Yesterday, I created diversity rankings for all LAUSD schools. Let’s take it a step further and map out that diversity.
If you zoom in a bit, you can start to see the patterns. The Eastern and Southeastern parts of LAUSD have the least diverse schools. West LA, the Harbor Corridor and the West Valley have more diverse schools.
The reason is simple. In order to have diversity, you have to have diverse neighborhoods. While West LA and the West Valley have more White and Asian families than the rest of the city, neither comprise a majority, resulting in diverse schools. Much of East LA and the East Valley is homogenous in its ethnicity (not in nationality though). And that results in a large chunk of non-diverse schools.
I think there are a few interesting things that should be pointed out.
First there are three schools (all charter schools) where the vast majority of students have (intentionally or unintentionally) not reported their ethnicity. Whether this is simply a reporting error or a decision by the families to avoid filling out race on applications, it seems quite strange. They are Metro Charter, New Village Girls Academy, and Montague Charter Academy.
Second, there are 382 schools that are more than 90% Latino in Los Angeles. 50% of Latino students in Los Angeles go to those schools – meaning that 50% of Latino students have educational experiences that are essentially segregated.
But overall, the map is really just a reflection of Los Angeles – a broadly de-facto segregated city with many de-facto segregated schools.