Chapter 2: The Latino Paradox?: School Segregation and Latino Student Achievement

The increased segregation of Latino youth in schools in the U.S. has raised concerns about the system’s ability to foster the academic adaptation of this group of students. Latinos have surpassed African Americans as the most segregated racial/ethnic group (Orfield & Lee, 2005), and Limited English proficient (LEP) youth, the majority of whom are Latino, are even more segregated with 70% of the LEP population attending only 10% of all schools in the United States (Gándara & Contreras, 2009). Extant research has shown that Latino youth, especially LEP Latinos, score lower on standardized tests and have the highest dropout rate of any racial/ethnic group (Ryabov & Van Hook, 2006).