Minority Students Become the Majority
Area's Schools Adapt to Serve Rapidly Diversifying Populations

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Maryland may be majority white, but its public schools no longer are.

White residents account for 58.3 percent of the state's population, according to 2006 U.S. Census Bureau data. But they make up only 47 percent of the student body this school year. The new majority belongs to blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other minorities.

The demographic changes are manifesting themselves in the classroom in unexpected ways and with breathtaking speed. Schools in Charles County, in rural, largely white Southern Maryland, are now majority black. Next door, in Prince George's County, Bladensburg Elementary School has gone from majority black to majority Hispanic in less than seven years.

The state's public schools quietly became majority minority in 2004 as part of a larger demographic shift occurring in the Washington region and the nation. School administrators across the region said they are spending more time and money, inside and outside the classroom, reaching out to their growing populations of minority students, thousands of whom are new to the United States.

"They are going to represent the majority in this state and the majority in probably this country, and, therefore, I think there have to be exceptional efforts to ensure educational success for this population," said Nancy S. Grasmick, state superintendent of schools. "We're seeing more and more of this immigrant population really coming from circumstances of very significant poverty. Not only do they have the cultural and the language barriers to overcome, but they also have the economic barriers."

In the Washington region, white students account for 41.9 percent of more than 900,000 students. Black students represent 31.4 percent and have majorities in the District and Prince George's and Charles counties. But the fastest growth has been among Hispanic students, who account for 15.2 percent of the student population.

Across Maryland, black, Hispanic, Asian and other minority students account for 53 percent of the school population. Virginia public schools remain majority white, and in Northern Virginia, white students make up 49.1 percent of the student population. Hispanic students are now the second-largest group of students in Northern Virginia, at 19.1 percent.

Mark Goldstein, an analyst for the Maryland State Data Center, said the population of minority groups has grown statewide as the white population has declined. The largest increase has been among black residents, many of whom moved from the District, Goldstein said. But the Hispanic population has been growing fastest, with a 48 percent increase from 2000 to 2006.

Goldstein said white families are moving away from the District, to such distant places as Frederick and Washington counties, in search of affordable homes. Some even go to Pennsylvania or West Virginia. Meanwhile, lower-income families, most often members of minority groups, are moving to the Washington area to find jobs and rental housing.

"So far this decade, all the growth is due to minority increase," Goldstein said. "When Maryland is very strong economically and when it tends to get net in-migration, that's when you see the white population growing. . . . But absent very strong economic growth, most of the population growth tends to be from minority populations."

In Arlington County public schools, Hispanic enrollment has declined in recent years, possibly because of surging housing costs, said Linda Erdos, a spokeswoman for the school system. But Arlington still has an Ellis Island of school systems, with about 18,500 students from 127 countries.

"As the world continues to change, it reflects itself in the students moving to Arlington," Erdos said. "Mongolian is the third- or fourth-largest non-English speaking group."

The demographic shifts also have affected the region's large population of African Americans, many of whom have long-standing ties to the area. Charles's schools became majority black last year, a process driven by people moving from the District and Prince George's. Prince George's, known as the wealthiest majority-black county in the United States, is rapidly changing, too.

When Rhonda Gray Pitts became the principal of Bladensburg Elementary in Prince George's in 2001, 71.6 percent of her students were black. This year, the majority of her roughly 600 students are Hispanic.

Diversity has its complications, Pitts said. More than half of Bladensburg Elementary's Hispanic students are in English-learner programs, and the school has two teachers who speak fluent Spanish. Pitts has hired a bilingual secretary to help handle requests from parents, has a Hispanic parent liaison, hires interpreters to help her with conferences and sometimes recruits high school students in need of community service hours to translate. Everything that goes home -- fliers, forms and newsletters -- is in English and Spanish, and her parent liaison has offered a popular set of mini-lessons in English for parents.

"I think the problem arises for me in the translation of things," Pitts said. "My PowerPoints have to be in English and Spanish. What would be helpful is if there was just someone on staff that could translate all things that need to go home, because it's very time-consuming. But they have a right to the same information that everyone has."

Pitts pointed out that differences in dialect among students from Latin American countries can make mutual understanding even harder.

But she said her efforts have borne fruit. The once-troubled school has met federal standards for academic progress in the past two years, she said, and parents' attitudes have changed.

"When I first arrived, it was hard for me to get them in here, because they didn't feel comfortable," Pitts said. "Now I see a much bigger comfort level. They are coming in bigger numbers, and they want to help their children."