Research on Census Data The Pew Hispanic Center The Urban Institute

The New Demography of America’s Schools Children of immigrants compose one-fifth of all US school-age children. School-age children of immigrant parents are concentrated in large states, but dispersing rapidly. Most children of immigrant parents are native-born; there are more native born in the elementary grades and more foreign born in secondary.

The New Demography - con’t Most ELLs were born in the US; many have US-born parents. Most ELLs live in linguistically isolated communities and attend linguistically segregated schools. Schools with concentrated numbers of ELLs have a proportionately larger share of responsibility in meeting the varied needs of the students.

The Changing Landscape of American Public Education: New Students, New Schools (Pew Hispanic Center) Between , the Hispanic school population increased by 64% or 3 million; black students grew by 1.1 million and white student population dropped by 35,000. In the same time period, 15,368 schools were constructed. White student enrollment in existing schools declined by 2.6 million students. However, 2.5 million white students, nearly half, attended new schools. About two-thirds of Hispanic students attended existing schools; one-third attended new schools.

New Students, New Schools - con’t New schools are smaller and have more affluent students. A substantial majority of white students attend schools populated primarily by other whites and relatively few attend schools populated primarily by minorities. Hispanic student population is concentrated in relatively small number of existing schools. One- fifth of existing schools absorbed two-thirds of the increased Hispanic student population. Free lunch eligibility rose from 34% to 43% in Hispanic concentrated schools compared to % elsewhere.

Educational Attainment Better But Challenges Remain (Pew Hispanic Center Fact Sheet) Native Hispanics more educated than immigrants; 89% of whites finish high school (30% finish college) compared to 57% Hispanics (10% finish college). Foreign-born less likely to finish high school (40%) and college (5%). 15% native-born drop out of high school; 44% foreign born students drop out. Hispanic high school students are less likely than their white counterparts to complete 4-year college degree. 55% of white pre-schoolers attend school compared to 35% Hispanic pre-schoolers.

Projections In 2002, school- and college-age young people of ages 5-24 made up 37% of the Hispanic population compared to 27% of the non-Hispanic population. In 2027 this segment of the Hispanic population will increase by 82%.