Tuesday, July 24, 2007

The Condition of Education 2007

From colleague Roberto Calderon. -Angela

Nota: See, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics. (2007). _The Condition of Education 2007_ (NCES 2007-064).
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Each major catetory contained in this annual report responds to
individual indicators or subcategories that provide a detailed sketch or
analysis of the major national and regional trends supported by a short
brief containing the principal data arranged in two or three tables.
This is valuable data and is pertinent to all levels and types of public
(and to some extent private) education, and policymaking generally.
Listed below are some of the subcategories that may be of interest to
readers. Please share the information with others whose own work may be
supported by this readily available body of publicly-accessed knowledge.
Though issued annually, the current report charts trends in public
schools from 1972 to 2005 due to the data's availability.

Of significance to Latinos of course is that as a group they are the
major reason why "Nationally, 42% of public school students were
considered part of a racial or ethnic minority group in 2005, an
increase from 22% of students in 1972" (see,
southernstudies.org/facingsouth, June 2007). In addition, the report
found that: "47% of the South's K-12 public school students are now
'ethnic/racial minorities,' up from 30% (mostly African American) in
1972. The West is the only more diverse region, with 54% students of
color." Finally, While the West has the highest number of students
identified as 'Hispanic' (37%), the South has seen the fastest growth:
the proportion of Latino students has more than tripled in the South
from 1972 to 2005, from 5% to over 18%." Altogether, whether we see
what's going in Texas as part of larger national and regional trends in
either the South or West, as this report arranges its data, the numbers
are significant and help explain and contextualize what's going on in
our individual cities, campuses, and so forth, K-20. Local or regional
trends are part and parcel of national trends where ethnicity is
concerned in education.

In K-12 education, for instance, between 1972 and 2005, the total
number of students enrolled changed considerably. Whites decreased from
being 78% of the total in 1972, and stood at 58% in 2005. Blacks for
their part remained relatively stable across the 33-year-period, a
generation's worth, since their numbers went from 15% to 16% of the
national total. The significant increases came in Latino and "Other"
enrollments, where the numbers went from 6% to 20% of the total for
Latinos, and Others, which includes Asians, American Indians, students
of more than one race, and so forth, increased from 1% to 7%.

Attached PDFs Provide Sample of the Data: In the section following the
"Table of Contents" are copied the brief analyses made of the data
pertaining to two separate Indicators. These include "Racial/Ethnic
Distribution of Public School Students" (Indicator 5) and "Undergraduate
Education," Indicator 8. These indicators and policy briefs correspond
to the part of the Table of Contents called "Participation in
Education." You will also find the PDFs for these policy briefs.

The overall link to the National Center for Education Statistics,
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education is:
. Be sure and bookmark the
site.

Adelante.

Roberto R. Calderón
Historia Chicana [Historia]

No comments:

Post a Comment