The National Center for Education Statistics has released The Condition of Education 2016.
Listed below are several interesting highlights in this data:
1. Kindergartners’ Approaches to Learning, Family Socioeconomic Status, and Early Academic Gains
First-time kindergartners who demonstrated positive approaches to learning behaviors more frequently in the fall of kindergarten tended to make greater gains in reading, mathematics, and science between kindergarten and second grade. The positive relationships between initial approaches to learning behaviors and academic gains in reading, mathematics, and science were larger for students from lower socioeconomic status (SES) households than for students from higher SES households.
While 86 percent of all young adults ages 25-34 with a bachelor’s or higher degree were employed in 2014, differences in employment outcomes were observed by sex and race/ethnicity. For example, female full-time, year-round workers earned less than their male colleagues in nearly all of the occupation groups examined and for every employment sector (e.g., private for-profit, private nonprofit, government). Black young adults who worked full time, year round also earned less than their White peers in a majority of the occupations analyzed.
In 2014, approximately 20 percent of school-age children were in families living in poverty. The percentage of school-age children living in poverty ranged across the United States from 12 percent in Maryland to 29 percent in Mississippi.
Between fall 2003 and fall 2013, the number of White students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools decreased from 28.4 million to 25.2 million, and the percentage who were White decreased from 59 to 50 percent. In contrast, the number of Hispanic students enrolled increased from 9.0 million to 12.5 million, and the percentage who were Hispanic increased from 19 to 25 percent.
The percentage of public school students in the United States who were English language learners (ELL) was higher in school year 2013–14 (9.3 percent) than in 2003–04 (8.8 percent) and 2012–13 (9.2 percent). In 2013–14, five of the six states with the highest percentages of ELL students in their public schools were located in the West.
High-poverty schools, in which more than 75 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch under the National School Lunch Program, accounted for 25 percent of all public schools in 2013–14. In that year, 24 percent of traditional public schools were high-poverty, compared with 39 percent of charter schools.
In school year 2012–13, higher percentages of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native students attended high-poverty public schools than did Pacific Islander students, students of Two or more races, Asian students, and White students (ordered by descending percentages).
The status dropout rate decreased from 12.1 percent in 1990 to 6.5 percent in 2014, with most of the decline occurring since 2000. From 1990 to 2014, the Hispanic status dropout rate decreased by 21.8 percentage points, while the Black and White status dropout rates decreased by 5.8 and 3.7 percentage points, respectively. Nevertheless, in 2014 the Hispanic status dropout rate (10.6 percent) remained higher than the White (5.2 percent) and Black (7.4 percent) status dropout rates.
In 2015, some 13 percent of young adults ages 18 to 19 and 17 percent of young adults ages 20 to 24 were neither enrolled in school nor working.
The average net price of attendance (total cost minus grant and scholarship aid) for first-time, full-time students in 2013–14 (in constant 2014–15 dollars) was $12,750 at 4-year public institutions, $24,690 at 4-year private nonprofit institutions, and $21,000 at 4-year private for-profit institutions.
In 2013–14, the average annual student loan amount of $7,100 was 23 percent higher than the average of $5,700 in 2005–06 (in constant 2014–15 dollars). For undergraduate students ages 18 to 24 in their 4th year of college or above, the average cumulative amount borrowed was $26,400 in 2011–12.
To read the full list of statistics and links, see The Condition of Education.
