OR: News Article-1 in 6 students Latino
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One in six students is Latino
Enrollment - The state superintendent points to a need for more resources as diversity grows
Thursday, February 01, 2007
STEVEN CARTER
Nearly one in six students in Oregon public schools this year is Latino, while the number of white students continues to decline, the Oregon Department of Education reported Wednesday.
The annual statewide student count shows an increase of 6,117 Latino students, or 7 percent, to 90,363 students. That's in addition to a 10 percent increase from the 2005-06 school year.
Overall, Oregon enrollment grew by 2 percent to 562,828 students in kindergarten through high school. But the big increase in Latino students made up for a drop in white enrollment of nearly 5,000. The number of white students has dropped by 32,106 statewide since 2001-02.
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The statewide enrollment report, which tallies students each fall, is a snapshot of population trends in Oregon. The report shows:
Urban districts and districts with high housing costs continue to lose enrollment -- Lake Oswego schools dropped almost 3 percent this year. Portland, Eugene and Medford also declined.
Most suburban Portland districts continued to grow, led by Beaverton's 3 percent increase.
Enrollment in small, remote school districts continued to decline, reflecting the loss of family-wage jobs in rural areas.
Growth of other minorities -- African-American, Native American and Asian-American -- continued, but at a slower pace than Latino students.
Demographer Charles Rynerson of Portland State University's Population Research Center said the Latino surge will continue, largely because of an influx of Latino families of child-bearing age and a high birth rate among Latino women.
The birth rate among white women peaked in 1990, and the children of the baby boom "echo" are nearing the end of their high school careers, Rynerson said.
One in six students is Latino
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Rynerson, who does population forecasts for Oregon school districts, said the birth rate among Latino women is declining, but not as fast as whites and other minorities.
Latino children are concentrated in large numbers in early grades, while white student numbers are biggest in upper grades.
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates there may be as many as 175,000 illegal immigrants in Oregon, the majority of them from Latin America. Rynerson has no idea how many Latino students might be illegal. Neither the U.S. Census nor schools tracks that.
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"Schools don't ask the immigration status of students -- that's illegal under federal law," said Gene Evans, Department of Education spokesman. "We take whoever shows up at the door."
State school Superintendent Susan Castillo said the growing diversity of Oregon's school population underscores the need for more resources -- bilingual teachers, more training and more money. She is asking lawmakers to increase Gov. Ted Kulongoski's proposed $6.06 billion school budget to $6.3 billion to provide more full-day kindergarten, early childhood education programs and smaller classes.
Latino enrollment in the Hillsboro School District has swelled to nearly 29 percent of the district's 20,077 students, said Saideh Haghighi, Hispanic outreach director.
The district has responded by adding more translators, parent nights in Spanish for Latino parents and training teachers in how to teach academic subjects to students with limited English. The district plans to address teacher requests for classes in conversational Spanish so they can better communicate with their students. Under a federal grant, Haghighi's office has added three people to work directly with Latino families to help them adapt to school.
The North Clackamas School District, which grew 2.7 percent this year, is using some proceeds from a $230 million bond to build two new schools and buy land east of Interstate 205, where all the growth is occurring.
The Beaverton School District grew to nearly37,500 students this year, more than administrators projected. And new subdivisions stacked with single-family homes promise more in the years to come.
At Findley, the district's largest elementary school with almost 900 students, all kindergarten classes were moved to portables at a nearby campus this year. Findley is in the Bethany area, one of the area's slated for development with the expansion of the urban growth boundary.
Jennifer Garland, the Beaverton district's facilities planning coordinator, said she expects home-building to continue to drive growth.
Amy Hsuan and Suzanne Pardington of The Oregonian staff contribute to this report.
Steven Carter: 503-221-8521; stevencarter@news.oregonian.com
