Latino Segregation in Schools Increases

More Latino children are attending segregated schools in the United States than before, while segregation of black students is virtually unchanged from the early 1970s, a new study concludes.

University of Chicago researchers also found that public schools in New York state are the most segregated in the nation for Latino students, while Illinois is the most segregated state for black students.

“It’s amazing we’re not going backward,” said Gary Orfield, professor of political science and education at the university. Orfield was the leader of the research team that analyzed data from the federal Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights.

The researchers analyzed data through 1984, the most recent year for which government figures were available. The study was published in the July issue of Focus, a Washington-based journal on issues related to blacks.

Nationwide, the percentage of Latino students attending “intensely segregated” public schools--those with at least 90% minority enrollment--was 23.1% in 1968, 28.8% in 1980, and 31% in 1984.

New York was the most segregated state for Latino students, with the percentage in intensely segregated schools rising from 56.8% in 1980 to 59.1% in 1984, the study found.

Illinois was next, with 41.2% of Latino students attending intensely segregated schools in 1984, followed by Texas, New Jersey and Connecticut, according to the study.