Can Bilingual Education Generate Meaningful School Integration? A Case Study of Los Angeles
CRIS & LIEPP Seminar with Lucrecia Santibañez (UCLA), November 14th, 2025
Event Details
- Date and Time: November 14, 2025, from 11:30 to 12:30
- Organized jointly with LIEPP - Educational Policies Research Group
Context and Challenges
Seventy years after Brown v. Board of Education, urban schools in the United States remain segregated by race, income, and language. Low-income students often attend under-resourced schools. Recent expansions of vouchers, charter schools, and homeschooling have challenged integration efforts developed over decades.
Bilingual Education as a Solution
Dual-language immersion (DLI) programs in the U.S. offer instruction in English and a target language, promoting academic rigor, bilingualism, biculturalism, and cross-cultural competence. DLI programs are the fastest-growing educational option in many states.
Because language, race, and economic status are intertwined, DLI schools attract families with diverse home languages and gather students from a wide range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
Research Focus
This lecture will present findings from a research program on DLI in Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest public school district. It will explore where and how DLI programs develop, their effects on segregation, learning, and linguistic outcomes, as well as strategies to recruit diverse families.
"Bilingual Education, or ‘Dual-language immersion (DLI) programs’ as they are known in the United States, present a potential solution by providing instruction in English and a target language while promoting academic rigor, bilingualism/biculturalism, and cross-cultural competence."
Author’s summary: This research highlights bilingual education’s role in fostering integration by connecting diverse socio-economic and cultural students through dual-language immersion programs in Los Angeles schools.