Do Chief Diversity Officers Uphold Their Promise of Helping Students or Cause Harm?

Congress allocated an extra $190 billion to schools during the pandemic to prevent academic regression. However, the hiring of chief diversity officers by school districts, instead of helping, worsened the situation for minority students.

These chief diversity officers were hired to address racial achievement gaps and support the needs of minority students. Unfortunately, their focus on enforcing ideological views on race and gender in schools proved to be educationally detrimental for these students.

Our national analysis of test scores revealed that minority students in districts with chief diversity officers experienced significant learning loss during the pandemic compared to districts without them. In these districts, Black and Hispanic students’ scores declined even more than those of White students.

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The additional decline in math achievement for Black and Hispanic students in districts with diversity officers was approximately one-quarter of the overall decline in learning for all students. This represents a significant drop, equivalent to more than 4.5 percentile points on a nationally normed achievement test.

Even after accounting for pre-pandemic racial achievement gaps and their trends, the negative impact of chief diversity officers remained evident. Racial achievement gaps worsened in districts with these officers during the pandemic.

Hiring a senior district official who promotes the idea that Black and Hispanic students should not be held to the same standards as other students due to structural racism clearly undermined the success of minority students.

In 2021, 39% of school districts with at least 15,000 students had chief diversity officers. After receiving the $190 billion funding, this percentage increased to 48%. Among larger school districts with over 100,000 students, 89% now have these bureaucrats.

Even smaller districts with 15,000 to 20,000 students have joined the trend, with 40% of them employing chief diversity officers. Federal COVID-19 funding facilitated the adoption of this idea from universities to school districts, starting with larger districts and gradually spreading to smaller ones.

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As chief diversity officers continue to infiltrate educational institutions, they fail to improve academic achievement but succeed in spreading their ideological views on race and gender. While districts with these officers experienced greater learning loss among minority students, they were also more likely to implement policies that conceal information from parents concerning their child’s gender issues.

Among districts with a chief diversity officer, 40% recently adopted policies to withhold information from parents about their children changing names, pronouns, or using different bathrooms, compared to only 23% among districts without such officers.

We cannot ascertain whether diversity officers directly caused the adoption of these policies. However, it is evident that districts with diversity officers prioritize advancing contentious ideological agendas over student learning.

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.

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With the deadline to spend the remaining $190 billion approaching, many district officials believe schools need additional federal funds to avoid a fiscal crisis. Instead of burdening taxpayers further with no positive outcome, school district officials should focus on cutting unnecessary expenses. The chief diversity officer position should be the first expense to eliminate.

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Madison Marino is a researcher in the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation.