Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary Districts in the United States: 2001-2002 - Introduction

Introduction

This publication provides basic descriptive information about the 100 largest school districts (ranked by student membership) in the United States and jurisdictions (Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Defense schools, and five outlying areas: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands). When discussing characteristics, the term "United States and jurisdictions" refers to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Defense schools, and five outlying areas. This is different from most National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports, which include only the 50 states and the District of Columbia in U.S. totals. Readers interested in examining data for the 50 states and District of Columbia only can refer to Public School Student, Staff, and Graduate Counts by State: School Year 2001-02 (Young 2003) and Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Districts: School Year 2001-02 (Hoffman 2003).

Approximately one in four public school students in the United States and jurisdictions is served by one of the 100 largest school districts (table A). These districts are distinguished from all school districts by characteristics other than the size of their membership, such as average and median school size, number of high school graduates, number of pupils receiving special education services, and minority enrollment as a proportion of total enrollment.

Data item	National total¹	100 largest districts¹		500 largest districts¹
Table A. Selected statistics for the United States and jurisdictions, the 100 largest, and the 500 largest school districts: School year 2001-02
Data item	National total¹	Total	Percentage of national total	Total	Percentage of national total
Districts	17,140	100	0.6	500	2.9
Schools	96,193	15,838	16.5	30,662	31.9
Students	48,521,731	11,168,631	23.0	20,912,064	43.1
Teachers (full-time equivalent)	3,051,638	662,162	21.7	1,239,595	40.6
High school completers (2000-01)²	2,723,872	517,898	19.0	1,024,853	37.6

Median pupil/teacher ratio³	15.9	16.9	†	16.9	†
Average school size	504.4	705.2	†	682.0	†
High school completers² as percentage of all students	5.6	4.6	†	4.9	†
†Not applicable.
¹The universe for this table includes outlying areas, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Department of Defense schools. The 500 largest school districts include 23 school districts that are some other configuration besides prekindergarten (PK)- or K-12, although all of the 100 largest school districts are (PK)- or K-12.
²Includes high school diploma recipients as well as other high school completers (e.g., certificates of attendance).
³ Includes only schools where student membership was greater than zero.
SOURCE: Data reported by states to U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data, "Local Education Agency Universe Survey," 2001-02, Version 1a, and "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," 2001-02, Version 1a.

Information about the characteristics listed above is found in 18 "basic tables" (tables 1-18) that accompany this report. There are also six tables (tables 19-21 and appendixes E-G) with supplemental data from the 2000 School District Tabulations (STP2) from the Bureau of the Census, which present decennial census data on household poverty, educational attainment of adults, and English language proficiency of children. For the purpose of establishing a meaningful context for the information on the 100 largest districts, four text tables (tables A-D) precede the basic tables and provide national data and data for the 100 and 500 largest school districts. Following the basic tables, appendix A lists the 500 largest school districts, with some identifying information. Appendix B is an alphabetical list of the 500 largest districts ranked by membership size. Appendix C provides a count of the number of 100 largest districts by state. Appendix D provides selected data for the 100 largest school districts in the 1991-92 school year for comparison. In all basic tables and appendixes, with the exception of appendixes B and C, districts are presented in decreasing order of membership size.