An activity that is part of a larger blog post at the University of Southern California contains a nearly identical to that of the “Diversity Inventory” used by a Heritage High English teacher in Wake County Public Schools.

The post titled, The MSW@USC Diversity Toolkit: A Guide to Discussing Identity, Power and Privilege, was found after some parents in the Wake County School District went digging for answers on the origin of the “Diversity Inventory” assignment at Heritage High School.

The parents had to dig after meeting with the district and getting no answers as to where the Diversity Inventory worksheet came from.  All one official would say is that it was not created by the Office of Equity Affairs.

This blog post at the University of Southern California’s Online Master of Social Work Program contains nearly identical to that of the Diversity Inventory employed at Heritage High School in the Wake County Public School System.

The introduction suggests this “toolkit is appropriate for a “teacher, youth group facilitator, student affairs personnel or manage a team that works with an underserved population.”

The introduction also suggests the activities can be “used as a guideline and can be modified to better fit your group’s unique needs.”

Scroll down the page to the section labeled Activity Four: Race and Ethnicity.

This section contains an inventory worksheet, which has been adapted from another worksheet produced by the College Committee for Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action at Stockton University in 2011. See pages 7-8.

When the MSC worksheet is set side by side with the Heritage Diversity Inventory, it is clear that a few of the topics have been altered such as the top row  “veteran status” being changed to “socioeconomic status” and some of the left-hand columns like “co-workers” were dropped. Other than that, it’s nearly identical.

It took some digging by parents in the district to find this blog post at the University of Southern California’s Online Master of Social Work program.