Following are some of the highlights from The Condition of Education
2008 report released recently by the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES). You may access the report at
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/

 

 

 

College enrollment rates vary considerably with parents' educational
attainment. In 1999, 82 percent of students whose parents held a
bachelor's degree or higher enrolled in college immediately after
finishing high school. The rates were much lower for those whose parents
had completed high school but not college (54 percent) and even lower
for those whose parents had less than a high school diploma (36 percent)
(Indicator 26, NCES 2001-072
<http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001072> , indicator
26).

 

Hispanic students now make up 1 in 5 public school students, but these
students as well as other minority students are disproportionately
clustered in high-poverty schools. More individuals of all races are
enrolling in college, and more bachelor's degrees have been awarded than
in the past. However, gaps in achievement and high school and college
graduation rates between White and minority students continue.

This year, public school enrollment is expected to approach about 50
million students. Total public school enrollment is projected to set new
records each year from 2008 to 2017, at which time it is expected to
reach 54.1 million.

Minority students make up 43 percent of the public school enrollment
overall and 48 percent in the South and 55 percent in the West.

Twenty percent of school-age children speak a language other than
English at home; about 5 percent speak English with difficulty. 

In 2005-06, about a third of Black students and a third of Hispanic
students attended high-poverty schools compared with 4 percent of White
students.

Between 1989-90 and 2004-05, total spending per student in public
elementary and secondary schools rose 29 percent after adjusting for
inflation, to $10,892.

Average reading scores of 4th and 8th graders were higher in 2007 than
in 1992. 

Average mathematics scores increased 27 points for 4th-graders and 19
points for 8th-graders between 1990 and 2007.

The dropout rates for Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics have generally
declined between 1972 and 2006. However, over this period, the dropout
rates for Hispanics and Blacks remained higher than the White rates.

Among public high school students in the class of 2005, about
three-fourths graduated on time. 

The rate of students entering college immediately after high school
graduation increased from 49 percent in 1972 to 67 percent by 1997, but
has since fluctuated between 62 and 69 percent.

Since 1970, women's undergraduate enrollment has increased over three
times as fast as men's. Currently, women make up 57 percent of
undergraduate enrollment.

Minority students have accounted for about half of the growth in
associate's and bachelor's degrees awarded between 1989-90 and 2003-04.

In 2006, young adults with a bachelor's degree earned about $11,000 more
than those with an associate's degree, about $16,000 more than those who
had completed high school, and more than twice as much than those who
did not earn a high school diploma.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/familyliteracy/attachments/20080602/07b9ecec/attachment.html