Risk Factors in Education
Asian-American students generally have fewer family risk factors—living below the poverty level, living in a household where the primary language is not English, having a mother whose highest education is less than a high school diploma or equivalent, and living in a single-parent household—than other minority groups. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort, a study by the NCES, collected information on a cohort of children born in 2001 and will follow them through 2007, focusing on children's early development and how parents prepare their children for school. While at nine months of age little variation in mental and motor skills was found by race or ethnic group, several demographic characteristics were related to the likelihood of families engaging in activities that help prepare children for school, including reading or telling them stories, singing to them, taking them on errands, playing peek-a-boo, and allowing them to play outside. Asian-American families were more likely than other minority groups to read to their children (26%), tell them stories (25%), and play peek-a-boo (73%), although they were less likely to facilitate outside playing (43%) and significantly less likely to take their children on errands (38%) than were other minority families. (See Table 3.2.)
In contrast, both African-American and Hispanic families were less likely to read to (23% and 21%, respectively) and tell their children stories (24% and 21%, respectively), and more likely to sing to them (73% and 70%, respectively) and play peek-a-boo (61% and 64%, respectively) than were white families. This may be partly because poor families were much less likely to engage in these activities with their children than were nonpoor families, and African-American and Hispanic families are disproportionately poor. African-American, white, and Hispanic families were about equally likely to take their children on errands and facilitate outside playing. (See Table 3.2.)
TABLE 3.1 Percentage distribution of public school students enrolled in grades K-12 who were minorities, 1972–2003
| TABLE 3.1 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage distribution of public school students enrolled in grades K-12 who were minorities, 1972–2003 | |||||
| Fall of year | White | Total | Minority enrollment | ||
| Black | Hispanic | Other | |||
| *Not available. | |||||
| Note: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Black includes African American and Hispanic includes Latino. Race categories exclude Hispanic origin unless specified. Includes all public school students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade. In 2003, the categories for race changed on the Current Population Study (CPS), allowing respondents to select more than one race. Respondents who selected more than one race were placed in the "other" category for the purposes of this analysis. | |||||
| SOURCE: "Table 4-1. Percentage Distribution of Public School Students Enrolled in Kindergarten through 12th Grade, by Race/Ethnicity: Fall 1972–2003," in The Condition of Education 2005, National Center for Education Statistics, June 2005, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005094.pdf (accessed December 28, 2005) | |||||
| 1972 | 77.8 | 22.2 | 14.8 | 6.0 | 1.4 |
| 1973 | 78.1 | 21.9 | 14.7 | 5.7 | 1.4 |
| 1974 | 76.8 | 23.2 | 15.4 | 6.3 | 1.5 |
| 1975 | 76.2 | 23.8 | 15.4 | 6.7 | 1.7 |
| 1976 | 76.2 | 23.8 | 15.5 | 6.5 | 1.7 |
| 1977 | 76.1 | 23.9 | 15.8 | 6.2 | 1.9 |
| 1978 | 75.5 | 24.5 | 16.0 | 6.5 | 2.1 |
| 1979 | * | * | * | * | * |
| 1980 | * | * | * | * | * |
| 1981 | 72.4 | 27.6 | 16.0 | 8.7 | 2.9 |
| 1982 | 71.9 | 28.1 | 16.0 | 8.9 | 3.2 |
| 1983 | 71.3 | 28.7 | 16.1 | 9.2 | 3.4 |
| 1984 | 71.7 | 28.3 | 16.1 | 8.5 | 3.6 |
| 1985 | 69.6 | 30.4 | 16.8 | 10.1 | 3.5 |
| 1986 | 69.1 | 30.9 | 16.6 | 10.8 | 3.6 |
| 1987 | 68.5 | 31.5 | 16.6 | 10.8 | 4.0 |
| 1988 | 68.3 | 31.7 | 16.5 | 11.0 | 4.2 |
| 1989 | 68.0 | 32.0 | 16.6 | 11.4 | 4.0 |
| 1990 | 67.6 | 32.4 | 16.5 | 11.7 | 4.2 |
| 1991 | 67.1 | 32.9 | 16.8 | 11.8 | 4.2 |
| 1992 | 66.8 | 33.3 | 16.9 | 12.1 | 4.3 |
| 1993 | 67.0 | 33.0 | 16.6 | 12.1 | 4.3 |
