The New Demography of America’s Schools: Immigration and the No Child Left Behind Act

This report explores how immigration is changing the profile of the nation’s elementary and secondary student population during the era of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The report also examines how family income and parental education interact with linguistic proficiency and isolation. Data indicate a rise in the number of children of immigrants, who compose one-fifth of all U.S. school-age children. School-age children of immigrants are concentrated in large States but are dispersing rapidly to nontraditional States. School-age children of immigrants are highly concentrated in six States: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey. Overall, 75 percent of school-age children of immigrants were born in the U.S. Most limited English proficient (LEP) students in elementary and secondary schools were born and raised in the United States, and many have United States born parents. Most LEP children live in linguistically isolated families and attend linguistically segregated schools. Children of immigrants often fall into several of NCLB’s protected groups of students. As a result, schools enrolling large numbers of these children are disproportionately missing the law’s performance targets. The report describes the characteristics of children of immigrants who fall within the major racial and ethnic reporting groups mandated under NCLB (i.e., Latino, Asian, and Black students) and draws comparisons among children with parents from different countries.