I. Overview

The number of Hispanic students in the nation’s public schools nearly doubled from 1990 to 2006, accounting for 60% of the total growth in public school enrollments over that period. There are now approximately 10 million Hispanic students in the nation’s public kindergartens and its elementary and high schools; they make up about one-in-five public school students in the United States. In 1990, just one-in-eight public school students were Hispanic.

Strong growth in Hispanic enrollment is expected to continue for decades, according to a recently released U.S. Census Bureau population projection. The bureau projects that the Hispanic school-age population will increase by 166% by 2050 (to 28 million from 11 million in 2006), while the non-Hispanic school-age population will grow by just 4% (to 45 million from 43 million) over this same period.¹ In 2050, there will be more school-age Hispanic children than school-age non-Hispanic white children.

While Hispanics account for 20% of public school students nationally, their share of enrollment is greater in several states. In 2006 Hispanics were about half of all public school students in California, up from 36% in 1990. They were more than 40% of enrollments in three additional states (Arizona, New Mexico and Texas) and between 20% and 40% of all public school students in five states (Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Florida and New York). Overall, Hispanics are the largest minority group in the public schools in 22 states.

Using data from the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS), this report presents information on the demographic characteristics of Hispanic students in public schools. It compares Hispanic public school students with their non-Hispanic counterparts. The large sample sizes available in the ACS also enable detailed comparison of Hispanic students across generational groups.

Highlighted Characteristics of Hispanic Public School Students

Demographics

• The vast majority of Hispanic public school students (84%) were born in the United States.
• More than half (52%) of all Hispanic students are enrolled in public schools in just two states, Texas and California.
• Although most Hispanic students live in the nine “established”² Hispanic states, foreign-born Hispanic students are more likely than native-born Hispanic students to live in the “new” and “emerging” Hispanic states.
• Hispanic kindergartners in public schools are overwhelmingly born in the U.S. (93%), compared with 86% of Hispanic students in grades 1 through 8 and 77% in high school.
• The majority of Hispanic students are of Mexican origin (69%), followed by Puerto Rican (9%), Dominican (3%), Salvadoran (3%) and Cuban (2%).³
• Nearly three-in-five Hispanic students (57%) live in households with both of their parents compared with 69% of non-Hispanic white students and 30% of non-Hispanic black students.
• More than seven-in-ten U.S. born Hispanic students of immigrant parents (71%) live with both parents. Smaller shares of foreign-born students (58%) and U.S.-born students of native parentage (48%) reside with both parents.
• More than a quarter of Hispanic students (28%) live in poverty, compared with 16% of non-Hispanic students. In comparison, more than a third of non-Hispanic black students (35%) reside in poverty and about one-in-ten (11%) non-Hispanic white students live in a poor household.
• Foreign-born Hispanic students (35%) are more likely than their native-born counterparts (27%) to live in poverty.
• A significant minority of Hispanic public school students (34%) have parents who have not completed high school. Fewer than one-in-ten (7%) non-Hispanic students have parents who have not finished high school.

Language Skills

• Seven-in-ten (70%) Hispanic students speak a language other than English at home.
• Almost 30% of Hispanic public school students report speaking only English at home, and an additional 52% of Hispanic public school students report speaking English “very well.” The remaining 18% of Hispanic students speak English with difficulty.⁴
• Nearly half (44%) of first-generation students speak English with difficulty, compared with 20% of second-generation students and 5% of the third-and-higher generations.⁵
• Most Hispanic students (78%) live in households in which at least one household member over the age of 13 speaks only English in the home or speaks English very well.

About this Report

The data contained in this fact sheet are based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey. The ACS is the largest household survey in the United States, with a sample of about 3 million addresses, and was designed to provide estimates of the size and characteristics of the resident population.

The specific data sources for this fact sheet are the 1% sample of the 2006 ACS Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) and the 5% sample of the 1990 Census IPUMS provided by the University of Minnesota. For more information about the IPUMS, including variable definition and sampling error, please visit http://usa.ipums.org/usa/design.shtml. To learn more about the sampling strategy and associated error of the 2006 American Community Survey, please refer to http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/ACS/accuracy2006.pdf.

