Can Bilingual Education Generate Meaningful School Integration? A Case-Study of Los Angeles
CRIS & LIEPP Seminar with Lucrecia Santibañez (UCLA), November 14th, 2025
Overview
Seventy years after Brown v. Board of Education, urban schools in the United States remain increasingly segregated by race, income, and language. Low-income students are often clustered in under-resourced schools. Recent growth in vouchers, charter schools, and homeschooling poses new challenges to integration efforts.
Bilingual Education as a Potential Solution
Bilingual Education, or [translate:Dual-language immersion (DLI) programs] as they are called in the U.S., offers instruction in English and a target language. These programs aim to promote academic rigor, bilingualism, biculturalism, and cross-cultural competence.
DLI is the fastest-growing educational approach in many U.S. states. Because language, race, and economic status are interconnected, DLI schools, by enrolling families with different home languages, bring together students from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
Research Focus
This lecture reviews a recent research program examining DLI in Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest public school district. It discusses the emergence of DLI programs, their effects on segregation, and outcomes related to learning and language development. It also covers methods for recruiting diverse families.
“This lecture will discuss how and where DLI programs emerge, their impact on segregation and learning/linguistic outcomes and practices to recruit diverse families.”
Author's summary: Bilingual immersion programs in Los Angeles show promise for fostering meaningful school integration by bridging language, cultural, and socio-economic divides while enhancing educational outcomes.
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