Across the country, there is a growing minority presence. The fastest growing group are Hispanics or Latinos. According to the Census Bureau’s population projections, which provide estimates of our race-ethnic distribution by five year intervals up to 2050. According to these projections, around the year 2043 non-Hispanic whites will become a minority of our population. Hispanics will be 28 percent of the population, blacks will be 13 percent, Asians will be 7 percent, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders will be 1 percent and multiracial individuals will be another 4 percent. Right now, four states (California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas) and the District of Columbia are majority-minority. But that will change fairly rapidly if 2000-2010 rates of change persist this decade and beyond. In this decade, we would expect Nevada, Maryland, Georgia and possibly Florida to pass that threshold. In the 2020’s, Arizona, New Jersey and possibly Delaware and New York should follow suit. And by 2050, we may also see majority-minority populations in Connecticut, Illinois, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia, Washington state and possibly even Alaska.
From the Education Trust: Nationally, too few Latinos read or do math at proficiency levels. In reading for instance, 14% of Latino4th graders reach proficient or advanced levers, while 57% have not been taught to the basic level. And, the story is worse in math. Only 9% of Latino 8th graders reach the proficient level or above on NAEP, but 60% perform below basics.
What does this all mean? By the end of high school, Latino student have math and reading skills that are virtually the same as those of White middle schoolers.
Neither the college enrollment nor completion rates of Latino have increased over the last 20 years. About half of Latino young people enroll in college, but few finish. If the rates don’t change, out of every 100 Latino kindergartners, only 11 will obtain a bachelor’s degree.