Data (Demographics, Facts, and Figures)

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Intervention; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the disparities in well-being among U.S racial and ethnic groups?

Findings:

Asian Americans in New Jersey, with the highest Index scores, experience levels of well-being that, if current trends continue, the country as a whole will reach in about fifty years. At the other end of the spectrum, Native Americans in South Dakota lag more than a half-century behind the rest of the nation in terms of health, education, and income. Asian Americans in New Jersey live, on average, an astonishing 26 years longer, are 11 times more likely to have a graduate degree, and earn $35,610 more per year than South Dakota Native Americans.
• Asian Americans live the longest (86.6 years), followed by Latinos (82.8 years);
• African American life expectancy today is on par with that of the average American three decades ago;
• Latinos outlive whites, on average, by over four years, and in all but four states, Latinos either equal or surpass the national average in life span.
• In no U.S. states do African Americans, Latinos, or Native Americans earn more than Asian Americans or whites;
• Asian Americans and whites earn the most; Latinos and Native Americans earn the least. Native Americans' median earnings are less than $22,000, while whites' are more than $30,000;
• African Americans in Maryland earn almost $16,000 a year more than African Americans in Louisiana.
• Nearly one in five Asian American adults has a graduate degree;
• Latinos lag in education; nearly four in ten adults age 25 and older did not complete high school;
• In Florida, Maryland, and Virginia, about one in five Latino adults age 25 and older have obtained at least a bachelor's degree.

• Read the Full Report

Lewis, K. & Burd-Sharps, S. (2010). A Century Apart: Revealing Alarming Disparities in Well-Being among U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups. Brooklyn, NY: American Human Development Project.

Tags: Asian ELL Students; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.);

Target Population: Preschool, Elementary, Middle, High School, Post-Secondary

• Link to Full Report

Pew Hispanic Center. (2006). A Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population at Mid-Decade. Pew Hispanic Center: Washington, DC.

Tags: Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What is the state of well-being among Latino children?
• What trends exist within this population subset and how do they affect equal opportunity and supports at a national, state, regional, and local level?

Findings:

• The conditions and situations of Latino children vary state-by-state, regionally, and generationally.
• Despite a hardworking population, the majority of Latino children live in poor and low-income families, and in high poverty neighborhoods which are more isolated from more affluent communities
• Most Latino children are U.S citizens yet many live in immigrant families resulting in barriers to services and potential separation of parents from children.
• Latino children are disadvantaged in the educational system (e.g., only 55% graduate with a high school diploma)

Policy Recommendations:

• There needs to be more research into the regional and other variations among the Latino population
• There is a need for clear targeted policies on health, education, juvenile justice, and poverty reduction.
• Need to use a holistic approach to assessing the present and future well-being of Latino children.

• Read The Full Report

Foxen, P., & Mather, M. (2010). America's Future: Latino Child Well-Being in Numbers and Trends. Washington, DC: National Council of La Raza.

Tags: Asian ELL Students; Intervention; Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What are the characteristics and data demographics of Asian Americans in the state of Washington?
• How can Asian American ELLs be better served to improve English proficiency, school achievement, and student outcomes?

Findings:

• They speak more than 100 languages and dialects with 40% speaking a language other than English as their primary language. The five largest language groups are Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese-Cantonese, Tagalog, and Khmer (Cambodian).
• There is much variability when it comes to income, family education, English proficiency, etc across the groups (ie: While 36.8% of Asian Americans hold a bachelor's degree or higher, only 6.6% of Cambodians do so, compared to 67% and 58% of Taiwanese and Asian Indians, respectively.)
• More than 30% of Asian Americans receive Free/Reduced Price Lunch and 14% are enrolled in Transitional Bilingual Instruction Program (TBIP).
• Asian American ELL students are underserved, undersupported, and experience academic difficulties. Only one third of Asian Non–Native English speakers are in ELL programs and few receive language assistance services in their native language.
• Asian American students experience alienation and marginalization in schools to varying degrees, but WASL data reveal that Filipino American and Southeast Asian American students are most at risk.

Policy Recommendations:

• Adopt a data collection, research, and evaluation plan.
• Create a seamless pipeline pre–k through 16, incorporating co-curricular activities and community involvement.
• Use a broader range of measurements to evaluate student performance.
• Foster culturally responsive approaches and practices.
• Adopt effective ell programs, including highly–trained and quality teachers.
• Engage Asian American families in schools with informational meetings and translated print materials.
• Strengthen school–community partnerships.

