The primary source of the nonfiscal data for this report is the 2002–03 Common Core of Data (CCD). Information was reported to NCES by state education agencies in the spring of 2003. There are three nonfiscal CCD surveys that collect basic descriptive data on public education in the nation: the school (Public School Universe Survey), local education agency (Local Education Agency Universe Survey), and state (State Nonfiscal Survey). Fiscal data are gathered at the state level by NCES in the National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS) and at the local level in the Annual Survey of Local Government Finances (F-33 series of the Census of Local Governments) conducted by the Governments Division of the Bureau of the Census. The most recent fiscal year for which data are available is 2002. National and Puerto Rico fiscal data were taken from the fiscal year 2002 NPEFS.
District-level data were provided by a CCD Coordinator for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of Defense schools, and five outlying areas: American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. All of these states and jurisdictions are included in this report. If a data item is marked “Data not available” it indicates the state or jurisdiction did not report the data item on its CCD submission.
Districts represented in this report are of various physical sizes and geographic locations. The District of Columbia, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico are each administered as one school district. Some districts comprise a substantial portion of a state’s total student membership, while others make up only a small fraction of the state's total student membership.
CCD data are reported by State Education Agencies (SEAs) for individual schools and districts within the state, as well as the summary state information. Staff at NCES and its collection agent, the Bureau of the Census, works with the SEAs to clean and edit the data. State CCD Coordinators must correct or confirm any numbers that are challenged in the NCES edits. NCES accepts the state’s responses to these edit questions. In a limited number of situations, if the SEA does not provide NCES with the explanation or new data for an item, NCES will suppress or edit the data. Dropout data require an additional statement from the state CCD coordinator indicating that the state follows the CCD dropout definition.
NCES challenges SEA data under several circumstances. Some examples of edits include numbers appearing out of range when compared to national averages, previous year’s data, or internal state reports. If a response is logically impossible, for example, reporting “Title I School status” as “not applicable” when “yes” or “no” are the only possible answers, NCES will consult with the state and replace the response with a logically acceptable alternative. As another example of an edit, if a reported total is less than the sum of the detail comprising that total, the total will be changed to the sum of the detail. Missing data at the state level are imputed to support reporting national totals for the reporting year.
