David Starkey is wrong to call Britain a white monoculture | Chris Hamnett

Aa students from ethnic minorities increasingly

disperse to the suburbs and beyond, by changing the composition of the country as a whole

David Starkey can be discussed until it is blue in the face of English society is still dominated by a "white monoculture", but in many major cities, the opposite is literally true - as evidenced by the change in the composition of their schools. Our analysis of data from the Ministry of Education throughout the population of London high school, white students are now a minority, more than half of high school students in London all members of ethnic minorities or mixed ethnic origins.

In some local authorities, particularly in central London, which was the case for over a decade. But in 2009, London, Birmingham, Leicester, Luton and Slough boasted all the ethnic majority of secondary school systems, with Manchester and Bradford is not far behind at 43%. In central London, the figure was 67%.

There are, of course, been significant changes in the ethnic composition of Britain over the last 20 to 30 years. The non-white ethnic minorities increased by about 1% in 1951 to over 10% in 2009, and continue to grow as a result of immigration and higher birth rates of some groups ethnic minority. This growth was the first in the delivery rooms of hospitals and in primary and secondary schools.

In 2005, Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, caused a stir by suggesting that the plan of the ethnic minority population, Britain was "sleepwalking to segregation" . His claim was disputed by several researchers who argue that instead of increasing segregation, the dominant model is likely to be an increase in dispersion and diffusion. Only recently, however, the director of City of London School, David Levin, was quoted as saying that students are "taught in ghettos" in central London. So Phillips was right?

Using data from the Ministry of Education for 1999 and 2009, examined the extent to which ethnic groups are more or less concentrated in the local systems of school authority. In my opinion, the results provide some grounds for concern, but also many reasons to be optimistic.

• The percentage of pupils from ethnic minorities in English secondary schools as a whole grew 11.5% to 17% during the period of 10 years. This means that there are larger areas and generally more rural country where the percentage of pupils from ethnic minorities is very low. However, even in these areas, concentrations of ethnic minorities is still most often doubled or tripled, from 3.1% to 5.4% in a decade. Across the country and the trend is clearly toward dispersion and diffusion to the outside, often in areas richest suburbs showing higher levels of home ownership, educational attainment and aspiration, and employment opportunities. This trend is, I believe, benefit the country as a whole, both socially and economically.

But what happens in our densely populated cities, but the "ghettoization" a real phenomenon here? In fact, most parents in east London, where we made a thorough investigation, said they were broadly supportive of the idea of ??ethnic composition, considering it desirable and reflects the society in which we live today. A problem can occur, however, when parents with children of any background feel that their children should be educated in a small minority, and instead opt for other schools or leave the area. So, ethnic segregation in schools may increase following parental avoidance strategies.

The language issue is also important, recent figures show that 50% of students in central London does not have English as their mother tongue, which can cause problems for teaching and learning. But this is just one of many factors that can affect school performance.

In general, there are differences well known and longstanding ethnic groups in educational attainment in GCSE and beyond. At the upper end, the children of India and China consistently outperforms other groups, white students, while black children in the Caribbean tend to underperform significantly, with important implications for the college access and opportunities of the works contract. Some argue that this is a consequence of discrimination embedded in schools. Others emphasize the cultural and social characteristics, such as the emphasis on education and success in the Chinese and Indian communities

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