Methodology: The Most Diverse High Schools in MA

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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Tracey Minkin, GoLocal Features Editor

To compile its ranking of Massachusetts' most diverse high schools, GoLocal utilized data submitted by each school to the Institute for Education Science's National Center for Education Statistics.

This data includes a total enrollment figure and numbers of students in each of 6 racial categories:

American Indian/Alaskan
Asian/Pacific Islander
Black
Hispanic
Two or more races
White

GoLocal researchers used these numbers to compute percentages of the student body in each category. From there, to assess a school's overall racial balance, GoLocal looked at how far from a "perfect balance" of equal representation in each category (16.6%) each school fell. The numerical distance, either above or below, 16.6 was calculated for each school in each category, and then summed. The lowest sums indicated those schools closest to balance across all six categories.

Those sums, from lowest to highest, yielded GoLocal's rankings.

To see the schools, in ranked order, go here.

GoLocal acknowledges that nearly every public school represents the diversity of its community; this ranking does not seek to correlate that factor. This is a statistical look at how each and every public and charter school's composition represents a true (or far from true) racial diversity.