Students whose native language is not German at Berlin high schools: between 1.9% and 97.9%

In the German capital Berlin, the high school with the highest rate of "non native speakers of German" is Albert Schweitzer with 97.9%. This means, some 12 or so out of a total of about 600 students count as "native speakers of German". The blogster doesn't do "decimal point students". The school with the lowest ratio is Gerhart Hauptmann with 1.9% of a student body of about 730.

The term segregation has been used to describe this phenomenon.

The answer is not as clear cut as one might think. According to this recommended article, the Berlin board of education defines "not a native speaker of German" as a student whose native language is not German or whose primary language used at home is not German.

The nationality of a child does not factor into the definition. In other words, a child may well be a German citizen in a dual national family where the primary language used at home is not German.

Proficiency in German varies widely, not just because of children like the aforementioned but also because the classification as "native" or "non native" speaker is primarily left the the parents choice of the respective check box on the school application forms.

Some boroughs therefore take a different approach to determining the language status and use a standardized test to evaluate primary school students who enter the system.
While the allocation of children to primary schools is based on the residence of the child, families are free to choose a preferred high school.

This is where the "non native" statistics have a divisive influence. Parents often look at this number and infer the social status of students as well as the quality of education. Not in a positive way, of course - otherwise nobody would be talking much about it.

Low proficiency in German is frequently seen as an indicator of lower social status, as well as lower education and lower income of the family.

This perception becomes even more detrimental in a country like Germany, which has traditionally had a multi tiered education system that separated students very much along class or social status line and less based on merits.

It comes as no surprise then, that some parents who can afford private school fees, put their children into largely church affiliated private institutions. Others have been known to move towards the more Germanic suburbs. And still others band together as a group when their children move from primary to secondary school and apply together, so that their kids have a greater chance of taking their friends with them to the new school. Secondary school principals frequently tolerate such "group applications" as long as they do not take take the form or mass applications (one said twenty students is not acceptable).

Schools with a higher percentage of "non native speakers" do have one distinct incentive: more money and more teachers. The idea is to give these schools more resources in order to help less advantaged students achieve educational goals.

Scientists have been warning for quite some time that allocation of resources based on the "non native" ratio was not a good strategy. They have argued it does not take into account the students' actual proficiency, and it leaves out native students whose proficiency may well be inadequate but does not figure among the criteria for increased resources.

In addition to using tests to find which students need remedial support, several school districts have moved away from the language criterion to a social measurement. They now allocate additional resources based on the economic situation of the family, in other words based on the number of families who receive government assistance.

So, segregation is happening, although the line is not as clear as we normally understand the American use of the term.

Conservative Germans and their politicians tend to view the issue in Berlin also from a religious angle, with a larger Muslim population prompting some to equate "non native German speaker" with Muslim.

Against this background, bullying of a German kid by a couple of Muslims with "you'll go to hell" is perceived differently than - true example - white natives in the Ozarks hurling "you'll go to hell" at a city child that answered Buddhist when the teacher wanted to know her religion.