Your donation will help us produce journalism like this. Please give today.

A new report from Child Trends took a close look at Hispanic children in America and found a “complex picture.” The 35-page report examined all facets of the lives of Hispanic children, including education, and said some of its findings are “familiar while others are less well-known.”

Overall, while Hispanic students have made significant gains over the last few decades, they are behind their white peers in academic achievement and are more likely to live in poverty, the report found.

While the report is not broken down geographically, it does note that 52 percent of all children in California are Hispanic, the second highest in the nation. Among the highlights in the report’s findings in regard to education are:

• Hispanics are the largest minority group in public schools as well as the fastest-growing. One U.S. child in four is Hispanic.
• Hispanics increasingly are showing up in preschool programs, have made significant gains on national math tests, and are posting record high school graduation rates.
• Dropout rates have fallen to an all-time low of 12.7 percent, but Hispanics still have the highest dropout rates of any race.
• Participation by Hispanic children in early education programs has increased by a third since 2007.
• Hispanic children start school less likely than their white peers to know their alphabet or numbers, write their names, or read written words, but enter kindergarten with social-emotional skills that are well-developed and sometimes ahead of other children’s.
• Hispanic children make up the majority of dual language learners in schools.
• Hispanic children are substantially less likely than their white peers to participate in after-school sports, clubs and organizations.

Read the full report here: America’s Hispanic Children: Gaining Ground, Looking Forward