Dropout Rates in The United States: 2000, Event and Status Dropout Rates

Event and Status Dropout Rates

Hispanic Dropout Rates by Immigration Status

High Hispanic dropout rates are partly attributable to relatively greater dropout rates among Hispanic immigrants. Data from the 2000 CPS appear to substantiate earlier findings¹⁷. In fact, the status dropout rate of 44.2 percent for Hispanic 16- through 24-year-olds born outside the United States was more than double the rate of 14.6 percent for U.S. first-generation Hispanic youth, and the rate of 15.9 percent for second-generation Hispanic youth (table 3)¹⁸. However, when looking at just those young adults born in the United States, Hispanic youths were still more likely to drop out than their counterparts of other race/ethnicities.

Data from 1995 show that more than half (62.5 percent) of the foreign-born Hispanic youths who were "dropouts" had never enrolled in a U.S. school, and 79.8 percent of these young adults who were never enrolled in U.S. schools were reported as either speaking English "not well" or "not at all."¹⁹ Some of the young Hispanic immigrants who did not enroll in school in the United States may have entered the country beyond what is considered "normal" high school age, and some may have come to the United States in search of employment rather than education. However, the data also suggest that language may be a barrier to participation in U.S. schools. Regardless of the reasons, for the large proportion of Hispanic young adults without a high school credential, the impact is the same: whether they were born in the 50 states or the District of Columbia or elsewhere and whether or not they enrolled in U.S. schools, these young adults probably do not have the basic level of education thought to be essential in today's economy.

17 See, for example, G. Brown, N. Rose, S. Hill, and M. Olivas, The Condition of Education for Hispanic Americans (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 1980); U.S. Department of Education, Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs, An Analysis of Language Minority and Limited English Proficient Students from NELS:88, by F. Bennici and W. Strang (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1995); U.S. Department of Education, Characteristics of Secondary-School-Age Language Minority and Limited English Proficient Youth, by W. Strang, M. Winglee, and J. Stunkard (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993); U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Dropout Rates in the United States: 1990, NCES 91-053, by P. Kaufman and M. McMillen (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991); and U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Dropout Rates in the United States: 1997, NCES 99-082, by P. Kaufman, S. Klein and M. Frase (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999).

18 "First generation" youth are defined as being U.S.-born but having at least one parent born outside the United States, while "second generation" means U.S.-born citizens with both parents also U.S.-born. For the sake of simplicity, the terms "foreign born" and "born outside the United States" are used to refer to anyone born outside the 50 states or the District of Columbia, and the term "born in the United States" is used to refer to persons born within the 50 states or the District of Columbia. People born in Puerto Rico or the territories, although U.S. citizens, are grouped with those born in other countries.

19See U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Dropout Rates in the United States: 1995, NCES 97-473, by M. McMillen (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997), tables 16 and 20. English-speaking ability is based on the reports of a household respondent rather than reports from each individual in the household.