• Read the Full Report

Hune, S. and D. Takeuchi. (2008). Asian Americans in Washington State: Closing Their Hidden Achievement Gaps. A report submitted to The Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. Seattle, WA: University of Washington.

Tags: Instructional Programs; Intervention; Latino ELL Students; Motivation;

Target Population: Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are ways to increase the number of Latino STEM graduates?

Findings:

• The U.S. Department of Education reports that nearly 60% of Latinos in the American higher education system are enrolled in a community college. Of these students, 56% attend Hispanic-serving community colleges.
• Recent data from NSF shows that nearly 44% of all STEM B.S. degree holders attend community college at some point in their career.

• Read The Full Report

Dowd, A.C., Malcom, L.E., & Bensimon, E.M. (2009). Benchmarking the success of Latino and Latina students in STEM to achieve national graduation goals. Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California.

Tags: Intervention; Motivation;

Target Population: High School, Post-secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are some of the challenges Latino students face in graduating from high school, enrolling in college, completing a college education, and advancing in the workforce?

Findings:

• 86% of Escalera students from the 2008 cohort graduated from high school or obtained a General Equivalency Diploma (GED).
• 95% of eligible Escalera students from the 2009 cohort enrolled in college.
• 99% of Escalera graduates from the 2008 cohort persist in college past year one.
• Escalera students have more work experience and career knowledge than their non-Escalera peers.
• Students who have access to college and career exploration activities have a greater knowledge of career paths and associated academic requirements.

• Read the Full Report

Mirabal, F.A., Lucero, S. (2010). Beyond the Classroom: Creating Pathways to College and Careers for Latino Youth. Washington, DC: National Council of La Raza.

Tags: Asian ELL Students; Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA;

Target Population: Preschool

Research Questions the Report Poses: None; instead makes the case that newcomer families and the children within them are, and will continue to be, a significant demographic in American education.

Findings:

• 25 percent of children from newcomer families have a parent who was born in the United States.
• Two-thirds of children from newcomer families have parents who have lived in the United States for ten or more years.
• 80% of children from newcomer families are US citizens
• Almost 60% of children have at least one parent who speaks English exclusively or very well
• Three-quarters of children from newcomer families speak English exclusively or very well
• Almost half of newcomer children speak both English and another language fluently or close to fluently
• Approximately a quarter of newcomer children are from linguistically isolated households
• Children from newcomer families going to pre-school with lower prevalence than children from native born families

Policy Recommendations:

• More resources need to be devoted to getting good early education to children from newcomer families
• A re-examination must take place of education policy toward language instruction, especially views of bi-literacy and bilingualism
• Education programs can and should improve outreach to newcomer parents

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Child Trends
Bonnie Wahiba
4301 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Suite 350
Washington, DC 20008
E-Mail: bwahiba@childtrends.org
Phone: (202) 572-6136
Fax: (202) 362-8420 (third floor, Suite 350)

Hernandez, D., Denton, N., and Macartney, S. (2007, April). Child Trends and Children in Immigrant Families - The U.S. and 50 States: National Origins, Language, and Early Education. Albany, NY: Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at SUNY-Albany

Tags: Latino ELL Students; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What are the trends regarding racial demographics and distribution over the past few decades?
• what are they expected to be in coming years?
• What implications does the shifting demography have on the U.S.?

Findings:

• More children live in the United States than ever before, but they represent the smallest share of the population in U.S. history.
• Children are the most diverse racially and ethnically of any age group now or in the country's history, accounted for especially by immigrants from Asian and Latin American countries.
• Immigrant youth—those who migrated to the U.S. or who were born to immigrant parents—currently account for about one–quarter of all children.
• Four of every five immigrant children are U.S.-born; three–quarters of the children of unauthorized immigrants are also born in the United States.
• Children of immigrants live in every state, but their numbers and shares differ dramatically from state to state. Three–fourths of immigrant children live in just ten states:Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Washington. Nearly half of all immigrant children live in just three states (CA, TX, and NY), and CA alone is home to 28 percent of this group).
• Within about 25 years, immigrant youth will represent about one–third of an even larger number of children.
• Because of their numbers and the challenges facing the country, immigrant youth will play an important role in the future of the United States. Their integration into American society and their accumulation of human capital require continued attention from researchers, policy makers, and the public at large.

• Read the Full Report

Passel, J.S. (2011). "Demography of Immigrant Youth: Past, Present, and Future." Immigrant Children 21 (1). The Future of Children. Retrieved from: http://www.futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=74&articleid=539.

