There were 98,793 operating public elementary/secondary schools in the 2006–07 school year (table 1). In this school year, 1,877 schools were closed and 1,927 new schools were opened. An additional 631 “future” schools were planned to open within the next two years. A total of 667 schools were flagged as “shared time,” that is, providing services for students who were in membership in some other school.
Most schools were regular schools (88,959) that were responsible for instruction in the standard curriculum as well as other areas (table 2). A total of 1,240 schools were identified as vocational schools; 1,956 schools focused primarily on special education services; and 6,638 provided some other form of alternative education.
Almost 1.2 million students (table 3) were enrolled in 4,132 charter schools in 2006–07 (table 2). During that school year, 410 new charter schools were opened (table 1).
The average student/teacher ratio was 16.6 across all regular public schools with membership (table 4). This is the number of students for each full-time equivalent (FTE)5 teacher. The average student/teacher ratio differed among school instructional levels: it was 16.6 in primary; 16.0 in middle; and 17.2 in high schools.
School size also differed by instructional level in 2006–07. On the average, primary schools had 446 students in membership, middle schools had 593 students, and high schools had 876 students (table 5).
More schools (28,273) were in rural locations than in any other locale. An additional 24,691 schools were in suburban areas; 22,237 were in large or mid-size cities; and 12,418 were in towns (table 6). In contrast, the largest percentage of students attended suburban schools (35 percent), followed by schools in cities (29 percent), rural areas (23 percent), and towns (13 percent).
Eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch is sometimes used as a proxy measure of poverty. In the 2006–07 school year, 54 percent of students in city schools were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (table 7). The percentage of students who were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch across other locale types was 45 percent in towns, 38 percent in rural areas, and 32 percent in suburban areas.
4 The findings include only the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 5 FTE is the amount of time required to perform an assignment stated as a proportion of a full-time position.
National Center for Education Statistics - http://nces.ed.gov U.S. Department of Education
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