Stacy Braverman and Priya Baskaran
UP 504
Revised Proposal

Title: Language Immersion Schools’ Impact on Neighborhood Demographics

Context: Many public schools have created language immersion programs, where students whose primary language is English take some or all of their classes in a foreign language (“dual-language” immersion programs feature some classes in each of two languages, and the student body is made up of native speakers of each language).  Special academic programs—immersion programs, magnet schools, charter schools, and gifted and talented programs—have often been created to maintain or improve racial and ethnic integration in urban areas.  As schools and neighborhoods remain highly segregated along these lines, solutions that allow neighborhoods to become more balanced are extremely desirable to many cities.

Question: Did the ZIP codes in which immersion schools are located become more racially or economically diverse from 2000 to 2007?  Were these changes greater or smaller than the ones occurring in the entire city? 

Unit of analysis: ZIP codes.  It is easy to find out which ZIP code each school is located in, and demographic data is easily available by the ZIP code.

Hypothesis: Predominantly low-income and/or non-white neighborhoods see increases in diversity when language immersion programs open there.

Data required: Information about the location of public language immersion schools, from the Center for Applied Linguistics directory.  Demographic information about the racial and economic composition of various ZIP codes and cities from the Demographics Now database.

Methodology:

1. Compile list of public immersion programs in major cities (we narrowed this to programs in the 50 American cities with the highest population).  We found 134 programs that fit these criteria. 
2. Determine in which ZIP code each program is located.  While people from beyond the ZIP code may send their children to a given school, proximity to a school may encourage people to move to an area or otherwise spur changes to a community.
3. Gather demographic data (total population, as well as income and racial breakdowns) for each ZIP code. Demographics Now provides 1990, 2000, 2007, and 2012 (projected) data for each ZIP code.  We will likely focus on only two of those years: 2000 and 2007.
4. Compare changes in the immersion-school ZIP codes to changes in the city as a whole.  We recognize that there may be selection bias—immersion schools might be located in areas that are already poised to undergo demographic changes.  However, measuring the magnitude of these changes, and even verifying that they actually occur, is still a useful exercise. 

Anticipated Results: Neighborhoods with language immersion programs will become more racially and economically diverse over time.  This diversity will outpace demographic changes in the city as a whole.  However, ZIP codes that were lower-income to start with will see greater changes than those with high incomes.