Tags: Intervention; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: How can data be used to determine ways to improve students’ success in community colleges in California?

Findings:

• Students who followed certain enrollment patterns did much better (i.e. earning at least 20 credits within the first year.) Unfortunately few students followed those patterns; therefore efforts should be made to encourage those habits/trends.
• There are bleak disparities between races/ethnicities (i.e., even lower success rate among blacks and Latinos) and given demographics trends (i.e., increase in Latinos) solving this problem is critical for our nation.
• Too many students fail to attain their 2-year degree. (After 6 years of enrollment 70% of students-80% of Latinos had not finished, and only 15% were still enrolled.)
• Transfer success is low. (Only 23% ultimately transferred to a 4-year university; and of Latinos specifically only 14%).
• Completion rates and levels of disparity vary widely across comparable colleges; therefore some colleges do actually find ways to promote completion, while others are lacking.
• For-profit sector's role is growing. (More students are transferring into for-profit sector.)

Policy Recommendations:

• Collect data and act upon it.
• Create a public agenda for higher education.
• Develop a reward system for student success.
• Maintain transfer function of community colleges so successful students will continue on to a state university.

• Read the Full Report

Moore, C. & Shulock, N. (2010). Divided We Fail: Improving Completion and Closing Racial Gaps in California’s Community Colleges. Sacramento, CA: California State University’s Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy.

Tags: Intervention; Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: High School, Post-secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the current statistics for Latinos, high school dropouts and the GED?

Findings:

• As of 2008, Hispanic adults with a GED had a higher unemployment rate than Hispanic adults with a high school diploma - 9% versus 7%.
• However, Hispanic full-time, full-year workers with a GED had about the same mean annual earnings ($33,504) as Hispanics full-time, full-year workers with a high school diploma ($32,972).

• Read the Full Report

Fry, R. (2010). Hispanics, High School Dropouts and the GED. Pew Hispanic Center. Retrieved January 7, 2011 from: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/122.pdf

Tags: Content Areas: Math; Intervention; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners?

Findings:

• The ELL achievement gap widens at higher grades.
• Nationally, ELL students tend to trail further behind their peers in reading than in math.

Policy Recommendations:
None given

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
n/a

Fry, R. (2007). How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners? Pew Hispanic Center: Washington, D.C.

Tags: Intervention; Struggling Readers;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What are the numbers and characteristics of students who change schools, and what are the reasons students change schools?
• What is known about the effects of mobility on student outcomes, including academic achievement, behavior, and other outcomes?
• What challenges does student mobility present for schools in meeting the educational needs of students who change schools?
• What key federal programs are schools using to address the needs of mobile students?

Findings:

• Students who change schools often face challenges due to differences in what is taught and how it is taught
• Students may arrive without records or with incomplete records, making it difficult for teachers to make placement decisions and identify special education needs.
• Teachers and principals told us that schools face challenges in supporting the needs of these students' families, the circumstances of which often underlie frequent school changes.
• These schools face the dual challenge of educating a mobile student population, as well as a general student population, that is often largely low-income and disadvantaged
• Teachers and principals told us that mobile students are often eligible for and benefit from federal programs for low-income, disadvantaged students, such as Title 1, Part A of ESEA which funds tutoring and after-school instruction.
• Rely on the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program, which provides such things as clothing and school supplies to homeless students and requires schools to provide transportation for homeless students who lack permanent residence so they can avoid changing schools.

• Read the Full Report

K-12 Education: Many Challenges Arise in Educating Students Who Change Schools Frequently. (2010). U.S Government Accountability Office. Retrieved January 13, 2011 from: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1140.pdf

Tags: Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: General

Research Questions the Report Poses:

What are the correlations between Latino children's generational status and socioeconomic and legal status, family structure, and English proficiency?

Findings:

• Hispanics now make up 22% of all children under the age of 18 in the United States — up from 9% in 1980 — and as their numbers have grown, their demographic profile has changed.
• A majority (52%) of the nation's 16 million Hispanic children are now "second generation," meaning they are the U.S.-born sons or daughters of at least one foreign-born parent.
• Many social, economic and demographic characteristics of Latino children vary sharply by their generational status. A Pew Hispanic Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data finds that first and second generation Latino children are less likely than third or higher generation children to be fluent in English and to have parents who completed high school. They are more likely to live in poverty. But they are less likely than third or higher generation Latino children to live in single parent households.
• Another characteristic that separates Latino children along generational lines is their legal status. Building on earlier research, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 7% of all Hispanic children are unauthorized immigrants, with dramatic differences based on generational status.
• Projections by the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that by 2025, nearly three in ten children in this country will be of Latino ancestry.

