. Although the demographic data clearly indicated that the community was changing, there were few social and educational services in place focused on the needs of minority populations. For example, until very recently, there were no services for English Language Learners within the Spring Lake Park schools. English Language Learners had to receive the language services they needed elsewhere. There was other evidence that diversity was not embraced across the student body - students reported harassment and a general "Breakfast Club" or cliquey atmosphere prevalent in the high school, creating stress for some of the minority students.
The SS/HS project staff worked with a high school team to design a set of three surveys to uncover issues high school students, staff and parents were facing. Interestingly, the surveys indicated that minority males, in particular, felt that teachers could not relate to them.
Given this and other data from the surveys, project staff, under the leadership of SS/HS Director Barb Zandlo Hutchinson, determined that the school's atmosphere was indeed creating barriers to learning. The feedback indicated both long term and short term strategies were needed to create a more accepting school atmosphere. Long term strategies involved establishing task forces, reallocating resources to address needs, and staff diversity and cultural competence training. In the short term, Barb and her staff chose a comprehensive and participatory social marketing and communication campaign designed to shift behaviors, perceptions and attitudes about diversity and change among students, staff and parents. The campaign's goals were to create awareness about the changing demographics in the county, to decrease harassment among students, increase student connectedness to teachers and school and overall, to improve relations in the schools and the community.
The theme of the social marketing campaign, "Expand your Circle---Get to Know Me," came about through partner and student focus groups. The theme underscores the importance of appreciating differences in others. An art contest was held among 4 different school-age categories to illustrate the theme on posters. Website and school newsletter features were created to demonstrate how to begin discussions about appreciating difference. Brochures for parents and school staff providing a listing of suggested activities that could be used to get conversations started in the classroom and at home. Throughout the community, partners such as libraries and county counseling agencies displayed "Get to Know Me" materials to create broader reach in the community.
This spring, SS/HS staff will conduct another survey to measure the degree of positive change in attitudes, beliefs and perceptions within the Spring Lake Park schools. Information from the survey will provide guidance for adjustments to the "Get to Know Me" campaign as well as direction for future interventions.
Barb and Jody Herron, communications specialist, offer the following advice for other grantees looking to address the challenges that often accompany community demographic shifts:
- Keep track of demographic information but don't stop there. Ask yourself, "What do the numbers mean to the community in terms of behavior, perceptions, belief and attitudes? Are the schools and community ready and able to embrace diversity?" You can obtain this kind of information through focus groups or key-informant interviews.
- Involve stakeholders every step of the way. Include them in focus groups, problem-solving sessions, planning and development of messages and products. This level of involvement creates broad buy-in from the community, from students to teachers to parents to administrators to community leaders. A feeling of ownership of the process helps the learning intervention spread and stick.
- Keep your eye open for opportunities - cultural competence may not be at the top of the list for administrators but if that discussion is piggy-backed onto a discussion about allocating resources to serve the needs of a growing minority population - it's a double win.
