Public School Bilingual Census Summary
1999-2000
Data collected in October 1999 for the Public School Bilingual
Census revealed a total of 118 languages spoken by students in Illinois
schools. One hundred and three or 87% 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:
| |
Column
B
|
| |
Language
|
State
Total
|
Chicago
|
%
|
|
1
|
Spanish
|
96,441
|
47,367
|
49%
|
|
2
|
Polish
|
5,419
|
3,129
|
58%
|
|
3
|
Urdu
|
1,844
|
976
|
53%
|
|
4
|
Arabic
|
1,828
|
796
|
44%
|
|
5
|
Serb/Croa/Bosn
|
1,774
|
1,036
|
58%
|
|
6
|
Gujarati
|
1,439
|
205
|
14%
|
|
7
|
Cantonese
|
1,342
|
1,050
|
78%
|
|
8
|
Korean
|
1,329
|
198
|
15%
|
|
9
|
Vietnamese
|
1,048
|
522
|
50%
|
|
10
|
Russian
|
947
|
260
|
27%
|
|
11
|
Pilipino
|
803
|
260
|
32%
|
|
12
|
Japanese
|
657
|
7
|
1%
|
|
13
|
Albanian
|
645
|
169
|
26%
|
|
14
|
Assyrian
|
635
|
373
|
59%
|
|
15
|
Mandarin
|
484
|
78
|
16%
|
|
16
|
Lao
|
466
|
15
|
3%
|
|
17
|
Romanian
|
437
|
284
|
65%
|
|
18
|
Bulgarian
|
376
|
163
|
43%
|
|
19
|
Hindi
|
325
|
97
|
30%
|
|
20
|
Malayalam
|
296
|
45
|
15%
|
|
21
|
Ukrainian
|
283
|
123
|
43%
|
|
22
|
Greek
|
238
|
74
|
31%
|
|
23
|
Cambodian
|
236
|
148
|
63%
|
|
24
|
Italian
|
233
|
25
|
11%
|
|
25
|
Lithuanian
|
210
|
40
|
19%
|
|
26
|
Panjabi
|
200
|
29
|
15%
|
|
27
|
French
|
191
|
70
|
37%
|
|
28
|
German
|
174
|
30
|
17%
|
|
29
|
Thai
|
120
|
36
|
30%
|
|
30
|
Portuguese
|
116
|
23
|
20%
|
|
31
|
Farsi
|
109
|
25
|
23%
|
|
32
|
Telugu
|
105
|
76
|
72%
|
Chicago Public Schools
counted 58,541 Column B students or only 48% of the state total
of 122,375. (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 nine of the top 32 languages does Chicago
have more than 50% of the Column B population in the state.
|