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Pew Research Center 1615 L Street, N.W. Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20036

Fry, Richard and Jeffrey S. Passel. (2009). Latino Children: A Majority are U.S.-Born Offspring of Immigrants. Washington, D.C. Pew Hispanic Center: Pew Research Center.

Tags: Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Fluency; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: Pre-school, Elementary, Middle, High School, Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: How long can immigrant populations be expected, on average, to remain fluent in their languages of origin?

Findings:

• The probability is 97% that a great grandchild of Mexican immigrants will not speak Spanish
• Mexican Spanish can be expected to have a life expectancy of 3.1 generations
• Guatemalan and Salvadoran Spanish can be expected to have a life expectancy of 2.8 generations
• Spanish spoken by other Latin Americans can be expected to have a life expectancy of 2.6 generations

Policy Recommendations:
N/A

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
N/A

Rumbaut, R.G., Massey D.S., and Bean, F.D. (2006). Linguistic Life Expectancies: Immigrant Language Retention in Southern California. Population and Development Review, 32(3), 447-460.

Tags: Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Reading; Transfer of Literacy Skills; Vocabulary; Writing;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• Who are immigrant students and students who do not speak English well?
• Where are they from, and what is their family background (social, economic, linguistic, etc.)?
• How well do they do in school?
• Do their literacy levels prepare them to take part in higher education and a skilled workforce?"

Findings:

• ELL populations are growing faster than general student populations
• The growth of ELL populations in different states varies widely
• Students in California are more likely to be "linguistically isolated" than students across the country or in the other three states studied
• 57% of ELLs across the country were born in the United States
• 70% of ELLs in grades 6-12 speak Spanish
• NAEP data examined for 8th grade ELLs shows that only 4% and 6% of ELLs scored proficient in reading and math, respectively
• ELLs performed radically different on state math and reading assessments from state to state
• There is a wide achievement gap between ELL and non-ELL students on the 8th grade NAEP as well as state standardized tests
• Former ELL students and non-ELL students scored roughly the same on NAEP and state assessments

Policy Recommendations:

• "Reexamine whether Census data accurately capture the [ELL] population"
• "Examine how varying state exclusion rates for ELL students affect NAEP results"
• "Explore the literacy trajectories of former [ELL] students"
• "Document how states vary in their testing and monitoring practices for ELL students who parents opt out of language instruction services"
• "Leverage the research opportunities that multi-state English proficiency tests offer for analyzing ELL outcomes"

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/index.php

Batalova, J., Fix, M., and Murray, J. (2007). Measures of Change: The Demography and Literacy of Adolescent English Learners. Migration Policy Institute, Carnegie Corporation of New York: New York, NY.

Tags: Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: General

Research Questions the Report Poses: Immigration Statistics

Findings:

• 12.7 million Mexican immigrants lived in the United States in 2008, a 17-fold increase since 1970
• Mexicans account for 32% of all immigrants in the U.S.
• 55% of the Mexican immigrants are unauthorized
• About 11% of everyone born in Mexico is currently living in the U.S.
• Mexican immigrants are younger than either other immigrants or the U.S.-born population.
• A higher percentage of Mexican immigrants are male than either of the other group, and they are more likely to be married.

Policy Recommendations:
N/A

• Read the Full Report

Pew Hispanic Center. (2009). Mexican immigrants in the United States. Retrieved from: http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/47.pdf

Tags: Intervention; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Placement;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: Do "excellence gaps" exist? (differences in achievement between subgroups of students performing at the highest levels)

Findings:

• There are in fact notable and statistically significant excellence gaps between student subgroups, the largest being between native English speakers and English language learners; the smallest being between male and female.
• Proficiency scores indicate the gap is worse in math, while percentile comparisons suggest reading. National data is more reliable and standardized, though state data also suggests the presence of excellence gaps.
• While test scores are increasing overall, high-performance students fall, in disproportionate numbers, into the "overrepresented" categories (i.e., white, affluent, English-proficient.)
• The results suggest that focus on minimum competency gaps (i.e., No Child Left Behind Act) put high-performing students at a disadvantage, and further increases the excellence gap.

Policy Recommendations:

• Make closing the excellence gap and promoting advanced academic programs a priority at the national and state levels (not just local, where they are pushed aside.)
• Consider performance of advanced students in common standards, rather than focusing on minimum competency.
• Conduct more research on talent development; specifically U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation could allot preexisting money for it.

