Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Minorities

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by (Kewal Ramani, Gilbertson, Fox, and Provasnik, 2007)

examines the educational progress and challenges that racial and ethnic minorities face in the United States.

differences persist among Hispanic, Black, American Indian/Alaska Na- tive, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and White students on key indicators of educational performance.

  • Latino schooling in the U.S. has long been characterized by high dropout rates and low college completion rates. Both problems have moderated over time, but a persistent educational attainment gap remains between Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites.2


  • In 2005, the majority of Black and Hispanic students attended schools with high minor- ity enrollment (75 percent or more), while Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/ Alaska Native students were more evenly dis- tributed across schools with different levels of minority enrollment. (Indicator 7.5)


  • The U.S. population has become more diverse over the past two decades as minority population groups have increased more rapidly than the White popula- tion.


  • In 2005, there were 6.3 million Hispanic and 1.7 million Asian families with children under 18 (data not shown). Approximately 26 percent of these Hispanic and 10 percent of these Asian families were living in poverty.

Overall, a higher percentage of Hispanic families with children were living in poverty than the national percentage of families with children living in poverty. Some 34 percent of Dominican, 28 percent of Puerto Rican, 27 percent of Mexican, 22 percent of Central American, and 20 percent of Other Hispanic or La- tino families with children were living in poverty, compared to the national estimate of 16 percent. The percentage of families of South American heritage living in poverty was not measurably different from the national percentage.


  • Research has shown a link between parental educa- tion levels and child outcomes such as educational experience and academic achievement.


  • Despite an increase in the overall level of educational attainment since 1990 (see indicator 27), differences in parental educational attainment levels persist across racial/ethnic groups.


TEXAS : Percentage distribution of public elementary and secondary students, by region, state, and race ethnicity: 2004

total: 4,405,215

  • white :37.7
  • total minority: 62.3
  • black: 14.2
  • hispanic: 44.7
  • asian pacific islander 3.0
  • American Indian/ Alaska Native 0.3