Spanish-Speaking Students Segragated
In Poorest Schools
By Fresia Rodríguez Cadavid

A study published in the November issue of Demography Journal found that Spanish-speaking students learning English were enrolled in schools where 71% of students were low income. This is a 17% increase from 1989. Other Hispanic non-LEP students attended schools that were 62% low income, while black and white students attended schools considered 55% and 30% low-income, respectively.

As detailed in the article ''Diversity and Change in the Institutional Context of Immigrant Adaptation: California Schools 1985-2000,'' Hispanic limited-English-proficient students in California attended K-12 public schools with the highest levels of children of color as well as students from low-income households.

Among California's 5.9 million public school students, approximately 25% were LEP in the 1999-2000 school year.

Low-income is defined by students who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches.

"Schools are becoming more segregated because immigrants are residentially segregated and composing larger neighborhoods," Bowling Green State University professor Jennifer Van Hook, one of the study's authors, told Weekly Report.

Among measures recommended by Van Hook and co-author Kelly Stamper Balistreri to lessen segregation of Spanish-speaking LEP students was to have school districts re-establish boundaries to include more diverse neighborhoods.