Latinos & Education

Despite Academic Performance, Latinos Value Higher Education (July 2010)
While more than half of Hispanics are drop outs, a poll finds that they (87%) value higher education more than do Americans as a whole (78%). 13% of Hispanics have a college degree compared with 30% of Americans overall. 54% state that their parents either don’t expect them to go to college or don’t care. http://diverseeducation.com/cache/print.php?articleId=13992

One-in-Five and Growing Fast: A Profile of Hispanic Public School Students (August 2008)
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. Strong growth in Hispanic enrollment is expected to continue for decades, according to a recently released U.S. Census Bureau population projection. In 2050, there will be more school-age Hispanic children than school-age non-Hispanic white children. This report presents demographic, language, and family background characteristics of the nation’s 10 million Hispanic public school students. Read the Pew Hispanic Center report at http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=92

Research Digest: Young Latino Infants and Families: Parental Involvement Implications From a Recent National Study (June 2007)
Harvard Family Research Project’s Michael López and his colleagues use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort to show that family engagement matters for all young children regardless of social, cultural, or ethnic group. The researchers find that there are no differences in cognitive and motor competencies between Latino children and their White peers at 9 months of age. Although few differences in parenting behaviors exist across ethnic groups, the researchers observe that Latino families are less likely to read books and share stories with their children than parents from other ethnic backgrounds and suggest ways to support Latino children’s literacy development during the early childhood years. http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/digest/infants.html

Buenos Principios: Latino Children in the Earliest Years of Life (April 30, 2007)
This report by the National Council of La Raza concludes that investing in high-quality, comprehensive early childhood education programs could help narrow the growing school readiness gap between Latino and other children. The report also makes a series of recommendations for policy-makers to improve the quality of life and school readiness for Latino children in the U.S. Access the report at: http://www.nclr.org/index.php/publications/buenos_principios_latino_children_in_the_earliest_years_of_life/

Hispanic Education in the United States By Adriana D. Kohler and Melissa Lazarin, National Council of La Raza (January 2007)
Latinos are a significant and growing proportion of the United States student population. This statistical brief provides a summary of the key data concerning Latinos in the educational pipeline. http://www.nclr.org/index.php/publications/hispanic_education_in_the_united_states/
Pew Center Reports and Fact Sheets on Latinos and Education: http://pewhispanic.org/topics/index.php?TopicID=4

The Changing Landscape of American Public Education (October 2006)
This report from the Pew Hispanic Center examines the intersection of two trends that have transformed the landscape of American public education in recent years: a rapid increase in enrollment and a surge in the opening of new schools. The report describes the racial and ethnic components of enrollment growth at various levels of the K-12 system. It also examines the composition of enrollment in newly opened schools and older schools still in operation as well as the impact of rapid growth in Hispanic enrollment. http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=72