ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
This article is part of the Research TopicRacial Equity and the Organization: An Educational Change Call to ActionView all 8 articles
Outward Portrayals of Equity: An Examination of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Los Angeles County School Districts
Provisionally accepted
- 1Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, United States
- 2UNC Greensboro, Greensboro, United States
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Abstract Introduction: This study examines public schools districts in Los Angeles County to understand the extent to which diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is present. This study leverages racialized organization theory to elucidate the outward portrayal of DEI within these 80 schools districts. Methods: This study utilized a qualitative methodology. Data was pulled from the websites of the 80 public school districts in Los Angeles County in Fall of 2024. The data was analyzed using an inductive coding approach. Findings: Three major categories emerged during the analysis of the data. We found that school districts could be categorized as having an absence of DEI, a peripheral or values based conceptualization of DEI, or an action-oriented and in-depth approach to DEI. Discussion: We theorized that the outward portrayal of districts in the absence and peripheral mentions of DEI findings were exhibiting the race neutrality common in racialized organizations. This race neutrality ultimately supports the status quo and reifies white supremacy.
Keywords: California, diversity, inclusion, Los Angeles County, racial equity, Racialized organizations
Received: 07 Jun 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Salazar-Garza and Osworth. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Daisy Salazar-Garza
David Osworth
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