In a report released yesterday, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that a record share of young Hispanics finished high school in 2011: 76 percent of Hispanics ages 18 to 24 had finished high school, representing a 3 percent increase over the 2010 level (73%). This record-high level of Hispanic high school completion is consistent with the recently noted gains in the Hispanic high school graduation rate at the nation’s public schools, as reported by Education Week.
In addition, for the first time, the number of 18- to 24-year-old Hispanics enrolled in college exceeded 2 million and reached a record 16.5-percent share of all college enrollments. Both numbers represent first-time record levels. The increase here is possibly tied to the increase in high school completion among young Hispanic adults.
In the nation’s public schools, Hispanics also reached new milestones, the Pew report stated. For the first time, one in four public elementary school students (24.7%) were Hispanic. Among all pre-K through 12th-grade public school students, a record 23.9 percent were Hispanic in 2011.
These records will only be broken in the years to come, as the nation’s Hispanic population continues to increase in both number and percentage.
The Pew Hispanic Center is a project of the Pew Research Center.