| 1994 | 65.8 | 34.2 | 16.7 | 13.7 | 3.8 |
| 1995 | 65.5 | 34.5 | 16.9 | 14.1 | 3.5 |
| 1996 | 63.7 | 36.3 | 16.6 | 14.5 | 5.3 |
| 1997 | 63.0 | 37.0 | 16.9 | 14.9 | 5.1 |
| 1998 | 62.4 | 37.6 | 17.2 | 15.4 | 5.1 |
| 1999 | 61.9 | 38.1 | 16.5 | 16.2 | 5.5 |
| 2000 | 61.3 | 38.7 | 16.6 | 16.6 | 5.4 |
| 2001 | 61.3 | 38.7 | 16.5 | 16.6 | 5.6 |
| 2002 | 60.7 | 39.3 | 16.5 | 17.6 | 5.2 |
| 2003 | 58.3 | 41.7 | 16.1 | 18.6 | 7.0 |
Segregation in Schools Persists
One reason African-American children have historically lagged behind white children in educational achievement has been the separate and inferior schools that they have been forced to attend. On May 17, 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (347 US 483), the U.S. Supreme Court declared that separate schools for African-American children were inherently unequal and that schools had to be desegregated. More than fifty years later, more and more school districts are questioning whether the federal courts need to continue supervising desegregation. However, despite regulations and busing, many inner-city schools are still not integrated, and academic achievement for African-American children is still lagging. Many white students have moved (with their families' tax dollars) to the suburbs or transferred to private schools to avoid inner-city schools with high populations of minority students. Typically, half the white students assigned to new schools under desegregation orders never attend those schools.
Overcoming Risk Factors
In "Indochinese Refugee Families and Academic Achievement: The Children of Southeast Asian Boat People Excel in the American School System" (Scientific American, February 1992), Nathan Caplan, Marcella H. Choy, and John K. Whitmore find that despite hardships and severe traumatic experiences in their native countries and despite attending schools in low-income inner cities, most Indo-Chinese refugee students (which include children from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos) performed well in school. Caplan, Choy, and Whitmore also find that strong family traditions and values were the important influences in these children's lives. The families were committed to a love of learning. They placed a high value on homework and did it as a family activity, with the older children helping the younger ones. Furthermore, parents read regularly to their children either in English or in their native language.
The Indo-Chinese are not the only group to have accomplished this kind of academic success. For the most part, Japanese immigrant families have strong traditions that place great value on learning. This group has also had high academic success, overcoming longtime racial prejudice to excel in school. In schools that emphasize parental involvement and structure in the children's learning environment at home as well as in school, African-Americans have also had outstanding achievement.
Educational Progress
THE EARLY CHILDHOOD LONGITUDINAL STUDY
The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study collected information on a cohort of children who began kindergarten in the fall of 1998 and followed them through the spring of 2004. The study specifically looked at children's achievement in mathematics and reading as they progressed through school. The study found that the number of family risk factors (poverty, non-English primary home language, mother's lack of a high school diploma/GED, or a single-parent household) inversely related to gains in mathematics and reading through third grade. (See Table 3.3.) Minority children tend to have higher numbers of risk factors than do white children. However, even when controlling for family risk factors, African-American children had lower average achievement scores than other racial and ethnic groups when they began kindergarten, and the gap in those achievement scores widened from the start of kindergarten through the end of third grade. The researchers have not yet proposed an explanation for this difference, but it may be because of
TABLE 3.2 Percentage of children about 9 months of age who engaged in selected activities with a family member daily in a typical week, by child and family characteristics, 2001–02
