Racial, Linguistic, and Economic Diversity Across Schools with Two-Way Dual Language Immersion Programs: Evidence from the Los Angeles Unified School District

Two-way dual-language immersion (TWDL) programs aim to combine English speakers and speakers of a partner language in the same classroom to receive content instruction in both languages. Stated goals include bilingualism and biliteracy, high academic achievement, and sociocultural competence. In school districts aiming to reduce segregation, TWDL programs also can integrate students from diverse linguistic, racial, and economic backgrounds, although mounting evidence shows that equitable integration does not always happen. Using school-level enrollments and district data on TWDL program growth from 2000 to 2021, this paper describes enrollment and segregation patterns across the Los Angeles Unified School District elementary schools with TWDL programs. We find that elementary schools with TWDL programs are enrolling increasing numbers of racially, linguistically, and economically marginalized students and are generally more diverse than schools without TWDL programs, although there appear to be limits on the potential of TWDL programs to foster diversity, especially in a segregated urban context.