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Digest of Education Statistics
2002 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 87. Number of public school districts and public and private elementary and secondary schools: 1869-70 to 2000-01

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
           |            |                 Public schools\2\                   |     Private schools\2,3\
           |  Regular   |_____________________________________________________|________________________________
  School   |  public    |  Total,  | Total,   |   Schools with      | Schools |          |Schools   |Schools
   year    |  school    |   all    | schools  |  elementary grades  |  with   |          |with      |with
           |districts\1\|schools\4\|   with   |_____________________|secondary| Total\4\ |elementary|secondary
           |            |          | reported |  Total  |One-teacher| grades  |          | grades   |grades
           |            |          |  grade   |         |           |         |          |          |
           |            |          | spans\5\ |         |           |         |          |          |
___________|____________|__________|__________|_________|___________|_________|__________|__________|__________
     1     |      2     |    3     |    4     |    5    |     6     |    7    |     8    |    9     |   10
___________|____________|__________|__________|_________|___________|_________|__________|__________|__________
1869-70 ...|        --- |  116,312 |      --- |     --- |       --- |     --- |      --- |      --- |      ---
1879-80 ...|        --- |  178,122 |      --- |     --- |       --- |     --- |      --- |      --- |      ---
1889-90 ...|        --- |  224,526 |      --- |     --- |       --- |     --- |      --- |      --- |      ---
1899-1900 .|        --- |  248,279 |      --- |     --- |       --- |     --- |      --- |      --- |      ---
1909-10 ...|        --- |  265,474 |      --- |     --- |       --- |     --- |      --- |      --- |      ---
           |            |          |          |         |           |         |          |          |
1919-20 ...|        --- |  271,319 |      --- |     --- |       --- |     --- |      --- |      --- |      ---
1929-30 ...|        --- |  247,289 |      --- | 238,306 |   149,282 |  23,930 |      --- |    9,275 |    3,258
1931-32 ...|        --- |  245,941 |      --- |     --- |       --- |     --- |      --- |      --- |      ---
1933-34 ...|        --- |  241,428 |      --- | 236,236 |   138,542 |  24,714 |      --- |    9,992 |    3,327
1937-38 ...|    119,001 |      --- |      --- | 221,660 |   121,178 |  25,467 |      --- |    9,992 |    3,327
           |            |          |          |         |           |         |          |          |
1939-40 ...|    117,108 |      --- |      --- |     --- |   113,600 |     --- |      --- |   11,306 |    3,568
1945-46 ...|    101,382 |      --- |      --- | 160,227 |    86,563 |  24,314 |      --- |    9,863 |    3,294
1947-48 ...|     94,926 |      --- |      --- | 146,760 |    75,096 |  25,484 |      --- |   10,071 |    3,292
1949-50 .. |     83,718 |      --- |      --- | 128,225 |    59,652 |  24,542 |      --- |   10,375 |    3,331
1951-52 ...|     71,094 |      --- |      --- | 123,763 |    50,742 |  23,746 |      --- |   10,666 |    3,322
           |            |          |          |         |           |         |          |          |
1953-54 .. |     63,057 |      --- |      --- | 110,875 |    42,865 |  25,637 |      --- |   11,739 |    3,913
1955-56 ...|     54,859 |      --- |      --- | 104,427 |    34,964 |  26,046 |      --- |   12,372 |    3,887
1957-58 .. |     47,594 |      --- |      --- |  95,446 |    25,341 |  25,507 |      --- |   13,065 |    3,994
1959-60 ...|     40,520 |      --- |      --- |  91,853 |    20,213 |  25,784 |      --- |   13,574 |    4,061
1961-62 ...|     35,676 |      --- |      --- |  81,910 |    13,333 |  25,350 |      --- |   14,762 |    4,129
           |            |          |          |         |           |         |          |          |
1963-64 ...|     31,705 |      --- |      --- |  77,584 |     9,895 |  26,431 |      --- |      --- |    4,451
1965-66 ...|     26,983 |      --- |      --- |  73,216 |     6,491 |  26,597 |   17,849 |   15,340 |    4,606
1967-68 ...|     22,010 |      --- |   94,197 |  70,879 |     4,146 |  27,011 |      --- |      --- |      ---