| TABLE 3.2 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of children about 9 months of age who engaged in selected activities with a family member daily in a typical week, by child and family characteristics, 2001–02 | ||||||
| Child and family characteristic | Read stories | Told stories | Sung to | Taken on errands | Played peek-a-boo | Played outside |
| aAmerican Indian includes Alaska Native, black includes African American, Pacific Islander includes Native Hawaiian, and Hispanic includes Latino. Race catagories exclude Hispanic origin unless specified. | ||||||
| bNormal birth weight is more than 5.5 pounds; low birthweight is more than 3.3 to 5.5 pounds; and very low birthweight is 3.3 pounds or less. | ||||||
| cFamily risk factors include living below the poverty level, living in a household where the primary language was not English, having a mother whose highest education was less than a high school diploma or equivalent, and living in a single-parent household. | ||||||
| Note: While the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) was designed to collect information on children about 9 months of age (i.e., 8 to 10 months), children were assessed as young as 6 months and as old as 22 months. Seventy-two percent of the children were between 8 and 10 months at the time of the assessment, and 84 percent were between 8 and 11 months. | ||||||
| SOURCE: "Table 35-1. Percentage of Children about 9 Months of Age who Engaged in Selected Activities with a Family Member Daily in a Typical Week, by Child and Family Characteristics: 2001–02," in The Condition of Education 2005, National Center for Education Statistics, June 2005, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005094.pdf (accessed December 28, 2005) | ||||||
| Total | 33 | 27 | 74 | 64 | 68 | 47 |
| Age | ||||||
| Less than 10 months | 31 | 26 | 73 | 63 | 68 | 46 |
| 11-13 months | 32 | 27 | 73 | 65 | 69 | 47 |
| 14-22 months | 44 | 37 | 73 | 70 | 64 | 59 |
| Sex | ||||||
| Male | 32 | 27 | 73 | 64 | 68 | 48 |
| Female | 33 | 27 | 74 | 64 | 68 | 46 |
| Race/ethnicitya | ||||||
| American Indian | 18 | 23 | 64 | 75 | 64 | 46 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 26 | 25 | 71 | 38 | 73 | 43 |
| Black | 23 | 24 | 73 | 63 | 61 | 45 |
| White | 41 | 31 | 75 | 65 | 72 | 47 |
| Hispanic | 21 | 21 | 70 | 64 | 64 | 48 |
| Birth weightb | ||||||
| Normal | 33 | 27 | 73 | 64 | 68 | 47 |
| Low | 29 | 28 | 76 | 58 | 70 | 44 |
| Very low | 27 | 28 | 73 | 51 | 66 | 38 |
| Poverty status | ||||||
| Poor | 22 | 24 | 67 | 64 | 64 | 48 |
| Nonpoor | 36 | 28 | 75 | 64 | 70 | 47 |
| Mother's education | ||||||
| Less than high school | 22 | 22 | 66 | 64 | 65 | 50 |
| High school diploma or equivalent | 27 | 25 | 72 | 67 | 70 | 44 |
| Some college | 35 | 29 | 78 | 65 | 69 | 44 |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 48 | 33 | 79 | 59 | 70 | 48 |
| Family type | ||||||
| Two parents, with other siblings | 31 | 25 | 71 | 63 | 65 | 46 |
| Two parents, without other siblings | 38 | 32 | 78 | 62 | 75 | 48 |
| One parent, with other siblings | 24 | 25 | 72 | 62 | 65 | 46 |
| One parent, without other siblings | 29 | 27 | 73 | 71 | 70 | 48 |
| Primary language spoken in the home | ||||||
| English | 36 | 29 | 75 | 65 | 70 | 46 |
| Other than English | 18 | 19 | 67 | 57 | 63 | 49 |
| Mother's employment | ||||||
| 35 hours or more | 29 | 26 | 73 | 59 | 67 | 41 |
| Less than 35 hours | 36 | 27 | 75 | 66 | 69 | 46 |
| Unemployed | 27 | 26 | 75 | 68 | 71 | 50 |
| Not in labor force | 34 | 28 | 73 | 65 | 68 | 51 |
| Number of family risk factorsc | ||||||
| Zero | 41 | 31 | 77 | 64 | 70 | 46 |
| One | 25 | 25 | 73 | 64 | 67 | 47 |
| Two or more | 20 | 20 | 65 | 63 | 64 | 51 |
The study found that by the end of third grade the mean scale scores for reading achievement were highest for whites (112) and Asians and Pacific Islanders (111), followed by Hispanics (105) and African-Americans (98). The same pattern held true in mathematics. The mean scale scores for mathematics achievement were highest for whites (89) and Asians and Pacific Islanders (88), followed by Hispanics (82) and African-Americans
