More U.S. high school students are staying in school,
according to newly released data from the Census Bureau, as the national
dropout rate reached a record low last year. Just 7% of the nation’s 18-to-24
year olds had dropped out of high school, continuing a steady decline in the
nation’s dropout rate since 2000, when 12% of youth were dropouts.
The decline in the national dropout rate has been driven,
in part, by substantially fewer Hispanic and black youth dropping out of school
(the non-Hispanic white dropout rate has not fallen as sharply). Although
Hispanics still have the highest dropout rate among all major racial and ethnic
groups, it reached a record-low of 14% in 2013, compared with 32% of Hispanic
18- to 24-year-olds who were dropouts in 2000.
The new data show significant progress over the past
decade at other measures of educational attainment among Hispanic youth: Not
only are fewer dropping out of high school, but more are finishing high school
and attending college. The only exception is that Hispanics continue to
substantially trail white youth in obtaining bachelor’s degrees.
The decline in the size of the Hispanic dropout
population has been particularly noteworthy because it’s happened at the same
time that the Hispanic youth population is growing. The number of Hispanic 18-
to 24-year-old dropouts peaked at 1.5 million in 2001 and fell to 889,000 by
2013, even though the size of the Hispanic youth population has grown by more
than 50% since 2000. The last time the Census Bureau counted fewer than 900,000
Hispanic dropouts was in 1987.
Aside from the Great Recession, the trend in more
Hispanic youth staying in school is occurring against the backdrop of
diminishing job opportunities for less-educated workers, including
less-educated Hispanic workers. Hispanic students and their families may be
responding to the rising returns to a college education by staying in school.
Indeed, census data show that Hispanics have reached a
record high school completion rate.
Among Hispanic 18- to 24-year-olds, 79% had completed
high school compared with 60% who did so in 2000. High school completion rates
have also been rising for other racial and ethnic groups, but their rates were
not at record highs in 2013.
For Hispanics, education has long been a top issue; in
Pew Research surveys, Hispanics often rank education as one of the most
important issues, along with health care and immigration. Hispanics also made
up 25% of the nation’s public school students in 2013, with that share
projected to rise to 30% by 2022.
Hispanics have also made progress in college enrollment
at two- and four-year schools. Among college students ages 18 to 24, Hispanics
accounted for 18% of college enrollment in 2013, up from 12% as recently as
2009, according to the new census data.
But young Hispanics still lag behind in earning four-year
college degrees. Hispanic students account for just 9% of young adults (ages 25
to 29) with a bachelor’s degree. By comparison, whites account for about 58% of
students ages 18 to 24 enrolled in college and 69% of young adults with a
bachelor’s degree.
The dropout rate for black youth also was at a record low
in 2013 (8%) and has fallen by nearly half since 2000 (15%). Blacks comprised
16% of the nation’s public school students in 2013, with that share projected
to fall to 15% by 2022.
Among non-Hispanic white youth, the dropout rate has also
declined since 2000 to 5% in 2013.
Asian youth continue to be the major racial group with
the lowest high school dropout rate (4% in 2013), but it was not at a record
low last year.
Dr. Frank Talamantes, Ph.D,
Professor of Endocrinology (Emeritus)University of California
Santa Cruz, California, 95064
Residence: 83 Sierra Crest Dr.
El Paso, Texas 79902
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