Study Shows Triple Segregation Persists in Texas Schools
Last month I first shared Expansive School Segregation in Texas: Predicts Accountability Rating with Cloaking Inequity readers. Yesterday UT-Austin communications drafted a press release for the study (see below) so there was a flurry of media activity. Univision also profiled the study on their 5 p.m. new program.
A first-of-its-kind study from researchers in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin shows that, in addition to being isolated by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, English language learners in Texas schools also are separated by language, suffering what has been termed “triple segregation.”Education professors Julian Vasquez Heilig and Jennifer Jellison Holme analyzed school-level Texas Education Agency (TEA) data to determine the level of school segregation experienced by the rapidly growing English Language Learner (ELL) population in Texas, which is now the second largest in the nation. They were also interested in the relationship between levels of segregation and the performance of schools on the state accountability system.Despite a 20-year-old accountability system that was designed to promote equality, the researchers found the majority of Texas ELL students remain in high poverty, high minority schools that are rated as low performing on the state accountability system.“Our research revealed that schools where students are segregated by race/ethnicity, SES and