2008 Enrollment In U.S. Expected To Set Record - washingtonpost.com: Public school enrollment across the country will hit a record high this year with just under 50 million students, and the student population is becoming more diverse in large part because of growth in the Latino population, according to a new federal report.
Nationwide, about 20 percent of students were Hispanic in 2006, the latest year for which figures were available for ethnic groups, up from 11 percent in the late 1980s. That trend is reflected in many Washington area schools. In Fairfax County, about 17 percent of students are Hispanic, jumping from about 4 percent two decades ago.
Overall, about 43 percent of the nation's students are minorities, according to the Condition of Education, a congressionally mandated annual look at enrollment and performance trends in schools and colleges.
Educators and activists, pointing to the shifting demographics, say it is becoming urgent to find ways to boost achievement of minority and low-income students, who often lag behind white and middle- to upper-income peers.
"Latino students have long underperformed versus Anglo students . . . and they are continuing to underperform," said Peter Zamora, regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "When Latino students were a small percentage of the population, this maybe didn't need to be a significant concern of policymakers. But when one out of five students is Hispanic, this isn't a Latino issue, this is an American issue."
According to the report, which drew on data from local school systems, colleges and national and international exams, dropout rates among whites, blacks and Hispanics are lower than in 1972. But Hispanic and black students are still more likely than white students to fail to complete high school.