• Read the Full Report

Plucker, Burroughs, Song (2010). Mind the (Other) Gap! The Growing Excellence Gap in K-12 Education. Center for Evaluation & Education Policy: Bloomington, Indiana.

Tags: Intervention; Rights, Students; Struggling Readers;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• Have gaps in performance between student groups decreased over time?
• Have all groups of students gained over time?
• What is the magnitude of the gap between groups?
• How does each group of students currently perform relative to their counterparts in other schools, districts, or states?

Findings:

• Six states-Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, and West Virginia-and the District of Columbia narrowed more of the gaps between student groups than did most other states. On the other hand, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, and Washington were least likely to have closed gaps and, in fact, saw more gap widening than anywhere else in the nation.
• Student groups in Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, and the District of Columbia were more likely to have improved than their peers in other states. In contrast, student groups in Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina and West Virginia were more likely to have declined.
• Eight states stand out for smaller-than-average gaps: Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Oklahoma, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Five others, however-California, Connecticut, Illinois, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin-as well as the District of Columbia, have gaps between groups that are much wider than the national average.
• Low-income and minority students in Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, and Vermont typically perform higher than such students in other states. At the same time, low-income students and students of color in Arizona, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Nevada typically perform below their peers elsewhere
• Ed Trust analysts combined the results from all four of these perspectives and found four states were making the most progress. Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, and Texas emerge as frontrunners for earning top scores on the gap-closing sections of their RTT applications, along with Vermont-a racially homogenous state that nevertheless generally performs well across the income spectrum. They differ greatly in size, diversity, and a host of other measures, but each state's recent performance on the achievement gap is among the best in the nation.
• However, an analysis of the four perspectives shows the outlook isn't as rosy elsewhere. Arizona, California, Michigan, Mississippi, and Rhode Island have some of the worst track records in the country when it comes to closing the gap, which should net them a big goose-egg in some sections of the RTT scoring rubric.

• Read the Full Report

New Achievement Gap Analysis Suggests Four Ways to Gain a More Comprehensive Picture of Equity. (2010). The Education Trust. Retrieved January 10, 2011 from: http://www.edtrust.org/sites/edtrust.org/files/publications/files/NAEP%20Gap_0.pdf

Tags: Instructional Programs; Latino ELL Students; Phonics; Reading; Struggling Readers; Transfer of Literacy Skills; Vocabulary;

Target Population: Preschool

Research Questions the Report Poses: What steps can be taken to increase access to pre-K and early childhood programs for ELLs, particularly Hispanic ELLs?

Findings:

• Hispanic students have been achieving more and more over the past three generations.
• o Hispanic students born in the US do better on achievement tests than immigrant Hispanic children
• Hispanic students are still overrepresented among low-achieving students.
• Achievement among Hispanic students varies widely according to country of origin. South Americans and Cubans perform almost as well as White and Asian students, while Mexican-American students are far below White achievement levels
• High quality infant/toddler programs, pre-K programs, and K-3 schooling can contribute to meaningfully higher levels of school readiness and school achievement among low SES students, including low SES Hispanics.
• R&D is needed to provide better early childhood education for Hispanics. This includes developing and testing new programs, methods, and approaches that are tailored to fit the needs of Hispanic students.

Policy Recommendations:
Recommends that State Governments:

• Expand and increase infant/toddler programs in their states that serve or could potentially serve large numbers of Hispanic families.
• Continue to expand state-funded pre-K initiatives in an effort to have voluntary universal pre-K systems in most states within 10-20 years.
• Increase efforts to disseminate information to Hispanic parents about available pre-K programs.
• Increase funding for voluntary multi-year summer programs for students with low SES.
• Create programs to draw more ELL and bilingual educators.
• Increase pay and benefit levels for pre-K teachers and administrators so that they are equal to their public school counterparts.

• Expand the Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
• Invest resources to designing, testing, and evaluating pre-K and K-3 language and literacy development strategies.
• Fund program testing that will yield more bilingual and ELL teachers.
• Create assessments for ELLs at the pre-K level in both Engish and Spanish.
• Increase longitudinal studies on Hispanics and other groups who achieve below US norms.
• Increase US participation in international assessments.

• Fund long-term efforts to design, test, and evaluate pre-K and K-3 language and literacy development strategies for Hispanics from all SES levels and from immigrant/nonimmigrant families.
• Create foundations that can help provide the above funding.

