• The Early Estimates System
• Highlights

The early estimates system is designed to allow the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to publish selected key statistics during the school year in which they are reported. The source of universe statistical information about public elementary and secondary education is the Common Core of Data (CCD)—data collected annually by NCES from state education agencies. For most CCD surveys, these data are reported to NCES from March 2001 through September 2001, after which they undergo NCES and state editing and are adjusted for missing data. (High school graduate and fiscal data are reported a year later than student and teacher data.) In contrast, the estimates included in this report were reported in December of 2000 for the 2000–01 school year.

In early October 2000, survey forms were sent to each state education agency. States were asked to complete the form and return it by mail or facsimile (fax). States that had not responded by mid-November were contacted by telephone. All data were checked for reasonableness against prior years’ reports, and follow-up calls were made to resolve any questions. When states did not supply a data item, NCES imputed a value. These values are footnoted in the tables. If one or more states required an imputed number, then the national total for that item is marked as imputed. Any state early estimate that indicated a change of greater than 10 percentage points more or less than the national growth rate was replaced with an adjusted early estimate. That is, the estimate was calculated using the same method as that employed to impute missing data.

Forty-five states, the District of Columbia, and two outlying areas participated in the 2000–01 “Early Estimates of Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey.” The estimates reported here were provided by state education agencies and represent the best information on public elementary and secondary schools available to states at this stage of the school year. They are, however, subject to revision. All estimates for the five nonreporting states and the three outlying areas were calculated by NCES. (Arizona, California, New Jersey, Virginia, Washington, America Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico did not return the completed survey form.) NCES also estimated missing data items for a number of reporting states.

The tables in this publication include three kinds of data. “Reported” data are previously published figures. “Preliminary” data have not been published previously by NCES; for these, data collection is complete, and processing and data adjustments are through all but the final stage of review. “Estimated” data are those for the current (2000–01) school year.

Estimated data for the current school year are of three types: estimates derived by the states for NCES (most of the data are of this type); early actual counts reported by individual states; and imputed or adjusted estimates developed by NCES using a combination of statespecific and national data.

The estimates in this publication are key statistics reported during the 2000–01 school year. They include the number of students in membership, teachers, and high school graduates for public elementary and secondary schools, and total revenues and expenditures for the operation of public elementary and secondary schools. Highlights of these statistics include the following:

• There were approximately 47.2 million prekindergarten through grade 12 students in the nation’s public elementary and secondary schools in fall 2000, compared with 46.9 million in fall 1999. Student membership has increased by 1.5 million since fall 1996 (table 1).
• Public school students were taught by an estimated 3.0 million teachers in school year 2000–01 (table 2).
• The student membership and teacher count data show a pupil/teacher ratio of 16.0 for grades prekindergarten through 12 for public schools in school year 2000–01 (table 7).
• An estimated 2.5 million public school students graduated from high school in the 1999–2000 school year. In the 2000–01 school year, 2.5 million students are expected to graduate from high school (table 3).
• Revenues for public elementary and secondary education in fiscal year (FY) 2000 are estimated to be $364.0 billion, and they are expected to rise to approximately $384.7 billion in FY 2001 (table 4).
• Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education for FY 2001 are estimated to be $333.8 billion, an increase of 4.6 percent over the FY 2000 estimate of $319.2 billion. The per pupil expenditure is anticipated to be $7,079 per student in membership for the 2000–01 school year
• (table 5 and table 7).

Table 1.—Student membership in public elementary and secondary schools, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: Fall 1996 to fall 2000

Table 2.—Number of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: School years 1996–97 to 2000–01

Table 3.—Number of public high school graduates, by state: School years 1996–97 to 2000–01

Table 4.—Revenues for public elementary and secondary education, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: Fiscal years 1997 to 2001 (School years 1996–97 to 2000–01)

Table 5.—Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: Fiscal years 1997 to 2001 (School years 1996–97 to 2000–01)

Table 6.—Reported student membership and number of teachers, and estimates of revenues, expenditures, and pupil/teacher ratio, for public elementary and secondary schools, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: School year 1999–2000/Fiscal year 2000

Table 7.—Estimated student membership, number of teachers, revenues, expenditures, and pupil/teacher ratio, for public elementary and secondary schools, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: School year 2000–01/Fiscal year 2001