Latino Students and U.S. High Schools (Updated)

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the year 2050, about 50 percent of the U.S. population will be African American, Hispanic, or Asian. These relatively youthful minority populations—Hispanics in particular—will drive demographic growth and diversification well into the twenty-first century. Nearly five million Latino students were enrolled in America’s public schools in the 1993–94 school year. By 2005–06, that number had doubled. Over the past two decades, the percentage of Latino students in U.S. elementary and secondary schools has grown significantly, while the percentage of white students has declined and that of African American students has held steady.