'Minority majorities' in 3 Utah districts
Salt Lake City and San Juan school districts are "minority majority" districts with ethnic student numbers growing around 2 percent each year — bringing some academic challenges.
"We feel diversity is a strength and it gives us an enrichment that we wouldn't have otherwise," said Debbie Hefner, Ogden's spokeswoman. "It is very positive and helps show kids what the world looks like."
District leaders say there are numerous advantages to having such high minority numbers but also myriad issues.
Reed Spencer, executive director of curriculum and assessment in Ogden School District, said many minority students also have other student risk factors, like language barriers and economic disadvantages, that account for academic delays and high dropout rates.
Students in Salt Lake District hail from more than 100 different countries and speak 80 languages — a fact that yields culturally rich learning environments.
However, 40 percent of Salt Lake's students are learning English, as are 25 percent of Ogden's students. And, 65 percent of Salt Lake students come from low-income families while nearly 70 percent of Ogden students are from poor homes.
"I don't know if 'challenges' is a good word — they are more opportunities for growth to become better educators and take a hard look at practices, " said Ernie Nix, principal of Salt Lake inner city's Glendale Middle School. "Do we have issues that we have to grapple with? Of course we do — it's the nature of the business, but we are grappling with them and doing it in a good way."
State Educational Equity Coordinator Richard Gomez said parental involvement is one of the keys to success in demographically diverse schools.
"I was in a school a few weeks ago where I heard comments from teachers like, 'Those kids don't want to learn and their parents don't care,' — that is very distressing," Gomez said. "There are schools that are doing something to change that perception — doing things a little more creative than traditional practice that bridge that gap with the parents and get them buying into the students' education."
Mountain View Elementary school on Salt Lake City's west side holds parent nights to try to get the families comfortable in a school environment — though principal John Erlacher said it takes some work to get them there.
He said parents who are from different countries can sometimes be intimidated by the public education system and don't understand that they have a place and a voice in the school.
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