TABLE 3.3 Children's reading and mathematics mean scale scores from kindergarten through 3rd grade, by selected characteristics, 1998–2002
| TABLE 3.3 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children's reading and mathematics mean scale scores from kindergarten through 3rd grade, by selected characteristics, 1998–2002 | |||||
| Characteristic | Fall kindergarten | Spring kindergarten | Spring 1st grade | Spring 3rd grade | Total gain from fall kindergarten to spring 3rd grade |
| a Black includes African American, Pacific Islander includes Native Hawaiian, and Hispanic includes Latino. Racial categories exclude Hispanic origin. | |||||
| b Family risk factors include living below the poverty level, primary home language was non-English, mother's highest education was less than a high school diploma/GED, and living in a single-parent household, as measured in kindergarten. | |||||
| Note: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Estimates reflect the sample of children assessed in English in all assessment years (approximately 19 percent of Asian children and approximately 30 percent of Hispanic children were not assessed). The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K) reading and mathematics assessments were not administered in spring 2001, when most of the children were in 2nd grade. Although most of the sample was in 3rd grade in spring 2002, 10 percent were in 2nd grade, and about 1 percent were enrolled in other grades. | |||||
| SOURCE: "Table 8-1. Children's Reading and Mathematics Mean Scale Scores for Fall 1998 First-Time Kindergartners from Kindergarten through 3rd Grade, by Selected Characteristics: Fall 1998, Spring 1999, Spring 2000, and Spring 2002," in The Condition of Education 2004, National Center for Education Statistics, 2004, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2004/pdf/08_2004.pdf (accessed December 29, 2005) | |||||
| Reading | |||||
| Total | 27 | 39 | 69 | 108 | 81 |
| Sex | |||||
| Male | 26 | 38 | 67 | 107 | 80 |
| Female | 28 | 39 | 70 | 110 | 83 |
| Race/ethnicitya | |||||
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 30 | 43 | 75 | 111 | 81 |
| Black | 25 | 34 | 61 | 98 | 73 |
| White | 28 | 40 | 71 | 112 | 84 |
| Hispanic | 24 | 36 | 65 | 105 | 81 |
| Other | 25 | 36 | 63 | 101 | 76 |
| Number of family risk factorsb | |||||
| 0 factors | 29 | 41 | 73 | 113 | 84 |
| 1 factor | 25 | 36 | 65 | 105 | 79 |
| 2 or more factors | 22 | 32 | 58 | 95 | 73 |
| Mathematics | |||||
| Total | 22 | 32 | 55 | 85 | 63 |
| Sex | |||||
| Male | 22 | 32 | 56 | 86 | 65 |
| Female | 22 | 32 | 55 | 83 | 62 |
| Race/ethnicitya | |||||
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 23 | 34 | 56 | 88 | 65 |
| Black | 18 | 26 | 47 | 73 | 55 |
| White | 23 | 34 | 58 | 89 | 65 |
| Hispanic | 19 | 29 | 52 | 82 | 63 |
| Other | 20 | 29 | 51 | 80 | 61 |
| Number of family risk factorsb | |||||
| 0 factors | 24 | 34 | 59 | 89 | 65 |
| 1 factor | 20 | 29 | 51 | 81 | 61 |
| 2 or more factors | 17 | 25 | 47 | 74 | 57 |
READING PERFORMANCE
The ability to read is fundamental to most aspects of education. When students cannot read well, they usually cannot succeed in other subject areas and will eventually have additional problems in a society requiring increasingly sophisticated job skills.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which measures reading, writing, and mathematics proficiency on a scale from zero to five hundred, in 2003 white and Asian and Pacific Islander students had higher average reading scores than other racial and ethnic groups. In fourth grade the average reading score for whites was 229, for Asians and Pacific Islanders, 226, for Native Americans, 202, for Hispanics, 200, and for African-Americans, 198. The same pattern prevailed for eighth graders. The average reading score for white students in eighth grade was 272, for Asians and Pacific Islanders, 270, for Native Americans, 246, for Hispanics, 245, and for African-Americans, 244. (See Table 3.4.) Between fourth and eighth grade white and Asian and Pacific Islander students made much greater gains in average reading scores than did African-American, Hispanic, or Native American students.
