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ContactIn the 2005–06 school year, each of the 100 largest school districts had at least 47,595 students, whereas 72 percent of all regular school districts had fewer than 2,500 students (tables 3 and A-1). However, these smaller districts served only 17 percent of all students; 83 percent of students were enrolled in districts of 2,500 or more students (table 3).
The average school district in the United States and jurisdictions had 5.6 schools; in comparison, the 100 largest school districts averaged 165.8 schools per district (derived from table 1). Two of the three largest districts—New York City Public Schools, New York, and the Puerto Rico Department of Education—each had over 1,400 schools (table A-1).
Average regular school4 size ranges from a low of 360 students (in the District of Columbia Public Schools) to a high of 1,461 (in the Gwinnett County School District, Georgia) in the 100 largest school districts in the 2005–06 school year (table A-2). The largest regular school in the 100 largest districts, and also one of the two largest regular schools in the United States, was the 5,452 student Chicago International Charter, Illinois.5
The 100 largest school districts had more students per school than the average school district (695 vs. 518) (table 1). Eighteen of the 100 largest school districts had an average regular school size of over 1,000 students (table A-2). In addition to larger school sizes, the 100 largest school districts also had a higher median pupil/teacher ratio than the average school district (15.9 to 1 vs. 15.4 to 1) (table 1). Among the 100 largest public school districts, Garden Grove Unified, California, had the highest median pupil/teacher ratio in regular schools (22.9 to 1) and the Puerto Rico Department of Education, and Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia, had the smallest (12.8 to 1) (table A-3). The median pupil/teacher ratio for regular primary schools among the 100 largest public school districts that met reporting standards was lower than that for high schools (15.7 to 1 vs. 18.0 to 1).
Of the 15,024 schools with membership in the 100 largest public school districts, 9,904 were primary schools, 2,496 were middle schools, 1,937 were high schools, and 687 were schools with other instructional levels (table A-4). The Puerto Rico Department of Education—which had the most schools with membership in total—had the largest number of primary (865) and other instructional level (205) schools of the 100 largest public school districts, whereas New York City Public Schools, New York, had the largest number of middle schools (267) and high schools (187).
School staff. At the national level, 51 percent of staff were teachers (Sable and Garofano 2007),6 while in the 100 largest districts 55 percent of staff were teachers (table A-5). Sixty-four of the 100 largest districts reported that 50 percent or more of staff were teachers, and 7 districts reported that 60 percent or more of staff were teachers (these districts were New York City Public Schools, New York; City of Chicago School District 299, Illinois; Clark County School District, Nevada; Greenville County School District, South Carolina; Washoe County School District, Nevada; Chesterfield County Public Schools, Virginia; and San Francisco Unified, California). Twenty-one of the 100 largest school districts had 1 percent or more of their staff assigned as LEA administrators.
Title I eligibility. Ninety-nine of the 100 largest school districts reported data for Title I eligible schools and programs for the 2005–06 school year (table A-6). The percentage of Title I eligible schools in these districts ranged from 6 percent (in Jordan District, Utah) to 99 percent (in Cleveland Municipal City, Ohio). Within the 99 of the 100 largest school districts that reported data, 54 percent of students attended a Title I eligible school, compared to 52 percent of students in the United States and jurisdictions (Hoffman 2007a).
Magnet schools and charter schools. Among the 91 of the 100 largest districts that reported data on magnet schools or reported that magnet schools did not exist in that state, there were 1,229 magnet schools. The largest number of magnet schools among these districts was in the City of Chicago School District, Illinois, with 297 magnet schools (or 47 percent of its schools and 50 percent of its students in magnet schools). There were 804 charter schools administered by the 100 largest school districts in the 2005–06 school year (table A-7). This number does not include charter schools that are independent of the school district.7 Two percent of the students in these districts attended one of these charter schools. In the United States and jurisdictions, there were 3,780 charter schools, including both independent and dependent charter schools, attended by 2 percent of students in 2005–06 (Hoffman 2007a). The largest number of charter schools administered by any of the 100 largest school districts was 120 schools in the Puerto Rico Department of Education (table A-7).
Overall, the 100 largest school districts in 2005–06 had 23 percent of the United States and jurisdictions' public school students (table 1). The 100 largest school districts were not homogeneous, and certain student characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, poverty level, and disability status, varied across the districts.
Race/ethnicity. American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asians/Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, non-Hispanic Blacks, and non-Hispanic Whites are the five racial/ethnic groups about which the CCD collects data. The 100 largest school districts served 37 percent of the 21.8 million public school students in the United States and jurisdictions who are other than White, non-Hispanic, compared to serving 12 percent of the 28.1 million students in the U.S. and jurisdictions who are White, non-Hispanic (derived from tables 1 and 2).8 In 67 of the 100 largest districts, non-Hispanic Whites comprised less than 50 percent of student membership (table A-8). In more than one-third (37) of the 100 largest districts, students who were other than White, non-Hispanic comprised more than 75 percent of the student membership (table A-8). Seven of the 10 largest school districts had other than White, non-Hispanic student memberships of at least this size.
