California’s Changing Demographics Mirrored in School Enrollment Trends

Last school year, more than half (51%) of students in California’s public schools were Hispanic/Latino. But this hasn’t always been the case; Hispanic/Latino students only recently became a majority of California’s public school population.

Over the past two decades, in fact, we’ve seen notable shifts in the racial/ethnic composition of California’s public school students, as evidenced by this graph (click the bar graph tab, then press play).

Here in California, about three out of every four students in public schools are students of color. As noted, more than half of these students were Hispanic/Latino in 2011, up from 37% in 1994. By comparison, the proportion of students who were Caucasian/White dropped from 42% in 1994 to 27% in 2011.

Map Racial/Ethnic Enrollment Data for Your Community
Following are maps providing local-level data on public school enrollment in California. In each map, you can use the “Show Regions” menu to toggle between school district and county-level data.

• African-American/Black Students
  In California, Solano County (17%) and Alameda and Sacramento counties (both at 14%) had the largest percentage of African American/Black public school students last school year. See map >>

• Asian-American Students
  Among California counties, San Francisco (39%) and Santa Clara (27%) had the largest percentage of Asian American public school students last school year. See map >>

• Caucasian/White Students
  The California counties where 60% or more of students are Caucasian/White all are in Northern California, according to data from last school year. See map >>

• Filipino Students
  Among California counties, Solano (9%), San Mateo (8%), and San Francisco (5%) had the largest percentage of Filipino public school students last school year. See map >>

• Hispanic/Latino Students
  Among California counties, Imperial (89%) and Monterey (74%) had the largest percentage of Hispanic/Latino public school students last school year. See map >>

• Multiracial Students
  Multiracial students make up 1.8% of public school students in California, according to 2011 data.  See map >>

• Native American/Alaskan Native Students
  Across California, there were 43,546 Native American/Alaskan Native public school students last school year. See map >>

• Pacific Islander Students
  San Mateo County had the largest percentage of Pacific Islander public school students in 2011 (2.5%). See map >>

Tags: New Data

Posted by Andy Krackov

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 at 11:51 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.