MATHEMATICS PERFORMANCE
In a time when science and technology are considered vital to the nation's economy and position in the international community, education observers have been concerned about the generally poor American performance in mathematics and science. Since 1971 the NAEP has tested students to
TABLE 3.4 Average reading score for 4th- and 8th-graders, by selected student and school characteristics, 2003
| TABLE 3.4 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Average reading score for 4th- and 8th-graders, by selected student and school characteristics, 2003 | ||
| Student or school characteristic | Grade 4 | Grade 8 |
| aAmerican Indian includes Alaski Native, black includes African American, Pacific Islander includes Native Hawaiian, and Hispanic includes Latino. Race categories include Hispanic origin unless specified. | ||
| bNot available | ||
| SOURCE: "Table 9-2. Average Reading Score for 4th- and 8th-Graders, by Selected Student and School Characteristics: 2003," in The Condition of Education 2005, National Center for Education Statistics, June 2005, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005094.pdf (accessed December 28, 2005) | ||
| Total | 218 | 263 |
| Sex | ||
| Male | 215 | 258 |
| Female | 222 | 269 |
| Race/ethnicitya | ||
| American Indian | 202 | 246 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 226 | 270 |
| Black | 198 | 244 |
| White | 229 | 272 |
| Hispanic | 200 | 245 |
| Parents' education | ||
| Less than high school | b | 245 |
| High school diploma or equivalent | b | 254 |
| Some college | b | 267 |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | b | 273 |
| How often student discusses studies at home | ||
| Every day | 216 | 267 |
| 2-3 times a week | 228 | 271 |
| 1-2 times a month | 216 | 260 |
| Never/hardly ever | 212 | 253 |
| Number of books in the home | ||
| 0-10 | 192 | 238 |
| 11-25 | 204 | 249 |
| 26-100 | 223 | 264 |
| More than 100 | 229 | 278 |
| Control | ||
| Public | 216 | 261 |
| Private | 235 | 282 |
| Location | ||
| Central city | 212 | 258 |
| Urban fringe/large town | 222 | 267 |
| Rural/small town | 220 | 264 |
| Enrollment | ||
| Less than 300 | 222 | 269 |
| 300-999 | 218 | 264 |
| 1,000 or more | 210 | 260 |
| Percent of students in school eligible for free or reduced-price lunch | ||
| 0-10 | 238 | 280 |
| 11-25 | 228 | 270 |
| 26-50 | 221 | 263 |
| 51-75 | 211 | 253 |
| 76-100 | 194 | 239 |
In 2003 Asians and Pacific Islanders had higher average mathematics scores than all other racial and ethnic groups. In fourth grade the average mathematics score for Asians and Pacific Islanders was 246, for whites, 243, for Native Americans, 223, for Hispanics,
TABLE 3.5 Average mathematics score for 4th- and 8th-graders, by selected student and school characteristics, 2003
| TABLE 3.5 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Average mathematics score for 4th- and 8th-graders, by selected student and school characteristics, 2003 | ||
| Student or school characteristic | Grade 4 | Grade 8 |
| aAmerican Indian includes Alaska Native, black includes African American, Pacific Islander includes Native Hawaiian, and Hispanic includes Latino. Race categories exclude Hispanic origin, unless specified. | ||
| bStudents reported on the mathematics course they were currently taking. Group 1 courses include 8th-grade mathematics and prealgebra. Group 2 courses include algebra I, algebra II, geometry, and integrated or sequential mathematics. | ||
| cNot available. | ||
| SOURCE: "Table 10-2. Average Mathematics Score for 4th- and 8th-Graders, by Selected Student and School Characteristics: 2003," in The Condition of Education 2005, National Center for Education Statistics, June 2005, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005094.pdf (accessed December 28, 2005) | ||
| Total | 235 | 278 |
| Sex | ||
| Male | 236 | 278 |
| Female | 233 | 277 |
| Race/ethnicitya | ||
| American Indian | 223 | 263 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 246 | 291 |
| Black | 216 | 252 |
| White | 243 | 288 |
| Hispanic | 222 | 259 |
| Parents' education | ||
| Less than high school | c | 257 |
| High school diploma or equivalent | c | 267 |
| Some college | c | 280 |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | c | 288 |
| Current mathematics class in 8th gradeb | ||
| Group 1 | c | 269 |
| Group 2 | c | 298 |
| Control | ||
| Public | 234 | 276 |
| Private | 245 | 294 |
| Location | ||
