Hispanic Students' Math Performance

1 Dec 2006

What is the Crisis in Latino Education?

Hispanic Demographics in the United States

• In Census 2000, 35.3 million or 12.5 percent of the U.S. population were of Hispanic origin.

• The Hispanic population increased by 57.9 percent, from 22.4 million in 1990 to 35.3 million in 2000, compared with an increase of 13.2 percent for the total U.S. population.

• In 2000, 27.1 million or 76.8 percent of Hispanics lived in seven states with Hispanic populations of 1 million or more: California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Arizona and New Jersey.

• While 25.7 percent of the U.S. population was under 18 years of age in 2000, 35 percent of Hispanics were less than age 18.

• The median age for Hispanics was 25.9 years while the median age for the entire U.S. population was 35.3 years.

• Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population and will become the largest teen minority group by 2005. Projections indicate that by 2015, 1 of every 5 teens in the U.S. will be Hispanic.

Latinos in Education

• One of every three Hispanic students fails to complete high school.

• In 2000, 26 percent of Hispanic students in the 8th grade and 34 percent of Hispanic students in the 12th grade reported that they had been absent three or more days in the preceding month.

• In 1999, 13 percent of Hispanic students in kindergarten through 12th grade had ever repeated a grade.

• In 2000, the status dropout rate for Hispanics was 28 percent, higher than the 7 percent rate for Whites and the 13 percent rate for Blacks.

• In 1999, average scores among Hispanic 9-year-olds were 13 percent below Whites’ scores (a gap of 28 points), among 13-year-olds they were 9 percent below Whites’ scores (a gap of 23 points), and among 17-year-olds they were 8 percent below Whites’ scores (a gap of 24 points).

• Hispanic students’ performance was lower than that of White students in mathematics at all three age levels in 1999, but Hispanic 13- and 17-year-olds scored higher than Black 13- and 17-year-olds.

• Fifty-nine percent of Hispanics completed middle-level mathematics courses, 8 percent took low-level courses and 7 percent completed nonacademic or no mathematics courses.

• In 2001, students from Hispanic subgroups scored below the national average and Whites on the SAT. Hispanics accounted for 9 percent of the SAT-taking population in 2001.

Source:
United States Department of Education. National Center for Education Stastistics. Status and Trends in the Education of Hispanics. Washington, D.C.: April 2003.