Numbers presented in the text and figures are rounded to the nearest whole number. When two categories are discussed jointly in the text, the number presented is the summation of the two non-rounded data points. As a result, some of the numbers in the text differ from numbers in figures by one percentage point. Where this occurs, the number cited in the text should be regarded as the most accurate.

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” are used interchangeably in this report.

This report uses the following definitions of the first, second and third-and-higher generations:

First generation: Born outside the United States, its territories or possessions. Can be naturalized U.S. citizens, legal immigrants or undocumented immigrants. Also referred to as “foreign born” and “immigrants.”

Second generation: Born in the United States with at least one foreign-born parent. U.S. citizens by birth. Included in “native-born” students.

Third-and-higher generations: Born in the United States with both parents also born in the United States. U.S. citizens by birth. Included in “native-born” students.

Unless otherwise stated, the term “student” is used to refer to a student of any age enrolled in a public kindergarten or an elementary school or high school.

In 2006, 48 million students were enrolled in public schools. Ten million of them are Hispanic.⁶ Overall, two-thirds (67%) of all students are enrolled in kindergarten through grade 8 and the remaining third (33%) are enrolled in high school (grades 9 through 12).

The grade distributions of Hispanic and non-Hispanic students are similar, although a greater share of Hispanic students (70%) are enrolled in grades K through 8 than non-Hispanic students (66%) and a lesser share of Hispanic students (30%) are enrolled in grades 9 through 12, compared with non-Hispanic students (34%). This is partly due to the fact that school-aged Hispanic children are younger than school-aged non-Hispanic children. The average age of Hispanic school-age children is 10.8, compared with an average age of 11.2 for non-Hispanic school-age children.

The distribution of Hispanic students across grades differs greatly by nativity. Of the 1.6 million Hispanic public school students born outside the United States, more than 43% are enrolled in high school. In comparison, 27% of the 8.3 million native-born Hispanic students are enrolled in high school. Foreign-born Hispanic students are half as likely as native-born Hispanic students to be enrolled in kindergarten (4% versus 9%). The skewed grade distribution of immigrant Hispanic students is largely explained by the fact that they are older than their native-born counterparts. The median age of immigrant Hispanic students enrolled in public schools is 13, compared with 11 among native-born Hispanic students.

Additional Research on Hispanics and Education

Pew Hispanic Center Research on Education and Public Schools

National Survey of Latinos Since 2002, the Pew Hispanic Center has conducted an annual survey of Latino adults. Over the years, education has emerged as an issue of primary importance among Hispanics. When asked how important the issue of education was to them personally, 95% of Hispanics in 2007 and 94% in 2008 reported that education was either “extremely important” or “very important.”

In 2002, 75% of Hispanics said that discrimination was a problem in schools. Just five years later, in 2007, 84% reported the same. Although discrimination in schools was viewed as problematic in 2002 and 2007 by a strong majority of respondents, the percentage of Hispanics who believe it is a major problem rose over the five-year period, from 38% in 2002 to 64% in 2007.

Despite concerns about discrimination, the 2004 survey found that the majority of Hispanics were satisfied with public education. When asked what grade they would give the public schools in their community, Latino respondents were more likely than either white or black respondents to give high ratings. Nearly two-thirds (63%) gave the public schools in their community a grade of A or B, compared with 58% of whites and 48% of blacks.

The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of U.S. Public Schools Analysis of public school data finds that since 1993-94, white students have become less isolated from minority students while, at the same time, black and Hispanic students have become slightly more isolated from white students. These two seemingly contradictory trends stem mainly from the very large increase in the Hispanic share of the public school population since 1993-94.

