Parent expectations for student's educational attainment: Percentage distribution of students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade, by their parent/guardian's expectation for their student's educational attainment, and selected student, parent, and household characteristics: 2019

	Parent/guardian's expectation for student's educational attainment
Characteristics	Graduate from high school or less		Attend vocational/ technical school or some college		Earn a bachelor's degree		Earn a graduate or professional degree beyond a bachelor's degree
Total	9		21		32		38
Student’s race/ethnicity
American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic	28	!	17		20		35
Asian or Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic	3		13		26		57
Asian, non-Hispanic	3	!	13		26		58
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic	‡		25	!	15	!	48
Black, non-Hispanic	10		22		22		47
Hispanic	9		19		29		43
Cuban	5	!	20		23		51
Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano	10		21		31		39
Puerto Rican	8	!	22		28		42
Another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin or more than one Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin	9		15		27		48
White, non-Hispanic	10		23		37		30
Other race, non-Hispanic¹	7		22		31		39

Recency of immigration²
Student born outside the U.S.	8	!	13		29		51
Hispanic	12	!	13		26		49
Non-Hispanic	5	!	13		30		53
First generation	5		14		29		51
Hispanic	7		18		31		44
Non-Hispanic	3		10		27		60
Second generation or higher	11		24		33		33
Hispanic	11		21		27		40
Non-Hispanic	11		24		34		31

Highest education level of parent(s)/guardian(s)
Less than high school	23		26		23		28
High school/GED	21		34		18		27
Vocational/technical or some college	7		31		28		34
Bachelor’s degree	3		11		49		37
Graduate or professional degree	1		6		32		61

English spoken at home by parent(s)/guardian(s)³
Both/only parent(s)/guardian(s) speak(s) English	9		22		32		37
One of two parents/guardians speaks English	11		17		24		47
No parent/guardian speaks English	13		16		31		41

Poverty status⁴
At or below poverty threshold	24		28		17		31
Between poverty threshold and 200 percent of poverty threshold	10		30		25		34
At or above 200 percent of poverty threshold	5		17		37		41

Locale of student's household⁵
City	9		19		30		42
Suburban	6		17		35		42
Town	15		31		26		29
Rural	15		30		30		25

Region
Northeast	10		19		29		42
South	9		19		31		40
Midwest	11		26		35		28
West	7		21		32		40

!Interpret data with caution. The coefficient of variation (CV) for this estimate is between 30 and 50 percent.
‡Reporting standards not met. Either there are too few cases for a reliable estimate or the coefficient of variation (CV) is 50 percent or greater.
¹"Other race, non-Hispanic" includes non-Hispanic students of Two or more races, and non-Hispanic students whose parents did not choose any race from the categories provided on the race item in the questionnaire.
² Students born outside the U.S. were not born in any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or the Northern Marianas. Students defined as "first generation" were born in the United States, but one or both of their parents were born outside the United States. Students defined as "second generation or higher" were born in the United States, as were both of their parents. Students born abroad to U.S.-born parents are considered born in the United States and counted as "second generation or higher."
³ Complete descriptions of the categories for English spoken at home by parents/guardians are as follows: (1) Both parents/guardians or the only parent/guardian learned English first or currently speak(s) English in the home, (2) One of two parents/guardians in a two-parent/guardian household learned English first or currently speaks English in the home, and (3) No parent/guardian learned English first and both parents/guardians or the only parent/guardian currently speak(s) a non-English language in the home.
⁴ The poverty threshold is a dollar amount determined by the federal government and updated annually to account for inflation, and which varies depending on a family's size and composition. Thresholds used to define poverty are based on weighted averages from 2018 Census poverty thresholds. In 2018, for example, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four was $25,701. Survey respondents are asked to select the range within which their income falls, rather than giving the exact amount of their income; therefore, the measure of poverty status is an approximation.
⁵Locale of student’s household classifies the residential ZIP code into a set of four major locale categories: city, suburban, town, rural.
NOTE: Students who were homeschooled full or part-time were excluded from the table. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program (PFI-NHES), 2019.