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| This article was excerpted from the Foreword and Introduction to the Compendium of the same name. The sample survey and universe data are from numerous sources, both government and private, and draw especially on the results of surveys and activities carried out by NCES. | |||
The 2003 edition of the Digest of Education Statistics is the 39th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. (The Digest has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86.) Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The publication contains information on a variety of subjects in the field of education statistics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, federal funds for education, libraries, and international education. Supplemental information on population trends, attitudes on education, education characteristics of the labor force, government finances, and economic trends provides background for evaluating education data. In addition to updating many of the statistics that have appeared in previous years, this edition contains new material, including
Participation in Formal Education
In the fall of 2003, about 70.7 million persons were enrolled in American schools and colleges (table A). About 4.2 million were employed as elementary and secondary school teachers and as college faculty. Other professional, administrative, and support staff at educational institutions numbered 4.8 million. Thus, about 79.7 million people were involved, directly or indirectly, in providing or receiving formal education. All data for 2003 in this article are projected. Some data for other years are projected or estimated as noted. | |||
Table A. Projected number of participants
in educational institutions, by level and control of institution: Fall 2003
NOTE: Includes enrollments in local public school systems and in most private schools (religiously affiliated and nonsectarian). Excludes subcollegiate departments of institutions of higher education and federal schools. Elementary and secondary includes most kindergarten and some nursery school enrollment. Excludes preprimary enrollment in schools that do not offer first grade or above. Degree-granting institutions include full-time and part-time students enrolled in degree-credit and nondegree- credit programs in universities, other 4-year colleges, and 2-year colleges that participated in Title IV federal financial aid programs. Data for teachers and other staff in public and private elementary and secondary schools and colleges and universities are reported in terms of full-time equivalents. Detail may not sum to totals due to rounding. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Projections of Education Statistics to 2013; and unpublished projections and estimates. (This table was prepared September 2003.) (Originally published as table 1 on p. 13 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.) |
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Elementary/Secondary Education
Enrollment Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools rose 22 percent between 1985 and 2003. The fastest public school growth occurred in the elementary grades (prekindergarten through grade 8), where enrollment rose 25 percent over this period, from 27.0 million to 33.8 million. Private school enrollment grew more slowly than public school enrollment from 1985 to 2003, rising 13 percent, from 5.6 million to 6.3 million. As a result, the proportion of students enrolled in private schools declined slightly, from 12.4 percent in 1985 to 11.5 percent in 2003. Since the enrollment rates of kindergarten and elementary school-age children have not changed much in recent years, increases in public and private elementary school enrollment have been driven primarily by increases in the number of children in this age group. Public secondary school enrollment declined 8 percent from 1985 to 1990, but then rose 25 per-cent from 1990 to 2003, for a net increase of 15 percent. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) forecasts record levels of total elementary and secondary enrollment through 2013, as the school-age population continues to rise. The projected fall 2003 public school enrollment marks a new record, and new records are expected every year through 2013, the last year for which NCES enrollment projections have been developed. Public elementary school enrollment (prekindergarten through grade 8) is projected to decline slowly between 2003 and 2005, and then increase, so that the fall 2013 projected enrollment is 5 percent higher than the 2003 projected enrollment. Public secondary school enrollment (grades 9 through 12) is expected to increase 1 percent between 2003 and 2013.
Teachers A projected 3.4 million elementary and secondary school teachers were engaged in classroom instruction in the fall of 2003. This number has risen in recent years, up about 22 percent since 1990. The 2003 projected number of teachers includes 3.0 million public school teachers and 0.4 million private school teachers. The number of public school teachers has risen faster than the number of students over the past 10 years, resulting in small declines in the pupil/teacher ratio. In the fall of 2002, there were a projected 16.1 public school pupils per teacher, compared with 17.4 public school pupils per teacher 10 years earlier. The salaries of public school teachers, which lost purchasing power to inflation during the 1970s, rose faster than the inflation rate in the 1980s. Since 1990-91, salaries for teachers have generally maintained pace with inflation. The average salary for teachers in 2002-03 was $45,822, about 2 percent higher than in 1992-93, after adjustment for inflation. Student performance Most of the student performance data in the Digest are drawn from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). NAEP conducts assessments using three basic designs: the main NAEP, state NAEP, and long-term trend NAEP. These three basic designs are described in the paragraphs that follow. The main NAEP assessments report current information for the nation, specific geographic regions of the country, and (beginning in 2002) states. They include students drawn from both public and nonpublic schools and report results for student achievement at grades 4, 8, and 12. The main NAEP assessments follow the frameworks developed by the National Assessment Governing Board and use the latest advances in assessment methodology. NAEP frameworks are designed to reflect changes in educational objectives and curriculum. Since 1990, NAEP assessments have also been conducted at the state level. Each state that chooses to participate receives assessment results that report on the performance of students in that state. In its content, the state assessment is identical to the assessment conducted nationally. However, because the national NAEP samples prior to 2002 were not designed to support the reporting of accurate and representative state-level results, separate representative samples of students were selected for each participating jurisdiction/state and additional students needed to yield national estimates were selected from nonparticipating states. NAEP also conducts long-term trend assessments, which are designed to give information on changes in the basic achievement of America's youth since the early 1970s. They