Hispanic Youth Dropping Out of U.S. Schools: Measuring The Challenge

High school dropout rates are a key performance measure for the American
education system. This report by the Pew Hispanic Center shows that the standard method
for calculating the dropout rate leads to a distorted picture of the status of Hispanic
students in U.S. schools.

In recent years an influx of young immigrants, who left school before coming to
the United States, has swollen the ranks of those counted as Hispanic dropouts. Those
youth present long-term policy challenges in language and employment training, but their
level of school completion does not reflect the quality of U.S. schools or of Latino
achievement in those schools. Rather their presence reflects immigration and labor force
trends.