• Create recommendations for new approaches to infant/toddler, pre-K, and K-3 programs for Hispanic students.
• Create proposals on how state governments can increase their ELL/bilingual educators.
• Create literacy development information, materials, and other parental supports.

• Read the Full Report

Para nuestros niños: Expanding and Improving Early Education for Hispanics. (2007). National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics.

Tags: Instructional Programs; Intervention; Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the individual states' policies on English language learners and how are they impacting ELLs' achievement?

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Purchase a copy for $6.00 at www.edweek.org/go/buyQC or by calling 1-800-445-8250. Or subscribe to Education Week: www.edweek.org/go/subscribe.

Education Week. (2009). Portrait of a Population: How English Language Learners are Putting Schools to the Test. Bethesda, Maryland.

Tags: Intervention;

Target Population: High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: How many U.S. students graduated from high school and how many dropped out before completion in the 2008-09 school year?

Findings:

• The average graduation rate is 76%, with the lowest in Nevada (56%) and highest in Wisconsin (91%).
• The AFGR for the various ethnic groups are: Asian/Pacific Islander 92%, White 82%, Hispanic 66%, 65% American Indian/Alaska Native 65%, Black 64%.
• The average dropout rate in the 08-09 schoolyear was 4.1%. Wyoming had lowest (1.1%) and Illinois the highest (11.5%).
• Dropout rate was lowest in grade 9 and highest in grade 12.
• Dropout rate was higher for males (3.6%) than females (2.7%) in all states.

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
NCES, IES, U.S. Department of Education 1990 K St NW Washington, DC 20006-5651

Stillwell, R., Sable, J., and Plotts, C. (2011). Public School Graduates and Dropouts From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2008-09 (NCES 2011-312. U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved June 14, 2011 from: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011312.pdf

Tags: Intervention; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• If discrimination doesn't play a role in the achievement gap in the 21st century then what does?
• What efforts have been undertaken to close the gap in the past; and learning from those efforts, how can we close the gap in the future?

Findings:

• The problem of the 21st century is the problem of the skill gap.
• Eliminating the racial skill gap will likely have important impacts on income inequality, unemployment, incarceration, health, and other important social and economic indices.
• We now know that with some combination of investments, high achievement is possible for all students.
• Closing the racial achievement gap is the most important civil rights battle of the twenty-first century.

• Read the Full Report

Fryer, R.G. (2010, August). Racial Inequality in the 21st Century: The Declining Significance of Discrimination. National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved January 5, 2011 from: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16256.pdf?new_window=1

Tags: Rights, Students;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: What does the Closing the Racial Achievement Gap report say and how is it biased?

Findings:

• Making causal inferences on the effects of reforms by comparing student groups from the nation and Florida on purely descriptive test score averages presented in charts and graphs.
• A failure to account for the influence of fundamental policy changes on test score averages and racial achievement gaps in grade 3-4 students. In particular, Florida instituted a grade retention policy from 2002 that resulted in 14-23% of largely Black and Hispanic third-grade students being held back in grade 3 if they performed poorly on the state reading test. This policy of screening out the weakest readers, along with the presence of unknown numbers of older grade repeaters in the grade 4 samples, changes the composition of the students tested in grade 4 and invalidates comparisons concerning student performance as a whole as well as results concerning ethnic group achievement gaps.
• The decision to look only at grade 4 NAEP Reading scores and the resulting inflated conclusions. The evidence on Florida's NAEP achievement trends and gaps is mixed when other grade levels and subject areas are examined between 2002 and 2009.
• A failure to examine relevant literature on well-documented issues, including the negative impact of grade retention on children's long-term academic progress4 and high school dropout levels,5 as well as a failure to provide empirical research support for the multiple reforms endorsed in the report.

• Read the Full Report

Chatterji, M. (2010, November). Review of Closing the Racial Achievement Gap. National Education Policy Center. Retrieved January 5, 2010 from: http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/learning-from-florida

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.);

Target Population: General, especially U.S. minority groups

Research Questions the Report Poses: This report analyzes the demographic trends as more minority students attend suburban school districts in the United States. In addition, the researchers examined a number of individual school districts with high rates of change.

