A school organized to provide educational experiences for children during the year or years preceding kindergarten. Children in "Head Start" or similar programs were to be reported in nursery or kindergarten as appropriate; if the respondent was uncertain as to the level of the Head Start Program, nursery school was to be marked.

An organized educational program the year before first grade.

Includes grades 1 through 8, identified separately in some tabulations. (Persons enrolled in a junior high school or middle school are classified as enrolled in elementary school or high school according to year in which enrolled.)

Includes grades 9 through 12, identified separately in some tabulations.

Junior or community colleges, regular 4-year colleges, and graduate or professional school. Includes 1 through 7 academic years and 8 years or more, identified separately in some tabulations.

Entries on highest grade attended were edited for consistency with age. For instance, entries indicating college attendance for persons under 15 years old were edited out.

Nursery school first appeared as a category in 1970. An item on vocational training which was included in the 1970 census, was deleted in 1980. For 1980 as compared to 1970, there was an increase in the number-of-years-of-college categories, from "6 or more" to "8 or more."

See also: "School Enrollment;" "School Type;" "School Year Completed".

Persons who indicated "Mexican, Mexican-American, Chicano," or wrote in an entry such as "La Raza."

Persons who indicated "Puerto Rican" or wrote in an entry such as "Boricua."

Persons who indicated "Cuban."

Persons who filled the circle for "other Spanish/Hispanic"; or persons who wrote in an origin or descent associated with Spain, the Dominican Republic, or any Central or South America country except Brazil or a nonspecific Spanish group such as "Spanish surnamed" or "Spanish speaking."

Preliminary evaluations of 1980 census data suggest some limited misreporting of Spanish origin.
Available evidence indicates that the misreporting mw have occurred only in selected areas with relatively small Spanish-origin populations, such as in some Southern States, but it is not apparent in those areas with the largest concentrations of Spanish-origin persons. For a fuller discussion of the reporting in the Spanish-origin item, see the forthcoming 1980 census Supplementary Report, "Persons of Spanish Origin by State: 1980" (PC80-Sl).

The Spanish-origin question was asked on a l00-percent basis for the first time in 1980. A similar question was asked on the 1970 5-percent sample questionnaire. For 1980, the category "No, not Spanish/Hispanic" appeared first (the corresponding category appeared last in 1970). Also, the terms "Mexican-American" and "Chicano" are added to the term "Mexican." The category "Central or South American," included in 1970, was dropped.

Although a question on Spanish origin was included in 1970, it was not the major identifier used to classify the Hispanic population in the 1970 census as it is in 1980. Depending on the section of the country, 1970 census data for "Persons of Spanish Heritage" were variously defined as "Persons of Puerto Rican Birth or Parentage" (in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania), as "Persons of Spanish language or Spanish Surname" (in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas), and as "Persons of Spanish Language" (in the remaining 42 States and the District of Columbia). "Spanish Language" referred to those persons who in 1970 reported Spanish as their mother tongue, as well as persons in families in which the household head or spouse reported Spanish as his or her mother tongue.