Public School Bilingual Census Summary
1998-99
Data collected in October 1998 for the Public School
Bilingual Census revealed a total of 118 languages spoken by students
in Illinois schools. Ninety-nine or 84% of those languages are represented
in the Chicago Public Schools.
On the Public School Bilingual Census students
in Column B are defined as non-English language background students
whose performance on a nationally-normed English language proficiency
test is below the 50th percentile. Following is a breakdown in descending
order of the 32 languages listed on the Census which had 100 or
more Column B students:
| |
|
|
|
| |
Language
|
State Total
|
Chicago
|
%
|
|
Language
|
State Total
|
Chicago
|
%
|
|
1
|
Spanish
|
100,213
|
54,415
|
54%
|
17
|
Albanian
|
419
|
113
|
27%
|
|
2
|
Polish
|
6,031
|
3,729
|
62%
|
18
|
Hindi
|
334
|
112
|
34%
|
|
3
|
Urdu
|
1,915
|
1,113
|
58%
|
19
|
Cambodian
|
304
|
229
|
75%
|
|
4
|
Arabic
|
1,868
|
885
|
47%
|
20
|
Bulgarian
|
304
|
157
|
52%
|
|
5
|
Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian
|
1,800
|
1,171
|
65%
|
21
|
Malayalam
|
300
|
58
|
19%
|
|
6
|
Gujarati
|
1,442
|
252
|
17%
|
22
|
Greek
|
282
|
64
|
23%
|
|
7
|
Korean
|
1,417
|
216
|
15%
|
23
|
Ukrainian
|
268
|
118
|
44%
|
|
8
|
Cantonese
|
1,400
|
1,103
|
79%
|
24
|
Italian
|
265
|
29
|
11%
|
|
9
|
Vietnamese
|
1,208
|
681
|
56%
|
25
|
French
|
203
|
58
|
29%
|
|
10
|
Russian
|
1,151
|
366
|
32%
|
26
|
Panjabi
|
194
|
23
|
12%
|
|
11
|
Pilipino
|
881
|
303
|
34%
|
27
|
German
|
157
|
26
|
17%
|
|
12
|
Assyrian
|
830
|
557
|
67%
|
28
|
Lithuanian
|
140
|
36
|
26%
|
|
13
|
Japanese
|
709
|
10
|
1%
|
29
|
Thai
|
126
|
39
|
31%
|
|
14
|
Romanian
|
483
|
330
|
68%
|
30
|
Haitian Creole
|
116
|
42
|
36%
|
|
15
|
Mandarin
|
442
|
77
|
17%
|
31
|
Portuguese
|
114
|
29
|
25%
|
|
16
|
Lao
|
431
|
15
|
3%
|
32 |
Telugu
|
102
|
45
|
44%
|
Chicago Public Schools counted 67,179 Column B
students or only 53% of the state total of 127,303. (In 1985, Chicago
had 64% of the state total.) Spanish-speaking students accounted
for 81% of the Column B population in the Chicago Public Schools,
while overall they comprised 79% of the Column B students in the
state.
Asians (42 languages) accounted for 9% of the Column
B population and comprise 5 of the top 10 and 15 of the 32 languages
having more than 100 Column B students.
In only 10 of the top 32 languages does Chicago
have more than 50% of the Column B population in the state. A breakdown
of the Column B population and percent of state total for selected
counties follows:
|
County
|
Column B Population
|
Percent of State Total
|
|
Cook
|
93,217
|
73%
|
|
Kane
|
11,935
|
9%
|
|
DuPage
|
7,024
|
6%
|
|
Lake
|
6,870
|
5%
|
|
Will
|
1,631
|
1%
|
|
