Asian Americans in Education

March 15, 2011 4:54 PM

I'm trying to find some rather specific demographic information about Asian-Americans in the 1950s and 1960s and I'm not having much luck. Perhaps you could offer some assistance?

I'm doing some research about how US immigration policies affected Asian-American's educational experiences over a 60 year time span. I have a wealth of data from more recent time periods, but I'm having a hard time trying to find any information from the 1950s or 1960s.

The information I'm specifically looking for are things like how many Asian Americans were enrolled in higher education institutions, how many college-aged (18-24) Asian-Americans were living in the US, how many had a college degree, etc. I'm also just trying to find rather basic demographic information like a breakdown of the Asian-American population by gender and by income level.

I've pored over Census & NCES data for days, but it's been only marginally helpful. Could you point me in the direction of some helpful resources?

posted by chara to Education (1 answer total)

Judging from the Census report, "A Half-Century Of Learning: Historical Census Statistics On Educational Attainment in the United States, 1940 to 2000," which states that "in 1950 and 1960, detailed race data were only available at the national level from special reports on the Nonwhite population" you probably need:

1953b. U.S. Census of Population: 1950, SpecialReport P-E No. 3B a preprint of Vol. IV, Part 3, Chapter B, Nonwhite Population by Race. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

1963. U.S. Census of Population: 1960, Subject Reports, Nonwhite Population by Race, Final Report PC(2)-1C. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Let me know if you're having trouble getting ahold of these reports or if you've already looked at them and they're not what you're looking for. I can rummage a bit more and see what's lurking in our stacks.
posted by librarylis at 5:08 PM on March 15, 2011