Hiring a "chief diversity officer" doesn't close achievement gaps, concludes an analysis by Jay P. Greene and Madison Marino of the Heritage Foundation's Center on Education Policy.
Black and Hispanic students had "significantly greater learning loss during the pandemic in school districts that had hired chief diversity officers than in districts without one."
Even controlling for pre-pandemic achievement gaps, minority students lost more than their white classmates, especially in math, they found. "Racial achievement gaps went from bad to worse in these districts."
Why?
Hiring a senior district official who insists that Black and Hispanic students not be held to the same standards of behavior or academic achievement as other students because of structural racism obviously undermined minority student success.
Nearly half of districts with at least 15,000 students employ a chief diversity or equity officer, and that rises to 89 percent for districts with more than 100,000 students, the study found. "Federal COVID-19 money has facilitated the spread of this idea from universities into school districts."
If students are told that turning in work on time, respecting teachers and taking responsibility for their actions are "white supremacist" expectations, that success in school won't pay off due to "systematic racism" . . . Why bother with the math homework?