Latino Students Are the Most Segregated They’ve Been Since 1968

The share of Latino students attending intensely segregated schools has skyrocketed over the last three decades, according to two new reports and an Axios review of federal data.

Why it matters: Intensely segregated schools, defined as schools with a student population that is more than 90% nonwhite, have fewer resources, more teacher shortages, higher student-to-school counselor ratios, and fewer AP class options.

Driving the news: As the U.S. marks the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling on Friday, American public schools are growing more separate and unequal even though the country is more racially and ethnically diverse than ever.

State of play: Around 28% of the nation’s public school students were Latino in 2021, compared to 16% in 2000. But as the share of Latinos in the country has surged, the schools they attend have become much more segregated.

• On average, the percentage of Latino students who attended intensely segregated schools jumped by 67% 1968-2021 {snip}

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Zoom in: Segregation between Hispanic and white students, while lower on average than that of white and Black students, more than doubled in large school districts since the 1980s, a new study from Stanford and the University of Southern California found.

• On average, Latino students attended a school that was 75% nonwhite, while the typical Black student attended a school that was 76% nonwhite.
• The average Latino student also attended a school that had 60.7% poor students.
• The average Asian American and white students attended schools with 37% and 35% students in poverty respectively.

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