Another liberal myth bites the dust?

Clarice Feldman at the American Thinker links up to this report released from the United States Commission on Civil Rights that essentially states that there is “scant evidence” that diversity in elementary and secondary schools is beneficial to students. Specifically:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Less than one week before the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral argument[s] in two significant cases involving the use of racial benefits to reduce minority isolation in elementary and secondary education, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights today issued an important briefing report on The Benefits of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Elementary and Secondary Education. The report finds that social science studies provide scant proof of the benefits for racial and ethnic groups attributed to diversity in elementary and secondary education.

Specifically, the Commission finds that “there is little evidence that racial and ethnic diversity in elementary and secondary schools results in significant improvements in academic performance; studies on the effect of school racial composition on academic achievement often suggest modest and inconsistent benefits.” Similarly, the Commission notes that “studies of whether racial and ethnic diversity result in significant social and non-educational benefits report varied results.”

Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds commented that “the academic literature really provides little or no support for the view that racial preferences in student assignment serve any compelling interest. In my view, the evidence, suggests that these preferences do not provide significant academic benefits to minority children that would compensate for the moral costs of government’s use of racial classifications.”

Here’s the full report. For dial up, the loading time may be slow (it’s a 6.42 MB file).

TUE AM UPDATE: La Shawn Barber has a must-read post up this morning about the two cases currently before the USSC on race-based school assignments. She has a column up about it as well. Make sure to read them both.