1970-71 ...|     17,995 |      --- |   89,372 |  65,800 |     1,815 |  25,352 |      --- |   14,372 |    3,770
1973-74 ...|     16,730 |      --- |   88,655 |  65,070 |     1,365 |  25,906 |      --- |      --- |      ---
           |            |          |          |         |           |         |          |          |
1975-76 ...|     16,376 |   88,597 |   87,034 |  63,242 |     1,166 |  25,330 |      --- |      --- |      ---
1976-77 .. |     16,271 |      --- |   86,501 |  62,644 |     1,111 |  25,378 |   19,910 |   16,385 |    5,904
1978-79 .. |     16,014 |      --- |   84,816 |  61,982 |     1,056 |  24,504 |   19,489 |   16,097 |    5,766
1979-80 ...|     15,929 |   87,004 |      --- |     --- |       --- |     --- |      --- |      --- |      ---
1980-81 ...|     15,912 |   85,982 |   83,688 |  61,069 |       921 |  24,362 |   20,764 |   16,792 |    5,678
           |            |          |          |         |           |         |          |          |
1982-83 ...|     15,824 |   84,740 |   82,039 |  59,656 |       798 |  23,988 |      --- |       ---|      ---
1983-84 ...|     15,747 |   84,178 |   81,418 |  59,082 |       838 |  23,947 |\6\27,694 |\6\20,872 |\6\ 7,862
1984-85    |        --- |   84,007 |   81,147 |  58,827 |       825 |  23,916 |      --- |       ---|      ---
1985-86 ...|        --- |      --- |      --- |     --- |       --- |     --- |\6\25,616 |\6\20,252 |\6\ 7,387
1986-87 ...|\7\  15,713 |   83,455 |   82,190 |  60,784 |       763 |  23,389 |      --- |       ---|      ---
           |            |          |          |         |           |         |          |          |
1987-88 ...|\7\  15,577 |   83,248 |   81,416 |  59,754 |       729 |  23,841 |\6\26,807 |\6\22,959 |\6\ 8,418
1988-89 ...|\7\  15,376 |   83,165 |   81,579 |  60,176 |       583 |  23,638 |      --- |       ---|      ---
1989-90 ...|\7\  15,367 |   83,425 |   81,880 |  60,699 |       630 |  23,461 |      --- |       ---|      ---
1990-91 ...|\7\  15,358 |   84,538 |   82,475 |  61,340 |       617 |  23,460 |\6\24,690 |\6\22,223 |\6\ 8,989
1991-92 ...|\7\  15,173 |   84,578 |   82,506 |  61,739 |       569 |  23,248 |   25,998 |   23,523 |    9,282
           |            |          |          |         |           |         |          |          |
1992-93 ...|\7\  15,025 |   84,497 |   82,896 |  62,225 |       430 |  23,220 |      --- |       ---|      ---
1993-94 ...|\7\  14,881 |   85,393 |   83,431 |  62,726 |       442 |  23,379 |\6\26,093 |\6\23,543 |\6\10,555
1994-95 ...|\7\  14,772 |   86,221 |   84,476 |  63,572 |       458 |  23,668 |      --- |       ---|      ---
1995-96 ...|\7\  14,766 |   87,125 |   84,958 |  63,961 |       474 |  23,793 |   27,686 |   25,153 |   10,942
1996-97 ...|\7\  14,841 |   88,223 |   86,092 |  64,785 |       487 |  24,287 |      --- |       ---|      ---
           |            |          |          |         |           |         |          |          |
1997-98 ...|\7\  14,805 |   89,508 |   87,541 |  65,859 |       476 |  24,802 |   27,402 |   24,915 |   10,779
1998-99 ...|\7\  14,891 |   90,874 |   89,259 |  67,183 |       463 |  25,797 |      --- |       ---|      ---
1999-2000 .|\7\  14,928 |   92,012 |   90,538 |  68,173 |       423 |  26,407 |   27,223 |   24,685 |   10,693
2000-01 ...|\7\  14,859 |   93,273 |   91,691 |  69,697 |       411 |  27,090 |      --- |       ---|      ---
___________|____________|__________|__________|_________|___________|_________|__________|__________|__________

---Not available.
\1\Includes operating and nonoperating districts.
\2\Schools with both elementary and secondary programs are included under elementary schools and also under secondary schools.
\3\Data for most years are partly estimated.
\4\Includes regular schools, vocational, alternative, and special schools not classified by grade span.
\5\Includes elementary, secondary, and combined elementary/secondary schools.
\6\These data are from sample surveys and should not be compared directly with the data for earlier years.
\7\Because of expanded survey coverage, data are not directly comparable with figures prior to 1986.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Statistics of State School Systems; Statistics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Systems; Statistics of Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Schools; Private Schools in American Education; and Common Core of Data surveys. (This table was prepared July 2002.)


2002 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest