Students have taken a prominent role in promoting respect and understanding among different races and cultures. Jefferson students are trained in peer conflict management in order to serve as peer mediators. Fifteen students in each grade level are peer mediators, with seventh and eighth graders also serving as peer counselors. Issues of student diversity are addressed throughout school curriculum, instruction, assessment, and programs at Jefferson. A whole language, literature-based approach to reading is used to support and enhance the multicultural and global concepts reinforced throughout the curriculum.
Students write daily in journals, in which they reflect upon the literature they have read.
Students are encouraged to develop their oral language skills through multicultural storytelling, dramatizations of multicultural literature, oral reports, and discussion groups. Computers and other technologies are an integral part of classroom instruction. The multicultural and international focus officially began in 1992 in sixth-grade classes and now includes all grade levels. Students learn about the geography, cultures, history, and current issues and problems of Africa, Asia, Europe, and South and Central America, and about the perspectives and contributions of African Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos. Jefferson staff reflect the ethnic and racial makeup of the student body.