| Central city | 229 | 271 |
| Urban fringe/large town | 238 | 281 |
| Rural/small town | 236 | 279 |
| Enrollment | ||
| Less than 300 | 236 | 280 |
| 300-999 | 235 | 278 |
| 1,000 or more | 230 | 275 |
| Percent of students in school eligible for free or reduced-price lunch | ||
| 0-10 | 250 | 295 |
| 11-25 | 244 | 285 |
| 26-50 | 237 | 278 |
| 51-75 | 229 | 266 |
| 76-100 | 216 | 251 |
Dropping Out
When students drop out or fail to complete high school, both the individual and society suffer. Dropping
TABLE 3.6 Percentage of 16- to 24-year-olds who were high school dropouts, by race/ethnicity, selected years 1990–2003
| TABLE 3.6 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of 16- to 24-year-olds who were high school dropouts, by race/ethnicity, selected years 1990–2003 | ||||||
| Year | Total | White, non-Hispanic | Black, non-Hispanic | Hispanic | Asian/Pacific Islander | American Indian/Alaska Native |
| *Interpret data with caution. | ||||||
| Note: The data presented here represent status dropout rates, which is the percentage of 16- to 24-year-olds who are out of school and who have not earned a high school credential. The status dropout rate includes all dropouts regardless of when they last attended school, as well as individuals who may have never attended school in the U.S. such as immigrants who did not complete a high school diploma in their home country. Another way of calculating dropout rates is the event dropout rate, which is the percentage of 15- to 24-year-olds who dropped out of grades 10 through 12 in the 12 months preceding the fall of each data collection year. | ||||||
| SOURCE: Catherine Freeman and Mary Ann Fox, "Table 3.3. Percentage of 16- to 24-Year-Olds Who Were High School Dropouts, by Race/Ethnicity: Selected Years, 1990 to 2003," in Status and Trends in the Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives, National Center for Education Statistics, August 2005, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005108.pdf (accessed January 19, 2006) | ||||||
| 1990 | 12.1 | 9.0 | 13.4 | 32.4 | 4.9 | 16.4* |
| 1992 | 11.0 | 7.7 | 13.7 | 29.5 | 5.7 | 17.5* |
| 1994 | 11.4 | 7.7 | 12.6 | 30.0 | 5.8 | 10.2* |
| 1996 | 11.1 | 7.3 | 13.0 | 29.4 | 5.3 | 13.0* |
| 1998 | 11.8 | 7.7 | 13.8 | 29.5 | 4.1 | 11.8* |
| 2000 | 10.9 | 6.9 | 13.1 | 27.8 | 3.8 | 14.0* |
| 2001 | 10.7 | 7.3 | 10.9 | 27.0 | 3.6 | 13.1* |
| 2002 | 10.5 | 6.5 | 11.3 | 25.7 | 3.9 | 16.8 |
| 2003 | 9.9 | 6.3 | 10.9 | 23.5 | 3.9 | 15.0* |
According to the NCES in the Digest of Education Statistics, 2004 (2005, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d04/tables/dt04_107.asp), 9.9% of sixteen- to twenty-four-year-olds in 2003 had dropped out of high school. A far lower percentage of Asian and Pacific Islander (3.9%) and white, non-Hispanic students (6.3%) dropped out of high school than did African-American (10.9%), Native American and Alaska Native (15%), or Hispanic students (23.5%). (See Table 3.6.) However, the percentage of dropouts in that age group had decreased for all race and ethnic groups since 1990.
Progress for African-American Students
While the average academic performance of African-American students, in general, remains below that of white students, high school graduation among African-Americans has risen considerably. According to the Digest of Education Statistics, 2004, these figures represent significant improvement since 1960, when 27.2% of all students dropped out of school, and 1975, when 22.9% of African-American students and 29.2% of Hispanic students dropped out of school. The dropout rate has decreased more dramatically for African-American students since 1975 than it has for Hispanic students. In 2003 African-Americans age twenty-five and older were less likely than non-Hispanic whites and Asians and Pacific Islanders to have earned a high school diploma, but they were more likely than Hispanics to have received a diploma. Four in five African-Americans of that age (80%) had received a high school diploma. (See Figure 3.1.)
The Digest of Education Statistics, 2004 also shows that the percent of African-American high school graduates who enrolled in college within the past twelve months fluctuated throughout the period from 1972 through 2003, from a low of 32.5% in 1973 to a high of 61.9% in 1998. In 2003 more than half (57.5%) of African-American students who had completed high school or earned a GED in the past twelve months sought higher education.
