{"id":20117,"date":"2020-10-15T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T00:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/data-science\/?p=20117"},"modified":"2023-02-28T22:56:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T22:56:30","slug":"educational-attainment-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/data-science\/2020\/10\/15\/educational-attainment-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Educational Attainment in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Educational Attainment in Texas<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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In our previous post, Exploring the “Some college, no bachelors” degree population<\/a>, we reviewed national trends related to educational attainment levels of adults (25 and older). This post narrows the focus to the landscape within the borders of Texas, looking first at statewide trends across educational attainment levels from 2009 to 2018 before reviewing county-level data.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Statewide\u200b Educational Trends<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Using data from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), educational attainment data for adults (25 and older) were queried from the 5-year ACS estimates for 2009, 2013, and 2018. Although the ACS data include more than 20 levels ranging from “No schooling” through “Graduate or Professional Degrees,” the following analyses collapse educational attainment into four categories: “Less than HS Diploma”, “HS Diploma or GED”, “Some College, No Bachelors”, and “Bachelors or Higher.”\u00a0The two visuals below show patterns in the data across the four educational attainment levels, as several interesting patterns appear to demonstrate growth in the health of educational attainment in Texas.<\/span><\/p>

The top series of bar charts show the counts of adults (25 and older) at each education level spanning the decade in the data. Hovering over each bar with your cursor, or clicking on the bar when using a touch-based interface, shows additional data of importance, including the estimated total adult population in each year: 14.72 million in 2009, 16.08 million in 2013, and 17.82 million in 2018. In general, the Texas adult population is becoming more educated over time, with fewer adults falling in the “Less than HS Diploma” category, while the growth in “Some College, No Bachelors” and “Bachelors or Higher” categories exceeds the growth seen in the “HS Diploma or GED” category. The “Bachelors or Higher” group of adults saw the largest percentage increase of 40 percent, growing from 3.73 million in 2009 to 5.22 million in 2018, with “Some College, No Bachelors” group growing at 26 percent from 4.08 million to 5.15 million.<\/p>

The second set of bar charts shows the same years and categories as percentages of the annual total of adults (25 and older). By way of orientation, the percentages added together for each year across attainment categories will result in a total of 100 percent, as opposed to adding the percentages within each attainment category together. Even though the “HS Diploma or GED group” increased by just over 15 percent (3.86 million in 2009 to 4.45 million in 2018), the bottom bar charts show that this group, along with the “Less than HS Diploma” group, dropped in terms of representation during the decade. While the “Some College, No Bachelors” level had the highest percentage in 2008 of 27.7 percent, the “Bachelors or Higher” group exceeded the other categories in 2018 with 29.3 percent of adults (25 and older) being in this highest educational attainment category.\u00a0<\/p>

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