Minorities now the new majority in many suburban schools

In 1970, 1 out of every 40 residents in DuPage County was a person of color. By 2030, it's projected that minorities will comprise the majority of the county's population.

The demographics of DuPage, long perceived as affluent and lily-white, illustrate well the changing face of Illinois, the suburbs and its students.

For the first time this year, minority students outnumber their white counterparts statewide, and more than 50 percent of students come from low-income families, according to the Illinois School Report Card released last month and containing a trove of data on student achievement and demographics.

The suburbs mirror that trend, with educators adjusting to the demographic shift by providing classroom intervention and support as well as teacher training, and engaging minority families to get them more involved in their children's education.

“In two generations (of teachers), there's this huge shift,” Glenbard High School District 87 Superintendent David Larson said. “This is what's happening in America. It's exciting. It's energizing, and it's important to embrace. It permeates all that we do.”

The majority of students in two of District 87's four high schools — Glenbard East in Lombard (52 percent) and Glenbard North in Carol Stream (54 percent) — now are minority students. The student bodies of Glenbard West and South, both in Glen Ellyn, are nearly 37 percent and 35.5 percent minority students, respectively.

The district sponsors clubs and organizations celebrating students' ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It has a Minority Student Achievement Network encouraging students to take higher-level classes while matching them with adult mentors from the community.

Districtwide, more minority students are taking honors and AP classes, an accomplishment recognized by The Washington Post. Glenbard East was named this year to the newspaper's list of America's Most Challenging High Schools.

“The increase in diversity also comes with high mobility. More kids are moving from district to district. ... For students that are moving in, oftentimes they are not from families that are white and privileged,” Larson said. “We have to be more intentional about advocating and shepherding each individual student's education plan.”

Breaking barriers

Overcoming cultural and language barriers is part of the challenge of getting minority parents involved in schools, educators say.

Elgin Area School District U-46 — the state's second-largest district with more than 40,000 students — offers a Parent University program, primarily for Hispanic parents, to help them better understand and navigate the American educational system. U-46 also has African-American and Hispanic Parent Leadership Institutes to train future leaders within the school community.

As a result, Elgin High School has the largest number of Hispanic parent volunteers in the district serving on the school's parent-teacher organization, Principal Jerry Cook said.

“You'll see a lack of parental involvement usually due to what we found to be a cultural difference in how parents view school,” Cook said. “People have this false belief that the parents don't really value education. It's really that they believe the teachers are the professionals.”

Elgin High School's population scale tipped toward the majority being minority students in 2005 when South Elgin and Bartlett high schools opened.

“We're 70 percent Hispanic,” Cook said. “When you factor in our black population, we are almost 80 percent minority. Close to 50 percent of our students had at one time been in a bilingual program. A lot of our students, their reading abilities are a little bit behind. You have to be cognizant about those barriers as a teacher.”

Many students receive vocabulary coaching and tutoring outside the classroom to overcome language barriers. “In every high school in U-46, we have home-school liaisons who help with our bilingual programs and Spanish-speaking parents,” Cook said.

Mundelein High School District 120 also has a program for parents of Latino students ­— Universidad de Padres. A group of parents meets once a month to discuss such topics as how students assimilate into the school population, college and career planning, and getting financial assistance and counseling.

“We do have a number of families that are first-generation (immigrants),” Superintendent Kevin Myers said. “I think what's important is, with any student population that we have, to stay in tune with our students. We need to be open to listening to our students, hearing our families and what's working for them.”

Mundelein High School is a majority-minority school with nearly 52 percent minority students. School leaders prepared for the shift early on with the parent university program, now in its sixth year, and by making the district's website bilingual roughly five years ago.

The district offers an after-school tutoring program three days a week with certified teachers and bus transportation provided. Nearly half the students taking advantage of the program are minorities, officials said.

District officials now are starting to reach out to the Latino community at library events and church services.

“It's important for us to go to them, go out to the community more to work with different populations ... making sure families understand the importance of going on to a career or college,” Myers said.

District 120 partners with College of Lake County in Grayslake to help minority families fill out college applications and financial-aid forms. Such efforts have contributed to 83 percent of Mundelein High students going on to two- or four-year colleges, Myers said.

Elk Grove High School, with 51 percent minority students, offers a Spanish-for-native-speakers program for Latino students with a service and mentorship component to get them engaged with the community. Students volunteer at Alexian Brothers nursing home and mentor sixth-graders at Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59.

“We are looking to expand that into even younger ages as time passes,” Principal Paul Kelly said. “The mentorship of younger (minority) kids should happen as early as possible. No one is more experienced than our students who have experienced some of the same issues.”

Parents as partners

Educators say there is a strong correlation between racial diversity and low-income populations. Districts are training teachers on techniques to build trust with students of poverty.

“Ten years ago in District 214 we had one in 10 kids in poverty, and this year it's one in three. It's a big shift,” said Steve Kellner, director of professional learning and instructional technology for Northwest Suburban High School District 214. “At the heart of it, it has to do with building that connection ... that relationship with students. It's so important to get them to connect with the high school.”

Of the district's six high schools, two have minority populations making up the majority — 51 percent at Elk Grove High School and nearly 65 percent at Wheeling High School. More than half of District 214's roughly 11,900 students are eligible to receive free and reduced-price lunches.

The district has improved communications with minority parents in their native languages, be it Spanish, Gujarati or Polish, Kellner said.

“Technology has made that even easier. We can customize (phone calls, texts and emails) by language,” he said. “It's always a challenge to get parents engaged. Our results kind of speak for themselves. The last three years, our district has been the most diverse it's ever been but (also) had the highest student achievement in 100 years that we've ever had. We couldn't have had that success without parents as partners.”

Tapping human pool

Recruiting minority teachers is a high priority for some larger school districts seeking to mirror the growing student diversity. Yet, there is a national shortage of minority candidates, and fewer minorities are qualifying or even considering going into the profession, educators say.

Report card data shows nearly 84 percent of Illinois teachers are white, teaching more than 50 percent minority students.

At District 214, where 90 percent of teachers are white, officials are trying to grow their own pool of future minority teachers and encouraging student-teachers to stay on with the district.

“We have hundreds of Hispanic students who are doing well academically and would make great educators,” said Kurt Laakso, District 214 associate superintendent for human resources. “We also have a number of African-American students who are doing well academically. We need to find ways of tapping into that human pool.

“The first thing we have to do as teachers is to be interested in students as people. Kids are quick to recognize who is genuine, who is not. The deeper reality and the more meaningful circumstances have to do with the relationships you form with that student over time.”