Hispanic Educational Attainment Holds Steady
Although Hispanics made modest gains in education in the 1990s, low educational attainment has been a major hindrance to their economic advancement. In 2003 Hispanics continued to trail behind other groups in high school graduation rates. Only 57% of Hispanics age twenty-five and older had received high school diplomas, compared with 89.4% of non-Hispanic whites, 87.6% of Asian-Americans, and 80% of African-Americans. Not surprisingly, in that same year Asians and Pacific Islanders (49.8%), non-Hispanic whites (30%), and African-Americans (17.3%) were all more likely to have graduated from college than were Hispanics (11.4%). (See Figure 3.1.)
Why do Hispanics trail other racial and ethnic groups in educational attainment? A language barrier may be one reason. In 2003, 6.4 million (67.6%) Hispanic students in
FIGURE 3.1 Educational attainment of the population 25 years and over by race, Hispanic origin, and age, 2003
The U.S. Census Bureau report Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003 (June 2004, http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p20-550.pdf) points out that between 1993 and 2003 the educational attainment of the Hispanic population had increased. The proportion of Hispanics age twenty-five and older with a high school diploma increased from 53% in 1993 to 57% in 2003; the proportion with some college increased from 26% in 1993 to 30% in 2003; and the proportion who had completed a four-year college degree increased from 9% in 1993 to 11% a decade later. However, all remained lower than for any other race or ethnic group. In addition, the educational attainment of the Hispanic population age twenty-five to twenty-nine was notably lower than for other groups and showed no change between 1993 and 2003.
Native American Educational Attainment Remains Low
Native Americans have the lowest educational attainment of all minority groups, which is attributable in part to a high dropout rate. According to Catherine Freeman and Mary Ann Fox in Status and Trends in the Education of Native Americans and Alaska Natives (August 2005, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005108.pdf), 45,828 students attended Bureau of Indian Affairs schools and tribal schools in 2003–04, while 624,298 Native American and Alaska Native students attended public schools. Native American and Alaska Native eighth graders had the highest rate of absences of any race or ethnic group in the preceding month—65.7% of Native American or Alaska Native students had been absent, compared with 58.4% of Hispanics, 57.2% of whites, 55.6% of African-Americans, and 36.7% of Asians and Pacific Islanders. (See Table 3.8.)
Freeman and Fox report that the Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP), which was established in the late nineteenth century, was working to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for the Native American population. In 2003–04 the OIEP oversaw 184 schools on sixty-three reservations in twenty-three states across the United States. In "Building Exemplary Schools for Tomorrow: 2002 Fingertip Facts" (2002, http://www.nectas.unc.edu/∼pdfs/topics/biaeduc.pdf), the OIEP reports that it convened in January 2001 a group of leaders and educators who developed a set of goals for programs to achieve by 2007. Known as the "Meeting of 100," the group anticipated that by 2007:
TABLE 3.7 Children ages 5-17 who spoke a language other than English at home and who spoke English with difficulty, by selected characteristics, 2003
| TABLE 3.7 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children ages 5-17 who spoke a language other than English at home and who spoke English with difficulty, by selected characteristics, 2003 | |||||||||
| [In thousands] | |||||||||
| Characteristic | Number | Spoke a language other than English at home | Spoke English with difficultya | ||||||
| Total | Ages 5-9 | Ages 10-17 | |||||||
| Number | Percent of populationb | Number | Percent of populationb | Number | Percent of populationb | Number | Percent of populationb | ||
