VOA标准英语2014--Study: Latino Students Most Segregated in California

 

Study: Latino Students Most Segregated¹ in California

LOS ANGELES —

Even though legal school segregation² ended in the United States 60 years ago, one study finds segregation still occurs in the U.S. based on income and race. The University of California Los Angeles Civil Rights Project finds that students in California are more segregated by race than ever before, especially Latinos.

Immigrants from Latin America believe that coming to the United States means a better life for their children. But many find themselves living in dangerous places and with a bleak³ future, said Gary Orfield, co-director of the UCLA Civil Rights Project.

“They are the places where the gangs are concentrated, the crime is concentrated, there is no real job market and the schools are what we call 'dropout⁴ factories,'” said Orfield.

In the United States, the public school a student attends depends on where the child lives. Those in more affluent⁵ neighborhoods usually attend better public schools.

Economic factors

The UCLA Civil Rights Project finds California is the state in which Latino students are the most segregated in the country. Warren Fletcher of United Teachers Los Angeles said it is not just by race.

“It is not just segregation by ethnic⁶ group. It is also economic segregation,” he said.

The UCLA study found that in 1993, California Latinos attended schools where almost 60 percent of the population was poor. By 2012, Latinos were in schools where more than 70 percent of the students came from low-income homes.

Critical care nurse Andrew Lara grew up in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in the 1980s. But he had the opportunity to attend a mostly white school with better academics in a different neighborhood.

“I think because I was better prepared academically, the notion of making that transition to college and doing well was easier for me than it was for my brother and sister who never went to college."

While Lara thinks busing students to a different school is a good way to create diversity and opportunity, Luis Alvarado does not.

“My younger sisters were forced to bus from a very Latino neighborhood into districts where they felt that they were being segregated on other circumstances. They did not feel that they were part of that community. 

Therefore, their education experience was not as rich as I felt I had, my personal education experience being a student in my own district,” said Alvarado.

Certain advantages

Pio Pico elementary school is in a low-income, predominantly Latino community 50 kilometers from Los Angeles. Local school board president Audrey Yamagata-Noji said that while there may not be as many parks or libraries in the community, there are benefits to being part of the majority.

“I would not say we are segregated. I would say we are predominantly Latino. With that come opportunities, as well. I think that when you are the majority, you do not know limitations,” she said.

Robert Anguiano, the school's principal, said, "Our students do not see these as ... any obstacles. The adults do, and we have to keep maintaining our high expectations.”

At Santa Ana public schools, enrichment classes are offered, and students are exposed to the outside world through field trips and athletic⁷ competitions. At Pio Pico Elementary, classes are taught in English and Spanish.

Beyond exposing students to other ethnicities, educators say policy makers⁸, parents, teachers and students need to work together to overcome the income and ethnic divide, and help young people succeed.

1 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

2 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

3 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

4 dropout   

n.退学的学生；退学；退出者

参考例句：

• There is a high dropout rate from some college courses.有些大学课程的退出率很高。
• In the long haul,she'll regret having been a school dropout.她终归会后悔不该中途辍学。

5 affluent   

adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的

参考例句：

• He hails from an affluent background.他出身于一个富有的家庭。
• His parents were very affluent.他的父母很富裕。

6 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

7 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

8 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》