Beverly Hills : Ethnic Diversity Rises
Ethnic diversity has risen slightly among students in the Beverly Hills Unified School District, where more than 40 languages are represented and four out of 10 students speak a primary language other than English, according to a district report.
The percentage of students whose native language is not English rose from 38.9% in 1988 to 40.7% this year.
Despite the increase, only 8% of the district’s 4,000 students have limited proficiency in English, according to the report by Al JeKenta, the district’s language coordinator.
The most common primary language is Farsi, the language of Iran, spoken by 19.1% of the students. Next comes Hebrew, followed by Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, Russian and French.
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