In the first of a multi-part series of reports on school segregation trends in the Eastern region of the country, the Civil Rights Project at UCLA released a new study showing Latino students are increasingly segregated in schools, particularly in Northern Virginia, where they make up the largest minority group.
The report, “MILES TO GO: A Report on School Segregation in Virginia, 1989-2010”, also shows low-income students account for about three-quarters of the student body in the state’s intensely segregated schools, highlighting a persistent and ongoing overlap between racial isolation and concentrated poverty in segregated schools. 16% of black students in the state of Virginia now attend an intensely segregated school, 90-100% minority, increasing from about 12% in 1989.
Northern Virginia is the only region in the state reporting a pattern of more intense concentration of Latino students than black students in segregated minority settings. Northern Virginia is also the first region in the state to report that none of its largest school districts are predominantly (80%) white.
Despite Virginia’s long history with school desegregation, little political attention has been paid to the growing multi-racial diversity of the state’s enrollment and rising levels of isolation for its black and Latino students.
Click here to read the entire report.