Findings:

• Suburban schools have become increasingly important educators of the nation's minority student populations.
• Every individual suburban school district experienced minority student growth slightly differently.
• As a result of the rapid growth in minority students and flat growth among white students, 287 of the nation's 2,808 suburban school districts have become majority-minority school districts since 1993-94.
• The vast majority (18) of the fastest-growing suburban districts in terms of black enrollment are in the Midwest.
• Several school districts in suburban Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville experienced hyper-growth in their Hispanic student populations since 1993-94. Among Asian suburban students, numerous school districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta metro areas are among the 25 fastest-growing suburban school districts.
• Though there has been a marked diversification of many of the nation’s suburban school districts, this does not necessarily mean that suburban students are experiencing greater racial/ethnic interaction at the level of the individual school.
• If suburban schools are highly segregated, with whites attending one set of schools and minority students a different set of schools, then minority student growth will not result in suburban white students attending schools with greater proportions of minority students and will not increase the exposure of white students to non-white students.
• When students of different racial/ethnic background do not attend the same schools, the potential exists that they also may not attend the same type of schools, i.e., schools of similar quality and level of resources.
• Some evidence suggests that racial imbalances in peers have significant effects on minority student achievement (Hanushek and Rivkin, 2006; Harris, 2006).
• Public opinion surveys reveal that adults by large margins support having America's racial/ethnic mix represented in the student bodies of public schools (Elam, Rose and Gallup, 1996).

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Pew Research Center 1615 L Street, NW, Suite 700 Washington, DC 20036-5610

Fry, Richard. (2009). Sharp Growth in Suburban Minority Enrollment Yields Modest Gains in School Diversity. Washington, D.C. Pew Hispanic Center.

Tags: Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: Preschool, Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: How have the schools changed in the past ten years in terms of enrollment and demographics?

Findings:

• Hispanics account for 3 million of 4.7 million additional students in American public schools from 1993–94 to 2002–03, or 64% of the increase. The number of black students increased by 1.1 million, and the number of Asians grew by half a million. Meanwhile, white public school enrollment dropped by 35,000.
• White students continued to attend schools populated primarily by other whites and relatively few attended schools populated primarily by minorities.
• A relatively small number of schools absorbed most of the increase in Hispanic enrollment and that those schools differ in important ways from schools less affected by Hispanic population growth.
• Nationwide, the average share of white students in Hispanic–impacted schools decreased from 60% to 38%. Meanwhile, in all other schools the white share declined more modestly from 71% to 66%.
• Across all grades, new schools differ from existing schools in that they are smaller, and they have more affluent students.

Policy Recommendations:
The report did not offer policy recommendations.

• Link to Full Report

Fry, R. (2006). The changing landscape of American public education: New students, new schools. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center.

Tags: Curriculum; Intervention; Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: High School, Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: not specified

Findings:

• 158,000 Hispanic students took the ACT in 2010, an increase of 84% since 2006. Hispanic students represent 10% of the ACT-tested graduates.
• 68% of ACT-tested Hispanic high school graduates took at least a minimum core high school curriculum to prepare them for college, compared to 74% of whites and 81% of Asian American/Pacific Islander ACT-tested high school graduates.
• Average ACT Composite scores for Hispanic graduates' remained the same while American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian American/Pacific Islander, and White graduates increased between 2006 and 2010.
• None of the College Readiness Benchmarks were met by at least 50% of Hispanic graduates. While 39% of Asian American graduates and 30% of White graduates met benchmarks in all four subjects, only 11% of Hispanic graduates attained such.
• 77% of Hispanic graduates aspired to attain either a graduate/professional or a bachelor's degree, compared to 85% of white graduates.

Policy Recommendations:

• States should adopt fewer-but essential-learning standards as their new high school graduation standards, and those they adopt must lead to college and career readiness.
• States should adopt a rigorous core curriculum for all high school students whether they are bound for college or work.
• States must define "how good is good enough" for college and career readiness.
• Having appropriate and aligned standards, coupled with a core curriculum, will adequately prepare high school students only if the courses are truly challenging.
• States should begin monitoring student academic performance early to make sure younger students are on target to be ready for college and career.
• States need to establish longitudinal P-16 data systems.

• Read the Full Report

ACT Inc. (2010). The condition of college & career readiness: 2010. ACT Inc. Retrieved from: http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/cccr10/pdf/ConditionofCollegeandCareerReadiness2010.pdf

Tags: Intervention; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Post-secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: How do grant aid limit college assess and persistence among low-income and moderate income graduates?

