• Introduction
• Highlights
• References

In 1988, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) introduced a proposal to develop a private school data collection that would improve on the irregular collection of private school data dating back to 1890. Since 1989, the U.S. Bureau of the Census has conducted the biennial Private School Universe Survey (PSS) for NCES. The PSS is designed to generate biennial data on the total number of private schools, students, and teachers and to build a universe of private schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia to serve as a sampling frame of private schools for NCES sample surveys. The survey design is described in the Technical Notes section of the complete report.

This report on the 2001-2002 private school universe presents data on schools with grades kindergarten through 12¹ by school size, school level, religious orientation, geographical region, community type, and program emphasis. The numbers of students and teachers are reported by the same categories. The number of students is also reported by race/ethnicity, gender, and grade level.

Tables present data by two primary classification schemes: private school typology and religious orientation. They also present data by grade level, association membership, and state. The private school nine-category typology is based on methodological work completed at NCES (McMillen and Benson 1991). Each of the primary divisions (Catholic, other religious, and nonsectarian) is subdivided into three additional categories: Catholic into parochial, diocesan, and private; other religious into conservative Christian, affiliated, and unaffiliated; and nonsectarian into regular program, special emphasis, and special education.²

All statements of comparison made below have been tested for statistical significance using t tests adjusted for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni adjustment, and are significant at the 95 percent level.

Schools

• In the fall of 2001, there were an estimated 29,273 private elementary and secondary schools in the United States, an increase of 2,050 over the 27,223 schools estimated in the fall of 1999 (table A and Broughman and Colaciello 2001).
• Among the 29,273 private schools in existence in 2001-02, 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, 28, and 23 percent, respectively, of all private schools (table A).
• The region with the most private schools was the South (9,171), while the regions with the fewest were the West (6,092) and the Northeast (6,556) (table A).
• Ninety-one percent of private schools offered at least some elementary grades, with 60 percent offering elementary grades only and 31 percent offering a combination of elementary and secondary grades; the remaining 9 percent offered secondary grades only (table A).
• Most private schools (82 percent) emphasized a regular elementary/secondary program. The other program emphasis categories-Montessori, special emphasis, special education, vocational/technical, alternative, and early childhood-each contained less than 10 percent of private schools (table A).

Enrollment

• A total of 5,341,513 students were enrolled in the nation's private schools in the fall of 2001, an increase of 178,829 over the 5,162,684 students enrolled in the fall of 1999 (table A and Broughman and Colaciello 2001).
• Private school students represented approximately 10 percent of the total elementary and secondary enrollment in the United States in 2001-02.³
• The distribution of enrollment by type of private school differed from the distribution of individual schools. More students were enrolled in Catholic schools than in other religious schools: 47 and 36 percent, respectively, of total private enrollment. Enrollment in nonsectarian schools, representing 17 percent of all private school students, was less than that of Catholic or other religious schools (table A).
• The region with the most private school students was the South (1,641,474), while the region with the fewest was the West (1,008,408) (table A).
• Approximately 54 percent of private school students were enrolled only in elementary schools, 16 percent were enrolled only in secondary schools, and 30 percent were enrolled in combined schools (table A).
• 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 (table A).
• Forty-three percent of all private school students attended schools that were located in central cities, 43 percent attended schools that were located in urban fringe areas or large towns, and 15 percent attended schools in rural areas (table A).
• Approximately three-quarters (76 percent) of private school students were White, non-Hispanic; 10 percent were Black, non-Hispanic; 9 percent were Hispanic; 1 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native; and 5 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander (table B).⁴

Teachers

• The nation's private school students were taught by 425,406 full-time-equivalent (FTE) teachers in the fall of 2001, representing an increase of 30,089 FTE teachers over the 395,317 FTE teachers employed in private schools in the fall of 1999 (table A and Broughman and Colaciello 2001).
• The order of the distribution of FTE teachers by type of private school was the same as that of schools. Other religious schools employed the most FTE teachers, followed by Catholic schools, then by nonsectarian schools, representing 39, 37, and 24 percent, respectively, of total private school FTE teachers (table A).
• The region with the most private school FTE teachers was the South (142,650), while the region with the fewest was the West (76,128) (table A).
• Nearly one-half of private school FTE teachers (48 percent) were teaching in elementary schools, 37 percent were teaching in combined schools, and 16 percent were teaching in secondary schools (table A).
• Approximately 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 (table A).

Kindergarten-Terminal Schools

• Since 1995, schools for which kindergarten was the highest grade have been included in the PSS. In the fall of 2001, there were 6,622 of these schools enrolling 98,413 students and employing 15,398 FTE teachers nationwide (table C). Sixty-seven percent of the k-terminal schools were nonsectarian, 31 percent were other religious, and 2 percent were Catholic.
• By definition, all of the k-terminal schools were classified as elementary, and most of them (98 percent) enrolled fewer than 50 students. Seventy-eight percent of these schools emphasized an early childhood program, 21 percent emphasized a Montessori program, and fewer than 5 percent each emphasized any one of the other programs (table C).
• When the k-terminal schools are included with the other PSS schools, the total number of schools becomes 35,895, with 5,439,925 students and 440,804 FTE teachers (table D).