• Introduction
• Overview of the 100 Largest School Districts
• Where Are the 100 Largest School Districts?
• How Do These Districts Compare With the Average School District?
• References

This publication provides basic descriptive information about the 100 largest school districts (ranked by student membership) in the United States, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Defense (overseas) schools, and outlying areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands). For the sake of simplicity, when discussing characteristics, the term "nation" (or "United States") is used to refer to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Defense (overseas) schools, and outlying areas. This is different from most National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports, which only include the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the U.S. totals. Almost one in every four public school students in this nation is served by one of these 100 districts. They are distinguished from smaller districts by characteristics in addition to sheer size, such as average and median school size, pupil/teacher ratios, number of high school graduates, number of pupils receiving special education services, and minority enrollment as a proportion of total enrollment.

The tables in this publication provide information about the characteristics cited above. To establish a context for the information on the 100 largest districts, national school district data are also included, as are basic data on the 500 largest school districts.

In the 1998-99 school year, there were 16,542 public school districts, over 92,000 schools, and 47.4 million students in public education in the United States and its outlying areas (table A). There were 2.9 million full-time-equivalent (FTE) teachers in the 1998-99 school year and 2.5 million high school graduates in the 1997-98 school year. The 100 largest school districts made up less than 1 percent of all public school districts but served 23 percent of all public elementary and secondary school students.

The 100 largest school districts represent 17 percent of schools and employ 21 percent of all teachers. The 500 largest districts make up 3 percent of all school districts and serve 20.2 million students, or 43 percent of the total public elementary and secondary school student population in the United States.

All of the 100 largest school districts have at least 45,000 students, and 25 of these school districts have over 100,000 students (table B). The largest school district in the country is the New York City Public Schools, with 1,072,628 students enrolled in 1,162 schools. (The New York City Public Schools district is so large it has more students than the 6th through 10th largest school districts added together.) The second largest school district is the Los Angeles Unified, with 695,885 students in 650 schools. The New York City and Los Angeles Unified school districts each have more students than 27 individual states, each of the five outlying areas, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Department of Defense (overseas) schools.¹

Ninety-two of the 100 largest districts reported staff by type. In 88 of those districts, 45 percent or more of their staff were teachers, and in 4 of these districts over 60 percent were teachers. At the national level, 52 percent of staff were teachers.1 Only 16 of the 92 districts that reported staff by type had over 1 percent of their staff assigned to district administration.

The District of Columbia, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico each have only one school district for the entire jurisdiction, and each is represented among the 100 largest school districts (table B). There are 34 states and jurisdictions that contain at least one of the 100 largest school districts. Two states, Florida and Texas, each have 14 districts among the 100 largest; California has 11. Only a few other states have more than one district represented in the 100 largest: Georgia and Maryland each have 5; Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia each have 4; Ohio has 3; and Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and New York have 2. The following states each have one school district among the 100 largest: Alabama, Alaska, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin.

As expected, these 100 largest districts tend to be in cities and counties having large populations, with administrative offices typically located in large cities and their environs. Many of the districts are in states where the school districts have the same boundaries as counties. Over 70 percent of these districts are located in coastal and gulf coast states.

Table A. — Selected statistics for the nation, the 100 largest, and the 500 largest school districts: School year 1998-99

By definition, the 100 largest school districts are large, and when compared to the membership distribution of all school districts, they are considerably larger than most. In the 1998-99 school year, 71 percent of all regular school districts ² had memberships of fewer than 2,500 students (table C) while all of the 100 largest school districts had memberships of at least 45,000 students (table B). Even though only 14 percent of regular school districts had 5,000 or more students, 68 percent of students (or 2 out of 3) were served by these districts (table C).

The average school district in the United States has 5.6 schools compared to the 100 largest school districts, which average 154.1 schools per district (table A). Two of the largest school districts, New York City Public Schools and the Puerto Rico Department of Education, each have over 1,000 schools (table B). The 100 largest school districts, on average, serve considerably more students (108,579 compared to 2,863) and employ more teachers (5,933 compared to 174) per district than the average school district in the nation (table A).

The 100 largest school districts have more students per school than the average school district, 704.5 compared to 509.8 (table A). In fact, 12 of the 100 largest school districts had an average regular school ³ size of over 1,000 students. In addition to larger school sizes, the 100 largest school districts also have a high mean pupil/teacher ratio, 18.3 to 1 compared to 16.5 to 1 for the average school district (table A). Among the 100 largest districts, half the schools in the Jefferson County school district, Kentucky, were below the median ⁴ pupil/teacher ratio of 24.0 to 1 and half the schools in the St. Paul school district, Minnesota, were above the median pupil/teacher ratio of 9.8 to 1.

The number of high school graduates as a percentage of all students in the 100 largest school districts was lower than that of the average school district: 4 percent of students were graduates in the 100 largest school districts compared to 5 percent for the average school district (table A).

Seventy-four of the 100 largest school districts reported data for Title I eligible schools and programs. The percentage of Title I eligible schools in the 74 districts varied widely, from 1 percent to 96 percent. Furthermore, of the 74 districts reporting, a large number reported that these schools were also Title I schoolwide eligible.

