How many US 6th-12th grade students are learning a foreign language?

Question

I'm putting together some market analysis for a business plan for language instruction for the demographic of 6th - 12th grade US students (middle through high school).

From various sources online I've been able to compile reasonably helpful statistics about the market:

• 1.2b learners worldwide
• 800m learning English
• 87m Americans learners
• 9m K-12 American learners

My target demographic, however, is 6th - 12th grade (middle - high school).

I cannot find information specific to this age group and the stats I found on 9m K-12 American learners don't segment this group (it's a lump of 9m K-12, that's all).

Looking for information on this particular demographic of domestic (US) foreign language learners.

Answer 1

According to Foreign Language Instruction in U.S. Schools: Results of a National Survey of Elementary and Secondary Schools, which was published by The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in 2011 (emphasis mine),

At the secondary school level, an estimated 10.5 million students out of 25.7 million (41%) were enrolled in language classes in 2008, a decrease from the nearly 12 million (52%) enrolled in 1997.

The report goes on to say that the term "secondary school" refers to both middle school and high school language learners.