Even with the relatively high other than White, non-Hispanic membership in the 100 largest school districts, 33 of the districts reported 50 percent or more of their students as White, non-Hispanic (table A-8). In 8 of these 33 districts, at least 75 percent of students were White, non-Hispanic. In 15 of the 100 largest districts, half or more of the membership was Black, non-Hispanic. Twenty-two districts reported that the majority of students were Hispanic; 4 of these were among the 10 largest districts (table A-9). In Hawaii, a one-district state, and San Francisco Unified, California, the majority of students were Asian/Pacific Islander.
Free and reduced-price lunch eligibility. The 100 largest school districts had a disproportionate percentage of students eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program relative to all public school districts. Among the 99 of the 100 largest school districts that reported free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, 51 percent of students were eligible, compared with 41 percent of students in all districts (table 2). Forty-three of these districts reported 50 percent or more of their students as eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program (table A-9).
Students with disabilities. Approximately 1.5 million students in the 100 largest school districts had Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) (table A-10). Students with IEPs made up 13 percent of all students in these districts, slightly lower than the percentage for the United States and jurisdictions as a whole (14 percent).9 In the largest school district, New York City Public Schools, New York, 14 percent (or 145,616 students) had IEPs. About 2 percent of the schools in the 100 largest school districts were special education schools (derived from table A-11).
Migrants and English language learner (ELL) students. Six of the 100 largest school districts did not report data on the number of migrant students enrolled in the previous school year and 1 district did not meet reporting standards. Among the 93 of the 100 largest public school districts for which data were available, the number of migrant students enrolled in the previous year ranged from 0 in some districts to 9,753 students in the Fresno Unified, California. In the 94 largest school districts for which data were available, 1.5 million English language learner (ELL) students were served in 2005–06, or 13 percent of all students in these districts (table A-12).
High school completers, grades 9–12 dropout rate, and the averaged freshman graduation rate (AFGR). The number of 2004–05 high school completers in the 99 of the 100 largest school districts for which data were available ranged from 1,697 (in the Brownsville Independent School District, Texas) to 41,322 (in New York City Public Schools, New York) (table A-13). For the 98 of the 100 largest school districts for which data were available, the grade 9–12 dropout rate10 was 4 percent. Among these 99 districts, this ranged from 0.6 (in Capistrano Unified, California) to 16.2 (in Denver County 1, Colorado). The AFGR11 was 70 percent for the 98 of the 100 largest school districts for which the rate could be calculated in 2004–05, as compared to a rate of 75 percent for the United States and jurisdictions (Sable and Garofano 2007). This ranged from a low of 43 percent (in Cleveland Municipal City, Ohio) to a high of 98 percent (in the Alpine District, Utah).
All revenue and expenditure data presented in this report are in current (unadjusted) dollars. In the 2004–05 school year (FY 2005), the 100 largest school districts received over $111 billion for public elementary and secondary education (table A-14). Of this $111 billion, 31 percent ($34 billion) went to the 5 largest school districts (New York City Public Schools, New York; Los Angeles Unified, California; Puerto Rico Department of Education; City of Chicago School District 299, Illinois; and Dade County School District, Florida). Across the 100 largest districts, state sources accounted for 45 percent of revenues, local sources for 44 percent, and federal sources for 11 percent (table A-15). Revenues from the federal government received by the 100 largest school districts constituted between 2 percent (in Douglas County Re 1, Colorado) and 19 percent (in the Brownsville Independent School District, Texas) and 30 percent (in the Puerto Rico Department of Education) of all revenues to the district.
Taken together, the two largest school districts, New York City Public Schools, New York, and Los Angeles Unified, California, spent a little more than 1 out of every 5 current expenditure dollars spent by the 100 largest school districts (derived from table A-14). The percentage of total current expenditures spent on instruction ranged from a low of 32 percent (in the Greenville County School District, South Carolina) to highs of 68 percent (in New York City Public Schools, New York) and 96 percent (in the Puerto Rico Department of Education) in the 100 largest school districts (table A-15).
Current expenditures per pupil in FY 2005 ranged from lows of $5,104 (in the Puerto Rico Department of Education) and $5,503 (in the Alpine District, Utah) to a high of $18,878 (in the District of Columbia Public Schools) in the 100 largest school districts in FY 2005 (table A-14). (See appendix C for definitions of specific revenues and expenditures.)
Expenditures for charter and private schools. Payments by, or on behalf of, public school districts to independent charter schools and private schools are not included in the expenditures in this report. In some states these payments are made by some entity other than the public school district, and are therefore not reported on the School District Finance Survey. Information on expenditures for independent charter schools and private schools, for those school districts reporting these expenditures, can be found on the Build a Table application.