Findings:

• Large-scale mismatches exist and are growing between the aspirations and qualifications of these high school graduates and where they are able financially to enroll in college.
• Triggered by increasing family financial concerns about college expenses and financial aid, these mismatches are shifting initial enrollment of qualified students away from 4-year colleges.
• Shifts in initial enrollment are consequential because where qualified high school graduates are able to start college (access) largely determines their likelihood of success (persistence).
• Exacerbating the negative impact of enrollment shifts, persistence rates today appear to be lower, especially for qualified high school graduates who are unable financially to start at a 4-year college.
• Maintaining financial access to 4-year public colleges for qualified high school graduates is of paramount policy importance.
• Between 1992 and 2004, initial enrollment rates of academically qualified low- and moderate-income high school graduates in 4-year colleges shifted downward: from 54 percent to 40 percent, and from 59 percent to 53 percent, respectively.
• The cause appears to have been an increase in the importance of college expenses and financial aid to parents and students between 1992 and 2004 (Table 4, page 17). Differences in family financial concerns accounted for 45 percentage points difference in 4-year college enrollment for in 2004.
• High school graduates from low-income families who started at a 4-year college earned a bachelor's degree over three times more often than their peers who started at a 2-year college, 62 percent vs. 20 percent. Their peers from moderate-income income families earned the degree nearly twice as often, 67 percent vs. 34 percent (table 7, page 26). Given current policies, shifts in enrollment from 4-year to 2-year colleges have implications for degree completion.
• Persistence of low-income high school graduates five years after starting at a 4-year college has fallen from 78 percent to 75 percent; for those from moderate-income families, persistence has remained at 81 percent (figure 25, page 27). For those starting at a 2-year college, persistence has fallen significantly .

Policy Recommendations:

• In addition, given steadily rising net prices and cumulative loan burdens, and the considerable impact of parent financial concerns in 10th grade on college enrollment behavior, a national experiment is required. Its purpose would be to determine the impact on family financial concerns of current features of the federal student loan programs - in particular, the income-contingency and forgiveness provisions. This study should determine how the programs might be improved to offset the negative effects of financial concerns on students taking the steps of testing, applying, and enrolling in a 4-year college (exhibit five, page 35).
• Improving academic preparation alone might raise the rates to only 27 percent and 39 percent, respectively (table 13, page 37).
• Improving access (enrollment) alone might raise the rates to only 33 percent and 42 percent, respectively (table 14, page 38).
• Improving persistence alone might raise the rates to only 34 percent and 45 percent, respectively (table 15, page 39).
• Conduct a National Loan Experiment.
• Implement a Comprehensive Federal Strategy.

• Read the Full Report

“The Rising Price of Inequality: How Inadequate Grant Aid Limits College Access and Persistence”. (2010). Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. Retrieved August 3, 2010 from: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010015.pdf

Tags: Latino ELL Students; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students; Vocabulary;

Target Population: General

Research Questions the Report Poses: This article raises the question of what constitutes the Hispanic/Latino/Spanish ethnicity based on the definition adopted by the US Congress in 1976.

Findings:

• The 1976 U.S. Congress act defines Hispanic/Latino/Spanish to be "Americans of Spanish origin and descent." (Passel and Taylor, 2009).
• The upcoming 2010 Census will count as Hispanic/Latino/Spanish all persons who define themselves as Hispanic. The Census will consider their origins, but it will take their word as the determining factor.
• The 1976 U.S. Congress act defines Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic/Latina/Spanish to be a leader in the Supreme Court.

Policy Recommendations:
N/A

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Pew Hispanic Center 1615 L Street, NW Suite 700 Washington, DC 20036-5610

Passel, Jeffrey and Paul Taylor. (2009). Who's Hispanic? Washington, D.C. Pew Hispanic Center.

Tags: Rights, Students;

Target Population: Preschool, Elementary, Middle, High School, Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: What connections exist between segregation by race, segregation by poverty, and unequal opportunity?

Findings:
N/A

Policy Recommendations:

The authors recommend:

• A concerted effort to avoid high concentrations of low-income students within isolated schools.
• Assignment and choice policies that foster more diverse schools.
• Housing and land use policies designed on a regional basis to foster access for all students to strong schools and educational diversity.
• Examining the social consequences of proposals to terminate desegregation plans that lower isolation by race and class.
• Examining the impacts of Latino segregation and of multiracial schools.
• Encouraging schools to examine classroom segregation by class and race.
• School reforms designed to address rapidly changing socioeconomic realities.
• Fostering racial and economic diversity in charter schools.
• Court orders and remedial plans designed to address findings of educational inadequacy.

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles 8370 Math Sciences, Box 951521 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521

Orfield, G. and Lee, C. (2005, January). Why segregation matters: Poverty and educational inequality. Cambridge, MA: Civil Rights Project Harvard University.