are administered nationally and report student performance at ages 9, 13, and 17 in reading, mathematics, and science, and in grades 4, 8, and 11 in writing. Measuring trends of student achievement or change over time requires the precise replication of past procedures. Therefore, the long-term trend instrument does not evolve based on changes in curricula or in educational practices. Reading Overall achievement scores on the NAEP long-term trend reading assessment for the country's 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students are mixed. Reading performance scores for 9- and 13-year-olds were higher in 1999 than they were in 1971. However, there were no detectable differences between their 1999 and 1984 scores. There was no detectable difference in the reading performance of 17-year-olds in 1999 compared to 1971. Black 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds exhibited higher reading performance in 1999 than in 1971. However, the performance of Black 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds was not significantly different in 1999 from that in 1984. The performance levels of White 9- and 13-year-olds also rose between 1971 and 1999. Separate data for Hispanics were not gathered in 1971, but changes between 1975 and 1999 indicate an increase in performance among 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds. There was no significant difference between the 1984 and 1999 reading performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old Hispanics. The 2003 NAEP reading assessment of states found that reading proficiency varied widely among fourth-graders in the 53 participating jurisdictions (50 states, Department of Defense overseas and domestic schools, and the District of Columbia). The U.S. average score was 216. The scores for the participating jurisdictions ranged from 188 in the District of Columbia and 203 in New Mexico to 228 in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Mathematics Results from NAEP assessments of mathematics proficiency indicate that the scores of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students were higher in 1999 than in 1973. This pattern was similar for White, Black, and Hispanic students. The 2003 NAEP assessment of states found that mathematics proficiency varied widely among public school eighth-graders in the 53 participating jurisdictions (50 states, Department of Defense overseas and domestic schools, and the District of Columbia). Overall, 67 percent of these eighth-grade students performed at or above the Basic level in mathematics, and 27 percent performed at or above the Proficient1 level. Mississippi and the District of Columbia had significantly fewer than 50 percent of students performing at least at the Basic level in math. Science Long-term changes in science performance on the NAEP assessments have been mixed, though scores during the 1990s were stable for two out of the three age groups. Among 17-year-olds, science performance was lower in 1999 than in 1969, but higher than in 1990. No difference was detected between the science performance of 13-year-olds in 1999 compared to 1970 or 1990. The science performance of 9-year-olds increased between 1970 and 1999, but there was no significant difference between 1990 and 1999. International comparisons The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 1999),2 which was conducted 4 years after the original TIMSS, focuses on the mathematics and science achievement of eighth-graders in 38 countries. In TIMSS 1999, the average scores of the 38 participating countries in mathematics and science were 487 and 488, respectively. In 1999, U.S. eighth-graders' average scores were higher in both mathematics and science than the averages of the 38 countries. In mathematics, the average U.S. score was higher than the score in 17 countries, no different from the score in 6 countries, and lower than the score in 14 countries. In science, the average U.S. score was higher than the score in 18 countries, no different from the score in 5 countries, and lower than the score in 14 countries in 1999. Postsecondary Education
College enrollment College enrollment hit a record level of 15.9 million in fall 2001. Another record of 16.4 million is anticipated for fall 2003. Enrollment is expected to increase by an additional 11 percent between 2003 and 2013. Despite decreases in the traditional college-age population during the late 1980s and early 1990s, total enrollment increased. Between 1991 and 2001, the number of full-time students increased by 16 percent compared to a 4 percent increase in part-time students. Faculty and staff In the fall of 2001, there were 1.1 million faculty members in degree-granting institutions, including 0.6 million full-time and 0.5 million part-time faculty. In 1998, full-time instructional faculty and staff generally taught more hours and more students than part-time instructors. About 21 percent of full-time faculty taught 15 or more hours per week, compared with 9 percent of part-time faculty. About 13 percent of full-time faculty taught 150 or more students, compared with 4 percent of part-time faculty. Graduates, degrees, and attainment The estimated number of high school graduates in 2002-03 totaled 3.0 million, including 2.7 million public school graduates and 0.3 million private school graduates. The number of high school graduates is lower than its peak in 1976-77, when 3.2 million students earned diplomas. In contrast, the number of General Educational Development (GED) credentials issued rose from 332,000 in 1977 to 648,000 in 2001. The dropout rate also declined over this period, from 14 percent of all 16- to 24-year-olds in 1977 to 11 percent in 2001. The number of postsecondary degrees conferred during the 2002-03 school year by degree level has been projected: 662,000 associate's degrees; 1,311,000 bachelor's degrees; 492,000 master's degrees; 80,400 first-professional degrees; and 43,300 doctor's degrees. The U.S. Census Bureau collects annual statistics on the educational attainment of the population. Between 1990 and 2002, the proportion of the adult population 25 years of age and over who had completed high school rose from 78 percent to 84 percent, and the proportion of adults with a bachelor's degree increased from 21 percent to 27 percent. Over the same period, the proportion of young adults (25- to 29-year-olds) completing bachelor's degrees rose from 23 percent to 29 percent. Education expenditures Expenditures for public and private education, from kindergarten through graduate school (excluding postsecondary schools not awarding associate's or higher degrees), are estimated at $780 billion for 2001-02. Expenditures of elementary and secondary schools are expected to total $463 billion, while those of colleges and universities are expected to total $317 billion. Total expenditures for education are expected to amount to 7.7 percent of the gross domestic product in 2001-02, about 0.5 percentage points higher than in 1991-92.
Footnotes 1The NAEP achievement levels are set by the National Assessment Governing Board. The Basic level denotes partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work, while the Proficient level represents solid academic performance. 2In earlier reports, TIMSS 1999 is also referred to as TIMSS-R (TIMSS-Repeat).
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