2008 Enrollment In U.S. Expected To Set Record

Public school enrollment across the country will hit a record high this year with just under 50 million students, and the student population is becoming more diverse in large part because of growth in the Latino population, according to a new federal report.

Nationwide, about 20 percent of students were Hispanic in 2006, the latest year for which figures were available for ethnic groups, up from 11 percent in the late 1980s. That trend is reflected in many Washington area schools. In Fairfax County, about 17 percent of students are Hispanic, jumping from about 4 percent two decades ago.

Overall, about 43 percent of the nation's students are minorities, according to the Condition of Education, a congressionally mandated annual look at enrollment and performance trends in schools and colleges.

Educators and activists, pointing to the shifting demographics, say it is becoming urgent to find ways to boost achievement of minority and low-income students, who often lag behind white and middle- to upper-income peers.

"Latino students have long underperformed versus Anglo students . . . and they are continuing to underperform," said Peter Zamora, regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "When Latino students were a small percentage of the population, this maybe didn't need to be a significant concern of policymakers. But when one out of five students is Hispanic, this isn't a Latino issue, this is an American issue."

According to the report, which drew on data from local school systems, colleges and national and international exams, dropout rates among whites, blacks and Hispanics are lower than in 1972. But Hispanic and black students are still more likely than white students to fail to complete high school.

The report also examined academic achievement. On a nationwide math exam, scores of fourth- and eighth-graders rose from 1990 to 2007. The achievement gap between black fourth-graders and their white peers narrowed, but it was unchanged among eighth-graders. The achievement gap between white and Hispanic students in both grades stayed about the same.

"We still just have unacceptable gaps in achievement," said Barbara Kapinus, senior policy analyst for the National Education Association.

Federal officials say the No Child Left Behind law is helping schools focus on gaps as never before because it aims for all students to hit grade-level targets in reading and math. But Kapinus said too many schools and students lack the money for the latest technology and other resources.

"We just feel like we're not paying attention to what kids have access to in our schools. Everybody is talking about rigor, but it's not just about rigor," Kapinus said. "Go into a school in Potomac and see how many computers are there and ask how many kids have computers at home. Then go to a school in Washington, D.C., inside the Beltway, or Prince George's County inside the Beltway, and look at how many computers are in the school."

According to the report, the number of school-age children will continue to grow, hitting an all-time high of 54 million in 2017.