• Introduction
• Selected Results
• References

This report on the private school universe presents data on schools with grades kindergarten through 12 by school size, school level, religious orientation, geographical region, community type, and program emphasis. The numbers of students and teachers are reported in the same categories. The number of students is also reported by race/ethnicity, gender, and grade level.

Tables in the complete report present data by three classification schemes: private school typology, religious orientation, and association membership. The private school nine-category typology is based on methodological work completed at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Each of the primary divisions (Catholic, other religious, and nonsectarian) is subdivided into three additional categories: Catholic into parochial, diocesan, and private order;¹ other religious into conservative Christian, affiliated with a national denomination or other religious school association, and unaffiliated; and nonsectarian into regular program, special emphasis, and special education.

The Private School Survey (PSS), conducted biennially by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for NCES, is designed to collect data from all private schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The PSS conducted in 1999-2000 is the data source for this report. The counts presented here are estimates derived from a collection of state and private school organization and association lists combined with an area frame. (An estimate of the undercount of schools using this methodology is given in the complete report.) Although, beginning in 1995, the PSS definition of a school was expanded to include those schools for which kindergarten was the highest grade, referred to as kindergarten-terminal (k-terminal) schools, all estimates presented in this report, unless otherwise stated, are for schools (traditional schools) meeting the more restrictive pre-1995 PSS definition of having at least one of grades 1 through 12.

In the fall of 1999, there were 27,223 private elementary and secondary schools in the United States, a total not statistically different from the 27,402 schools counted in the fall of 1997 (Broughman and Colaciello 1999).Among these schools there was considerable diversity as to orientation and affiliation. Of the three primary types of private schools—Catholic, other religious, and nonsectarian—other religious schools were the most numerous, followed by Catholic schools and then nonsectarian schools, representing 49, 30, and 22 percent of all private schools, respectively (table 1 and figure 1). Parochial schools were the most numerous type of Catholic schools, followed by diocesan and then private order schools. Among the three categories of other religious schools—conservative Christian, affiliated, and unaffiliated—there were fewer affiliated schools than conservative Christian or unaffiliated schools. Of the nonsectarian schools, regular schools were the most numerous, followed by special emphasis schools and then special education schools.

The region with the most private schools was the South (30 percent), while the region with the fewest was the West (20 percent). Ninety-one percent of private schools offered at least some elementary grades, with 61 percent offering elementary grades only and 30 percent offering a combination of elementary and secondary grades; the remaining 9 percent offered secondary grades only. Most private schools (82 percent) emphasized a regular ele-mentary/secondary program. The other program emphasis categories—Montessori, special emphasis, special education, vocational/technical, alternative, and early childhood—each contained fewer than 10 percent of private schools.

A total of 5,162,684 students were enrolled in the nation's private schools in the fall of 1999, an increase over the 5,076,119 students enrolled in the fall of 1997 (Broughman and Colaciello 1999). Private school students represented approximately 10 percent of the total elementary and secondary enrollment in the United States.²

Table 1.—Number and percentage distribution of private schools, students, and full-time-equivalent (FTE) teachers by NCES typology and selected characteristics: United States, 1999-2000

Figure 1.—Percentage distribution of private schools, by NCES typology

The distribution of enrollment by type of private school differed from the distribution of schools by the same dimension. More students were enrolled in Catholic schools than in other religious schools, 49 and 36 percent of total private enrollment, respectively (table 1 and figure 2). Enrollment in nonsectarian schools, representing 16 per-cent of all private students, was less than that of Catholic or other religious schools. That Catholic schools represent approximately one-third of all private schools while containing almost half of private school students is an indication that the distribution of schools by size is not the same for the three types of schools. For example, the percentage of schools that are small (fewer than 50 students) is much greater for other religious (38 percent) and nonsectarian (40 percent) schools than for Catholic schools (2 percent). Among Catholic schools, more students were enrolled in parochial schools, followed by diocesan schools and then private order schools. Among the three categories of other religious schools, enrollment was greater in conservative Christian schools than in affiliated or unaffiliated schools. Of the nonsectarian schools, regular schools had more students, followed by special emphasis schools and then special education schools.

The region with the most private school students was the South (31 percent), while the region with the fewest was the West (18 percent). Approximately 55 percent of private school students were enrolled in elementary schools, 16 percent were enrolled in secondary schools, and 30 percent were enrolled in combined schools (table 1). Ninety-two percent of private school students were enrolled in schools with a regular elementary/secondary program emphasis, while fewer than 5 percent of private school students were enrolled in schools featuring any one of the other categories of program emphasis.

Approximately three-quarters (77 percent) of private school students were White, non-Hispanic; while 9 percent were Black, non-Hispanic; 8 percent were Hispanic; 4 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native; and 5 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander.³ Almost half (49 percent) of all private school students attended schools that were located in urban areas (central city), and approximately 40 percent attended schools that were located in an urban fringe or a large town, while only 11 percent attended rural schools (table 1).

Figure 2.—Percentage distribution of private school students, by NCES typology

The nation's private school students were taught by 395,317 full-time-equivalent (FTE) teachers (table 1) in the fall of 1999, representing an increase over the 376,544 FTE teachers employed in private schools in the fall of 1997 (Broughman and Colaciello 1999). The distribution of FTE teachers by type of private school differed from those of schools and enrollment. Catholic schools (38 percent) and other religious schools (39 percent) employed approximately the same number of FTE teachers, while both employed more than nonsectarian schools (24 percent) (table 1 and figure 3). Among Catholic schools, more FTE teachers were teaching in parochial schools, followed by diocesan schools and then private order schools. Among the three categories of other religious schools, conservative Christian schools employed more teachers than affiliated or unaffiliated schools. Of the nonsectarian schools, more FTE teachers were employed by regular schools, followed by special emphasis schools and then special education schools.

The region with the most private school FTE teachers was the South (33 percent), while the region with the fewest was the West (17 percent). Nearly one-half of FTE teachers (48 percent) were teaching in elementary schools, approximately one-third (37 percent) in combined schools, and about 16 percent in secondary schools. Almost 88 percent of private school FTE teachers were teaching in schools with a regular elementary/secondary program emphasis. As in the case of students, fewer than 5 percent of private school FTE teachers were teaching in schools featuring any one of the other categories of program emphasis.

Since 1995, schools for which kindergarten was the highest grade have been included in the PSS. In the fall of 1999, there were 5,772 of these schools enrolling 91,802 students and employing 13,081 FTE teachers nationwide. When the k-terminal schools are added to the traditional PSS schools, the total number of schools becomes 32,995, with 5,254,485 students and 408,397 FTE teachers. Almost 70 percent of the k-terminal schools were nonsectarian (68 percent), 30 percent were other religious, and 2 percent were Catholic.

By definition, all of these schools were classified as elementary, and most of them (97 percent) enrolled fewer than 50 students. Seventy-nine percent of these schools emphasized an early childhood program, 19 percent emphasized a Montessori program, and fewer than 5 percent each emphasized any one of the other program emphases.

Figure 3.—Percentage distribution of private school full-time-equivalent (FTE) teachers, by NCES typology