For Immediate Release: Tuesday, September 30, 2014
The Montgomery County Council today received a report from the Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) on the racial, ethnic and linguistic diversity of students and educators within Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The report, titled Cultural and Linguistic Diversity of MCPS Students and Staff, examines variations in the demographic alignment between students and staff and use of central-office language assistance services among MCPS schools by grade span, geographic area and student demographics.
OLO identified four major findings from its data review.
OLO found that the demographic misalignment by race and ethnicity between MCPS students and staff in 2012-13 reflected state and national trends. Specifically, whites were overrepresented among MCPS staff compared to student enrollment. They accounted for 76 percent of all school-based professionals but 33 percent of student enrollment. At the same time, Asians, blacks and Latinos were underrepresented as staff relative to student enrollment. The underrepresentation of Latinos among staff was particularly acute—they accounted for 5 percent of professionals, but 27 percent of students. OLO, however, could not compare the linguistic diversity of school-based staff to students to discern the degree of alignment between the two, as MCPS neither collects nor reports data describing the second language proficiency of school staff.
OLO found that few MCPS schools reflected the diversity of the school system as a whole. Instead, student subgroups tended to be concentrated in schools with their subgroup peers, especially Asian and white students. For example, 42 to 46 percent of Asian elementary and middle school students were concentrated within the fifth of MCPS schools where Asian enrollment exceeded 20 percent. Similarly, 57 to 59 percent of all white elementary and middle school students and 64 percent of all white high school students were enrolled in the third of MCPS schools whose white enrollment surpassed 45 percent. This trend was observed among black and Latino students as well, particularly at the elementary level, but to a lesser extent.
OLO found that schools enrolling the highest shares of student subgroups were staffed by more professionals from that subgroup, but often had the widest demographic mismatch between students and staff. For example, among the three high schools enrolling the largest shares of Latino students, Latino professionals accounted for 7.4 percent of staff instead of 4.2 percent of staff among the nine high schools enrolling the smallest shares of Latino students. Yet, the Latino student to staff ratio among the three high schools where Latinos accounted for 45 percent or more of students was greater than the ratio for the nine schools where Latinos accounted for less than 20 percent of enrollment (84 compared to 42 Latino students per Latino staff). Similarly, black professionals accounted for a greater share of staff among the schools with the largest black enrollment, but their black student to staff ratios were higher than among schools enrolling smaller shares of black students.
OLO found that schools’ requests for central office language assistance services (language line and interpreter services) generally aligned with schools’ shares of ESOL eligible and Latino enrollment. Exceptions to this trend included the higher than anticipated demand for language services among Downcounty Consortium schools and also among middle and high schools with the highest concentrations of ESOL eligible and Latino students.
The Council’s Education Committee will hold a worksession on the OLO report at a date to be determined in early 2015.
Copies of the report are available on the OLO web site at:
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/olo/reports
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Release ID: 14-273
Media Contact: Neil Greenberger 240-777-7939, Delphine Harriston 240-777-7931