| aRespondents were asked if each child in the household spoke a language other than English at home. If they answered "yes," they were asked how well each could speak English. Categories used for reporting were "very well," "well," "not well," and "not at all." All those who reported speaking English less than "very well" were considered to have difficulty speaking English. | |||||||||
| bPercentage of the total population for that particular subgroup. For example, 18.8 percent of all American Indians spoke a language other than English at home and 2.4 percent of all American Indians spoke a language other than English at home and spoke English with difficulty. | |||||||||
| cAny native language spoken by Asian or Pacific Islanders, which linguists classify variously as Sino-Tibetan, Austroasiatic, or Austronesian languages. | |||||||||
| dAmerican Indian includes Alaska Native, black includes African American, Pacific Islander includes Native Hawaiian, and Hispanic includes Latino. Race categories exclude Hispanic origin unless specified. | |||||||||
| eU.S.-born includes all children born in Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories and those born outside of the United States to American citizens. | |||||||||
| f"Near-poor" is defined as 100-199 percent of the poverty level, and "nonpoor" is defined as at least twice the poverty level. | |||||||||
| Note: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. | |||||||||
| SOURCE: "Table 5-2. Number and Percentage of Children Ages 5-17 Who Spoke a Language Other than English at Home and Who Spoke English with Difficulty, by Selected Characteristics: 2003," in The Condition of Education 2005, National Center for Education Statistics, June 2005, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005094.pdf (accessed December 28, 2005) | |||||||||
| Total | 53,023 | 9,911 | 18.7 | 2,915 | 5.5 | 1,431 | 7.2 | 1,485 | 4.5 |
| Language spoken at home | |||||||||
| Spanish | 7,070 | 7,070 | 100.0 | 2,180 | 30.8 | 1,103 | 39.9 | 1,078 | 25.0 |
| Other Indo-European | 1,107 | 1,107 | 100.0 | 283 | 25.6 | 116 | 30.7 | 167 | 22.9 |
| Asian/Pacific Islanderc | 1,566 | 1,566 | 100.0 | 428 | 27.3 | 200 | 34.3 | 229 | 23.2 |
| Other | 126 | 126 | 100.0 | 16 | 12.8 | 7 | 15.8 | 9 | 11.1 |
| Race/ethnicityd | |||||||||
| American Indian | 413 | 78 | 18.8 | 10 | 2.4 | 4 | 2.6 | 6 | 2.3 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 1,904 | 1,232 | 64.7 | 347 | 18.2 | 166 | 23.2 | 181 | 15.2 |
| Black | 7,835 | 404 | 5.2 | 105 | 1.3 | 37 | 1.3 | 68 | 1.4 |
| White | 32,008 | 1,648 | 5.1 | 436 | 1.4 | 159 | 1.4 | 277 | 1.4 |
| Hispanic | 9,413 | 6,367 | 67.6 | 1,980 | 21.0 | 1,049 | 27.3 | 932 | 16.7 |
| Mexican | 6,417 | 4,446 | 69.3 | 1,490 | 23.2 | 820 | 30.9 | 669 | 17.8 |
| Puerto Rican | 920 | 505 | 54.9 | 97 | 10.5 | 41 | 11.3 | 55 | 10.0 |
| Cuban | 203 | 144 | 71.0 | 30 | 14.7 | 17 | 22.0 | 13 | 10.3 |
| Central or South American | 1,137 | 947 | 83.3 | 288 | 25.3 | 133 | 29.4 | 155 | 22.7 |
| Other | 736 | 325 | 44.2 | 76 | 10.4 | 37 | 12.4 | 39 | 9.0 |
| Citizenshipe | |||||||||
| U.S.-born | 50,367 | 7,665 | 15.2 | 1,899 | 3.8 | 1,060 | 5.6 | 839 | 2.7 |
| Naturalized U.S. citizen | 461 | 293 | 63.6 | 74 | 16.1 | 16 | 18.0 | 58 | 15.6 |
| Non-U.S. citizen | 2,194 | 1,953 | 89.0 | 942 | 42.9 | 355 | 54.6 | 588 | 38.0 |
| Poverty statusf | |||||||||
| Poor | 7,944 | 2,283 | 28.7 | 871 | 11.0 | 450 | 13.7 | 422 | 9.0 |
| Near poor | 11,064 | 3,049 | 27.6 | 968 | 8.8 | 497 | 11.4 | 471 | 7.0 |
| Nonpoor | 32,506 | 4,270 | 13.1 | 952 | 2.9 | 423 | 3.7 | 529 | 2.5 |
| Region | |||||||||
| Northeast | 9,422 | 1,792 | 19.0 | 523 | 5.5 | 231 | 6.6 | 291 | 4.9 |
| Midwest | 19,032 | 3,032 | 15.9 | 909 | 4.8 | 447 | 6.3 | 463 | 3.9 |
| South | 11,974 | 1,183 | 9.9 | 388 | 3.2 | 189 | 4.2 | 199 | 2.6 |
| West | 12,595 | 3,904 | 31.0 | 1,095 | 8.7 | 563 | 11.9 | 532 | 6.8 |
- All children will read independently by third grade.
- 70% of students will be proficient or advanced in reading and math.
- The individual student attendance rate will be 90% or better.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of their language and culture to improve academic achievement.
- Enrollment, retention, placement, and graduation rates for postsecondary students will be increased.
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