Can Bilingual Education Generate Meaningful School Integration? A Case Study of Los Angeles
CRIS & LIEPP Seminar with Lucrecia Santibañez (UCLA)
Date and time: November 14th, 2025, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Organizers: Jointly organized with LIEPP - Educational Policies Research Group
Context and Challenges
Seventy years after Brown v. Board of Education, urban schools in the United States remain highly segregated by race, income, and language. Low-income students are often concentrated in under-resourced schools. Recent expansions of vouchers, charter schools, and homeschooling threaten decades of integration progress.
Bilingual Education as a Potential Solution
Dual-language immersion (DLI) programsrepresent a growing educational model that provides instruction in both English and a target language. These programs promote academic rigor, bilingualism, biculturalism, and cross-cultural competence.
DLI is currently the fastest-growing educational option in many U.S. states. Since language, race, and economic status often overlap, targeting families with distinct home languages allows DLI schools to bring together students from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
Research Focus
This lecture presents findings from a recent research program on DLI programs in Los Angeles, the country’s second-largest public school district. It will explore:
- The origins and locations of DLI programs.
- Their impact on segregation and academic as well as linguistic outcomes.
- Recruitment strategies to attract diverse families.
“I will discuss how and where DLI programs emerge, their impact on segregation and learning/linguistic outcomes and practices to recruit diverse families.”
Summary: Bilingual education through dual-language immersion offers promising avenues to foster meaningful integration by bridging cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic divides in urban school districts like Los Angeles.