Education:

These indicators examine here show how well we are succeeding in educating our children. The indicators include preschoolers’ exposure to reading and early education, measures of student achievement, rigorous course taking in high school, and how many young adults completing high school and college. In 1999, Latino children ages 3 to 5 were much less likely to be read to everyday by a family member (33 percent) compared with 61 percent of non-Latino whites and 54 percent for the total population. This indicator is closely related to mother’s education, family income, and family structure. Latino children were also less likely to attend an early childhood program than non-Latino blacks and non-Latino whites. Mathematics and reading achievement test scores were relatively lower for Latino students at ages 9, 13, and 17 than for non-Latino whites. But the gaps between them decreased in each subject during the 1980s and 1990s.

Latino youth ages 18 to 24 had a lower high school completion rate than both non-Latino blacks and non-Latino whites. Likewise, Latino youth had higher dropout rates. The share of 18 to 19 years old Latinos who are neither enrolling in school nor working is twice as much as that of non-Latino whites. The gap between Latinos and non-Latino whites in the percentage of high school graduates age 25-29 attaining Associate’s degree was smaller than the gap in the percentage of the same age cohorts attaining a BA degree or higher. This is because Latino students were more likely to attend two-year colleges rather than four-year colleges.

Table 5. Indicators of Children's Well-Being: Education

Source:
Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 1997.

MacKay AP, Fingerhut LA, Duran CR. Adolescent Health Chartbook. Health United States, 2000. Hyattsvill, MD: National Center
for Health and Statistics, 2000.

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