This study describes the individual, family, school, and community characteristics of Hispanic ninth-grade students enrolled in predominantly minority high schools in five major U.S. cities: Chicago, Miami, Milwaukee, Newark, and San Antonio. The data, which are reported for four groups--Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Central Americans--are presented in nine sections: (1) "Student Characteristics" provides information about the students' backgrounds; (2) "Parent Characteristics" provides background data on the students' parents; (3) "Language Usage" gives information on the students' use of Spanish and English; (4) "School Environment" provides basic information on students' attitudes toward school and their peers; (5) "School Issues" examines school-related variables that are thought to influence success in school; (6) "Homework and Studying" deals with the use of resources outside of the classroom for educational purposes; (7) "Academic Concerns" reports students' appraisal of their performance academic; (8) "Working" examines current student employment as well as their occupational aspirations; and (9) "Future Plans" assesses students' expectations about school attendance during the following academic year. Each of these sections concludes with a profile of the most frequently given answers. A tenth section synthesizes the data into 24 similarities among the four groups and 17 differences. Two appendixes describe the sampling design and the questionnaire design. (MYM)