Houston Independent School District - Student Body

Student Body

For the 2009-2010 school year the district reported a total enrollment of 202,773

• 125,097 (61.7%) were Hispanic American
• 53,680 (26.5%) were African American
• 15,889 (7.8%) were White American
• 5,962 (2.9%) were Asian American
• 1,241 (0.6%) were Multiracial
• 531 (0.3%) were American Indian or Alaska Native
• 373 (0.2%) were Native Hawaiian/Other Islander

Between the 1970-1971 and the 1971-1972 school years, during a period of white flight from major urban school districts across the United States, enrollment at HISD decreased by 16,000. Of that number, 700 were African Americans. By the 1990s HISD's student body was increasingly made up of racial and ethnic minority groups.

Of the 9th graders that were in the graduating classes of 2004-2005 in the district, 15% successfully obtained bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees. The U.S. average was 23%. In the District of Columbia Public Schools, 9% of its equivalent 9th grade class received a bachelor of arts or a bachelor of science and/or higher.

As of 2007, of the more than 29 HISD HISD high schools, five had White students as the largest group of students; one of them, High School for Performing and Visual Arts, was the district's only White majority high school.

In 2010 Peter Messiah, the head of HISD's Homeless Education Office, said that HISD classified around 3,000 students as homeless. Margaret Downing of the Houston Press said that Messiah predicted "with confidence" that the actual number of homeless is higher because some families are too embarrassed to self-identify as homeless. Messiah also said that in the years leading to 2010, the number of students classified as homeless increased because the school district became better able to identify homeless students and because the Late-2000s recession continued to have an effect on their families.

As of 2011, between 50% and 66% of White students within the HISD boundaries enroll in private schools.