California has the highest percentage of Latino students (59%) in intensely segregated schools

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

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.

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.

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 emerged, the schools they attend have become much more segregated.

On average, the percentage of Latino students who attended intensely segregated schools jumped by 67% from 1968 to 2021, although some regions in the country saw much more dramatic shifts.

For example, the percentage of Latino students in the West who attended intensely segregated schools spiked from 12% in 1968 to 46% in 2021, according to a UCLA Civil Rights Project analysis of federal data.

California has the highest percentage of Latino students (59%) in intensely segregated schools, followed by Texas and New York (both at 53%), the UCLA report said.

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