Figure 3.4. Percentage of 10th-graders who expected to complete a bachelor's degree or higher, by race/ethnicity: 1980 and 2002

NOTE: Black includes African American, Pacific Islander includes Native Hawaiian, and Hispanic includes Latino. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education 2004, table 15-1, based on High School and Beyond Longitudinal Study of 1980 Sophomores (HS&BSo: 80); National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88/90), "First Follow-up, 1990;" and Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), Base Year.

Between 1980 and 2002, the percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native 10th-graders who expected to complete a bachelor's degree or higher increased from 31 to 76 percent. The percentage who expected not to go beyond high school declined from 36 percent in 1980 to 12 percent in 2002.

Expectations of college attainment also increased among the other racial/ethnic groups. The percentage of 10th-graders who expected to complete a bachelor's degree or higher increased for Whites (from 41 to 81 percent), Blacks (from 41 to 77 percent), Hispanics (from 33 to 73 percent), and Asian/Pacific Islanders (from 67 to 87 percent) between 1980 and 2002.

View Table 3.4