Latino Immigrant Students’ 10th-Grade Math Achievement: A Cohort (1990 and 2002) Analysis

• In Event: Hispanic Cultural Issues: Language, Immigration, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Abstract

The Latino-White achievement gap significantly narrowed in the 1970s and the early 1980s and has widened since then. Using two nationally representative databases of 10th-graders, we examine the widening of the Latino-White math gaps from 1990 to 2002, taking into account students’ immigrant generational status. The Latino-White achievement gaps were larger in 2002 than in 1990, particularly for 1st generation students. Although Latino immigrants experienced noticeable SES disadvantages in both cohorts, larger SES differences between White and Latino immigrant students were observed in 1990 than in 2002. In contrast, Latino immigrants in the later cohort attended schools with a larger concentration of racial/ethnic minority composition, suggesting that the opportunity gaps may have been more limited in 2002 than in 1990.

Authors

• Claudia Lucia Galindo, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Suet-Ling Pong, The Pennsylvania State University