Ogden School District minority numbers have hit 50 percent this year, joining two other Utah districts where half or more of the students are minorities.
Salt Lake City and San Juan school districts are "minority majority" districts with ethnic student numbers growing around 2 percent each year — bringing some academic challenges.
"We feel diversity is a strength and it gives us an enrichment that we wouldn't have otherwise," said Debbie Hefner, Ogden's spokeswoman. "It is very positive and helps show kids what the world looks like."
District leaders say there are numerous advantages to having such high minority numbers but also myriad issues.
Reed Spencer, executive director of curriculum and assessment in Ogden School District, said many minority students also have other student risk factors, like language barriers and economic disadvantages, that account for academic delays and high dropout rates.
Students in Salt Lake District hail from more than 100 different countries and speak 80 languages — a fact that yields culturally rich learning environments.
However, 40 percent of Salt Lake's students are learning English, as are 25 percent of Ogden's students. And, 65 percent of Salt Lake students come from low-income families while nearly 70 percent of Ogden students are from poor homes.
But officials say strong school programs have helped take on some of the challenges.
"I don't know if 'challenges' is a good word — they are more opportunities for growth to become better educators and take a hard look at practices, " said Ernie Nix, principal of Salt Lake inner city's Glendale Middle School. "Do we have issues that we have to grapple with? Of course we do — it's the nature of the business, but we are grappling with them and doing it in a good way."
State Educational Equity Coordinator Richard Gomez said parental involvement is one of the keys to success in demographically diverse schools.
"I was in a school a few weeks ago where I heard comments from teachers like, 'Those kids don't want to learn and their parents don't care,' — that is very distressing," Gomez said. "There are schools that are doing something to change that perception — doing things a little more creative than traditional practice that bridge that gap with the parents and get them buying into the students' education."
Mountain View Elementary school on Salt Lake City's west side holds parent nights to try to get the families comfortable in a school environment — though principal John Erlacher said it takes some work to get them there.
He said parents who are from different countries can sometimes be intimidated by the public education system and don't understand that they have a place and a voice in the school.
Erlacher said the parents' night is a hybrid of a school community meeting, a family activity, student performance and food fest. But it gets parents through the doors and familiar with the school.
Nix said at Glendale they make phone calls and home visits, personally inviting parents to come to school meetings, parent-teacher conferences and school activities.
"All of our parents have the common denominator that we want to see our children do well," said Nix. "As a school we make it apparent they are wanted and needed at the school."
Gomez said one of the biggest challenges in high-minority schools is language barriers. Both Ogden and Salt Lake City not only make efforts to hire bilingual teachers but mandate that all teachers in the district must have an ESL endorsement within three years.
Spencer said dropout rates are also higher in schools with minorities.
"Kids come of age around 10th grade and want to start work and help out their families," Spencer said. "Some never had a family member graduate high school let alone college — they are worried more about putting food on the table."
But he said like many other districts, Ogden has programs that partner with universities showing students the ins and outs of going to college, getting financial aid — teaching students that it is possible for them to go to school.
Gomez said the diverse schools are still succeeding and nearly all the schools in Ogden and Salt Lake City have reached proficiency benchmarks on state tests.
E-mail: terickson@desnews.com