Figure 5.1. Percentage of children ages 6 to 18 whose parents had completed high school, by race/ethnicity: 2003

NOTE: Parents include adoptive and step-parents but exclude parents not residing in the same household as their children. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Current Population Survey (CPS), March 2003.

Parents' educational attainment has been identified as one of several factors positively related to children's academic achievement and socioeconomic levels (Grissmer et al. 1994). In 2003, the percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native children ages 6 to 18 who had a mother who had attained a high school education was similar to the percentage of Black children ages 6 to 18 (both 84 percent). Both Black and American Indian/Alaska Native children ages 6 to 18 were more likely than Hispanic children of the same age, but less likely than White children of the same age, to have mothers who had attained a high school education (84 percent vs. 57 percent and 93 percent, respectively). Also, American Indian/Alaska Native children were more likely than Hispanic children, but less likely than White children, to have fathers who had attained at least a high school education (86 percent vs. 57 percent and 92 percent, respectively).

View Table 5.1