Table B. — Selected statistics for the 100 largest school districts in the United States: School year 1998-99

Table C. — Number and percentage of districts and students by district membership size for regular public elementary and secondary school districts in the nation¹: School year 1998-99

NOTE: Detail may not add to cumulative totals due to rounding.

The 100 largest school districts are not homogeneous, and certain student characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, poverty level, and disability status, vary across the districts.

The 100 largest districts, with 23 percent of the nation's public school students, served 40 percent of the 18.4 million minority public school students.⁵ The proportion of minority students in the 100 largest school districts is almost double the proportion of minority students in all public schools. In the 1998-99 school year, 67 percent of the students in the 100 largest school districts were minority students compared to 39 percent of students nationally (table D). In fact, 8 out of the 10 largest school districts had over 75 percent minority student membership.

Even with the relatively high minority membership in the 100 largest school districts, 44 of the 100 largest school districts report 50 percent or more of their students as white, non-Hispanic. Of these 44 districts, 11 reported minority representation of less than 25 percent of their student body. In 18 of the 100 largest districts, half or more of the membership is black, non-Hispanic. Ten districts report the majority of students are Hispanic; 3 of these are among the 5 largest districts. In Hawaii, which is one district, the majority of the students are Asian/Pacific Islanders. It is also interesting to note that the San Francisco Unified school district has 49.9 percent Asian/Pacific Islander students.

The 100 largest school districts also have a disproportionate percentage of students eligible for the free lunch program relative to all public school districts. Among schools that reported free lunch eligibility, 52 percent of students in the 100 largest school districts were eligible compared to 38 percent of students in all districts (table D). Among the 90 of the 100 largest school districts that reported data on free lunch, 42 districts reported over 50 percent of their students eligible for the free lunch program.

Twelve percent of students in the 100 largest school districts had individualized education programs (IEPs) for students with disabilities. In the largest school district, New York City Public Schools, 14 percent, or 147,674 students, were reported to have IEPs. Only 3 percent of schools in the 100 largest school districts were special education schools.

Table D. — Percentage of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch and percentage of minority enrollment in the 100 and 500 largest school districts: School year 1998-99

In school year 1996-97 (fiscal year 1997), $307 billion were collected for public elementary and secondary education in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and outlying areas: 22 percent ($69 billion) of this revenue went to the 100 largest school districts. Of the $69 billion revenue to the 100 largest school districts, a little less than one-third ($20 billion) was received by the 5 largest school districts (New York City Public Schools, Los Angeles Unified, Puerto Rico Department of Education, City of Chicago School District, and Dade County School District). The dollars from the federal government received by 99 of the 100 largest school districts comprised from 2 to 16 percent of all revenues to the district; the exception was Puerto Rico (28 percent).

The 100 largest school districts spent $60 billion (22 percent) of the $273 billion in current expenditures spent on the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and outlying areas in 1996-97. The two largest school districts, New York City Public Schools and Los Angeles Unified, spent one out of every five dollars expended by the 100 largest school districts. All of the 100 largest school districts devoted more than 50 percent of their current expenditures to instruction. Of the 100 largest school districts, New York City Public Schools spent the greatest proportion, 71 percent, on instruction.

The current expenditures per pupil were $5,923 for all districts in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, slightly higher than the $5,653 in the 100 largest school districts. Of the 100 largest school districts, 15 districts spent more than $7,000 per pupil (with Newark City School District, New Jersey, spending the most, at $11,578 per pupil), and one school district, Puerto Rico Department of Education, spent less than $3,000 per pupil.

While there was a lot of movement within the 100 largest school districts over time, between the 1988-89 and 1998-99 school years, the 100 largest districts remained very similar. Only 10 of the 100 largest districts in the 1998-99 school year were not in the 100 largest in the 1988-89 school year. Clark County School District in Nevada was the only district to move into the largest 10 districts between these years (it moved from a rank of 19 in 1988-89 to 9 in 1998-99) (table B). Clark County includes the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which was the fastest growing metropolitan area in the country in the early nineties (Bureau of the Census 1997).

Table E. — Number of students, teachers, and schools in the 100 largest school districts in the United States in school years 1988-89 and 1998-99

The number of students in the 100 largest school districts increased by 16 percent between 1988-89 and 1998-99, the number of teachers increased by 34 percent, and the number of schools increased by 9 percent. However, while the numbers of students, teachers, and schools in the 100 largest school districts have increased between these 2 years, the proportion of the national total these numbers comprised was essentially unchanged. For example, the number of students in the 100 largest school districts went from 23.2 percent of all districts in 1988-89 to 22.9 percent in 1998-99 (table E).

Bairu, G. (2000). Public School Student, Staff, and Graduate Counts by State: School Year 1998-99 (NCES 2000-330). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

Bureau of the Census. (1997). Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1997: The National Data Book. U.S. Department of Commerce. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Johnson, F. (1999). Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1996-1997 (NCES 1999-301). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.