The Changing Landscape of American Public Education: New Students, New Schools This report documents the nation’s recent public school building surge and the composition of enrollment in newly opened schools as well as older schools still in operation. It also examines the impact of rapid growth in Hispanic enrollment and finds that a relatively small number of public schools absorbed most of the increase in Hispanic enrollment. Those schools differ in important ways from schools less affected by Hispanic population growth.

Government Studies on Hispanic Academic Achievement Scores

The Nation’s Report Card: Mathematics 2007 and A Profile of the American High School Senior in 2004: A First Look. Initial Results From the First Follow-up of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). These government studies indicate that the achievement scores of Hispanic students lag well behind those of non-Hispanic white students and that large shares of Hispanic students have below-basic levels of proficiency in math and reading.

The Condition of Education 2008 According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) of the U.S. Department of Education, the gaps in reading and math achievement between Hispanic and white students were not measurably different in 2007 compared to the early 1990s.

Generation:⁷ Hispanic students have a very different generational composition than their non-Hispanic peers. Non-Hispanic public school students are overwhelmingly (87%) third-generation Americans and higher (native-born citizens with both parents also having been born in the U.S.). In comparison, only about one-third (35%) of Hispanic public school students are third-generation Americans or higher. Almost two-thirds (65%) of Hispanic public school students are either immigrants themselves (first generation) or the children of immigrants (second generation). Nearly half (48%) of Hispanic students are U.S.-born children of immigrants, and slightly less than one-fifth (17%) of Hispanic students are immigrants themselves.

Race:⁸ Two-thirds (66%) of all students enrolled in public schools identify themselves as being white. Among non-Hispanic students, seven-in-ten (70%) identify themselves as white. In comparison, about half (51%) of Hispanic students report being of white racial identity.

About 20% of non-Hispanic students in public schools identify themselves as black and 5% report being of Asian racial identity. Only about 5% of non-Hispanic students report a racial identity other than white, black or Asian. In contrast, Hispanic public school students are much more likely to report a racial identity other than white, black or Asian. About 42% of Hispanic students report that they are of “other” racial identity and 5% report being of “two or more races.”

There are some differences in the racial identity of Hispanic students by generation. Although the share of Hispanic students who self-identify as white is approximately 50% in each generation, the share who identify as being of two or more racial origins is greater in the third-and-higher generations than in the first generation. About 10% of Hispanic students in the third-and-higher generation report being of two or more racial origins. In comparison, only 3% of Hispanic second-generation students report being two or more races and 1% of foreign-born Hispanic students report multiple racial identity.

National Origin of Hispanic Students:⁹ More than two-thirds (69%) of Hispanic public school students are of Mexican origin. Although Mexican-origin students comprise the greatest share of Hispanic public school students in each generation, the Mexican share of students decreases among the third-and-higher generation. Nearly three-quarters of first- and second-generation Hispanic students (72% and 74%, respectively) are of Mexican origin. Only 60% of the third-and-higher generation Hispanic students are of Mexican origin.

After those of Mexican origin, students of Dominican (4%) and Salvadoran (4%) origin are the largest groups of first- and second-generation Hispanic students. Among the third-and-higher generation Hispanic public school students, Puerto Ricans (22%) and Cubans (1%) comprise the second- and third- largest groups.

About 10.2 million of all students enrolled in public schools, or slightly more than 20%, speak a language other than English at home. After English, the most commonly spoken language in the home is Spanish, followed by Chinese, French, and Hindi and related dialects.

The share of Hispanic students who speak a language other than English at home is nearly eight times the share of non-Hispanic students who speak a language besides, or in addition to, English at home: 70% versus 9%.

Although seven-in-ten (70%) Hispanic public school students speak a language other than English at home, most live in households in which at least one household member over the age of 13 speaks only English in the home or speaks English very well. Only one-in-five (22%) of Hispanic public school students live in a household where English is not spoken very well.¹⁰ But Hispanic students are 12 times as likely as non-Hispanic students to live in this type of linguistically isolated household.

The share of Hispanic students who live in homes in which English is not spoken very well decreases considerably with each generation. Nearly half (46%) of first-generation Hispanic students do, compared with 28% of second-generation students and 3% of third-and-higher generation students.

Of the 6.9 million Hispanic public school students who speak a language other than English at home, about 1.8 million (26%) speak English with difficulty; that is, they speak English less than “very well.” These 1.8 million students are 18% of all Hispanic public school students.

As with linguistic isolation, the share of Hispanic students who speak English with difficulty decreases with each generation. While almost half (44%) of first-generation Hispanic students speak English with difficulty, this share drops by more than half (to 20%) among the native-born children of immigrants. Among the third-and-higher generations, 5% of Hispanic students speak English with difficulty.

Of the 10.2 million public school students who speak a language other than English at home, 2.6 million (25%) speak English with difficulty. Latinos account for 70% of all public school students who speak English with difficulty.

Hispanic students enrolled in public schools are more likely than their non-Hispanic counterparts to reside in households at or below the poverty level,¹¹ 28% versus 16%. Compared with non-Hispanic students, native-born Hispanic students (27%) in public schools are one-and-a-half times as likely to live in poverty, and foreign-born Hispanic students (35%) are twice as likely.

The median household income of non-Hispanic public school students is $60,372, and of Hispanic public school students it is $40,248. While 59% of non-Hispanic public school students live in households whose income exceeds $50,000, only 38% of Hispanics do.

The likelihood of living in a household with an income of more than $50,000 increases across generations for Hispanic public school students. Only a quarter (28%) of first-generation students live in a household with an income of more than $50,000, but this share increases to more than a third (37%) among second-generation students and nearly half (46%) among third-and-higher generation students.

For Hispanic public school students, the likelihood of living in a household with an income over $50,000 is related to the educational attainment of their parents.¹² As the share of Hispanic students who live in households with incomes of $50,000 or more increases across generations, the share of Hispanic students who live with a parent who does not have a high school diploma decreases. Half (50%) of all immigrant Hispanic students live with a parent who has not obtained a high school diploma. This share decreases to 42% among second-generation and 16% among third-and-higher generation Hispanic students.

A slightly smaller share of Hispanic students (57%) live in households with both of their parents, compared with non-Hispanic students (61%). Nearly equal shares of Hispanic (29%) and non-Hispanic (27%) students live in single-parent households. But, Hispanic students are more likely than non-Hispanic students to live in a household with someone other than a parent or grandparent (10% compared with 6%).

Although there are not large differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic public school students in terms of their living arrangements, differences exist among Hispanics of different generations.

Second-generation Hispanic students (71%), those born in the United States who are the children of immigrants, are more likely to live in a two-parent household than are first generation, immigrant Hispanic students (58%) or third-and-higher generation students (48%).

Third-and-higher generation students are most likely to live in a single-parent household, 44% compared with 19% of first-generation and 25% of second-generation students.

Immigrant Hispanic students are most likely to live in a household with someone other than a parent or grandparent. One-fifth (20%) of all Hispanic immigrant public school students live with someone other than a parent or grandparent, compared with less than 3% of second-and-higher generation Hispanic students. While more than nine-in-ten second-and-higher generation students live with at least one parent, only 77% of first-generation students do so.

The Hispanic population is geographically concentrated in certain states, and Hispanic public school enrollments mirror these residence patterns. More than half (52%) of all Hispanic students are educated in California and Texas. Hispanic students are concentrated in the “established” Hispanic states,³ which besides California and Texas are Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. About three-quarters of all Hispanic students live in these nine states.

Three-quarters (76%) of native-born Hispanic students attend school in the “established” Hispanic states mentioned above. An additional 13% live in the “new” Hispanic states of Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.

Foreign-born Hispanic students tend to be educated in slightly different states than those who are native born. Less than half (46%) of Hispanic foreign-born public school students live in Texas and California, and only two-thirds (66%) reside in the nine “established” Hispanic states. They are more likely than their native-born counterparts to live in the “new” Hispanic states mentioned above (21%) as well as the “emerging” Hispanic states of Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin (8%).