In schools across US, melting pot overflows

In 1973, 78 pc of the students attending the nation8217;s public schools were white and 22 pc were minorities, a category including blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and 8220;other8221;. In 2004, 57 pc of all public school students were white, while 43 pc were minorities

Some 55 million youngsters are enrolling for classes in the nation8217;s schools this fall, making this the largest group of students in America8217;s history and, in ethnic terms, the most dazzlingly diverse since waves of European immigrants washed through the public schools a century ago.

Millions of baby boomers and foreign-born parents are enrolling their children, sending a demographic bulge through the schools that is driving a surge in classroom construction. It is also causing thousands of districts to hire additional qualified teachers at a time when the Bush administration is trying to increase teacher qualifications across the board. Many school systems have begun recruiting overseas for instructors in hard-to-staff subjects like special education and advanced math.

The rising enrollments are most obvious in districts like this one west of Washington, in Loudoun County, one of the nation8217;s fastest-growing school systems. Thousands of government, technology and construction workers, many of them Hispanic, Asian and African-American, are streaming into new subdivisions within commuting distance of the Pentagon and the headquarters of America Online. They are transforming a school system that was once small and overwhelmingly white into one that is sprawling and increasingly cosmopolitan.

Thuy Nguyen, a 16-year-old junior at Park View High School in Sterling, moved with her family to Virginia from Vietnam when she was nine years old, and recalls that most of her fifth-grade classmates were white. 8220;I was new, afraid, and I didn8217;t speak very well English,8221; Nguyen said. 8220;I didn8217;t talk to anybody.8221; Six years later, she says making friends is easier.

8220;What I like about a diverse school is that you don8217;t feel intimidated if there are other races,8221; she said. 8220;I8217;m jumping around, talking to the Caucasian clique and the Middle Eastern clique. I have friends from El Salvador, Mexico, Peru 8212; one girl is half Korean and half Puerto Rican, she8217;s cool 8212; and from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan. There8217;s a girl from Bangladesh. I also knew a Swedish guy. So I talk to all the different groups. I don8217;t want it to be, like, 8216;You8217;re just in the Asian clique8217;. 8221;

Kathy Hackney is Ms. Nguyen8217;s tennis coach. 8220;My team looks like the League of Nations,8221; she said.

The Loudoun County Public Schools, where annual pay for starting teachers is 40,986, has hired almost all the 650 new teachers it needs to fill its classrooms when school begins on September 5, scores of them through agencies that recruit teachers in foreign countries, the superintendent, Edgar B. Hatrick, said.

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But some rapidly growing districts across the nation are having trouble. The Clark County School District in Las Vegas, for instance, where teachers8217; starting salary is 33,000, has hired 2,000 teachers. But with classes scheduled to start Wednesday, the district was still looking for 400 others, said a spokeswoman.

The Plainfield Community Consolidated School District west of Chicago, which has grown to 26,000 students from 8,700 in 1998, had already hired 300 new teachers this year, said John Harper, the superintendent. But in one 36-hour period just days before the fall term resumed, 500 new students enrolled for classes, forcing the district to hire more teachers.

Three decades ago, in 1973, 78 per cent of the students attending the nation8217;s public schools were white and 22 per cent were minorities, a category including blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and 8220;other,8221; according to Education Department statistics. In 2004, the last year for which numbers were available, 57 per cent of all public school students were white, while 43 per cent were minorities.

If trends continue as they have for 30 years, minority students appear likely to outnumber white students within a decade or so. In six states 8212; California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas 8212; they already do.

8211;SAM DILLON