Appendix B: Common Core of Data Glossary

added agency—An agency that is reported for the first time although it has been in operation for more than one year.

Bureau of Indian Education schools and districts—A school or district that is directly funded by the Bureau of Indian Education (formerly Bureau of Indian Affairs), U.S. Department of the Interior.

changed boundary agency—An agency that was included in the prior year's CCD, but that has undergone a significant change in geographic boundaries or instructional responsibility.

charter school—A school that provides free public elementary and/or secondary education to eligible students under a specific charter granted by the state legislature or other appropriate authority and that is designated by such authority to be a charter school. Charter schools can be administered by regular school districts, state education agencies (SEAs), or chartering organizations.

elementary/secondary education—Programs providing instruction, or assisting in providing instruction, for students in prekindergarten, kindergarten, grades 1 through 12, and ungraded programs.

federally operated agency—A federal agency charged, at least in part, with providing elementary/secondary instruction or education support services.

full-time equivalent (FTE)—The amount of time required to perform an assignment stated as a proportion of a full-time position and computed by dividing the amount of time employed by the time normally required for a full-time position.

future agency—An agency that is scheduled to become operational within 2 years.

inactive agency—An agency that is temporarily closed and expected to reopen within 3 years.

independent charter school district—School district that includes only charter schools. The structure of the CCD requires that each school have an associated agency. Thus, there are cases in which a charter school is reported as its own school district.

kindergarten—A group or class that is part of a public school program and is taught during the year preceding first grade.

local education agencies (LEAs)—Those agencies at the local level whose primary responsibility is to operate public schools or to contract for public school services.

Locale—The locale code describes a school's physical location relative to densely populated areas. The locales assigned to school districts are based on the locale codes of their schools, weighted by the size of the school's membership. The locale code categories are defined below.

City, Large: Territory inside an urbanized area and inside a principal city with population of 250,000 or more.

City, Midsize: Territory inside an urbanized area and inside a principal city with population less than 250,000 and greater than or equal to 100,000.

City, Small: Territory inside an urbanized area and inside a principal city with population less than 100,000.

Suburb, Large: Territory outside a principal city and inside an urbanized area with population of 250,000 or more.

Suburb, Midsize: Territory outside a principal city and inside an urbanized area with population less than 250,000 and greater than or equal to 100,000.

Suburb, Small: Territory outside a principal city and inside an urbanized area with population less than 100,000.

Town, Fringe: Territory inside an urban cluster that is less than or equal to 10 miles from an urbanized area.

Town, Distant: Territory inside an urban cluster that is more than 10 miles and less than or equal to 35 miles from an urbanized area.

Town, Remote: Territory inside an urban cluster that is more than 35 miles of an urbanized area.

Rural, Fringe: Census-defined rural territory that is less than or equal to 5 miles from an urbanized area, as well as rural territory that is less than or equal to 2.5 miles from an urban cluster.

Rural, Distant: Census-defined rural territory that is more than 5 miles but less than or equal to 25 miles from an urbanized area, as well as rural territory that is more than 2.5 miles but less than or equal to 10 miles from an urban cluster.

Rural, Remote: Census-defined rural territory that is more than 25 miles from an urbanized area and is also more than 10 miles from an urban cluster.

prekindergarten—A group or class that is part of a public school program taught during the year or years preceding kindergarten, excluding Head Start students, unless Head Start is part of an authorized public education program of an LEA.

public school—An institution that provides education services and has one or more grade groups (prekindergarten through grade 12) or is ungraded; has one or more teachers to give instruction; is located in one or more buildings or sites; has an assigned administrator; receives public funds as primary support; and is operated by an education agency.

regional education service agency—An agency that provides services to a variety of local education agencies, or a county superintendent serving the same purposes.

regular school district—Public elementary and/or secondary school district that provides instruction and other education services and that do not focus primarily on special education or vocational education. Education service agencies are also excluded from this category.

student membership—Annual headcount of students enrolled in school on October 1 or the school day closest to that date. In any given year, some small schools will not have any students.

supervisory union—An education agency that performs administrative services for more than one school district through a common superintendent.

ungraded—A class that is not organized on the basis of grade grouping and has no standard grade designation. This includes regular classes that have no grade designations and special classes for exceptional students that have no grade designations. Such a class is likely to contain students of different ages who, frequently, are identified according to level of performance in one or more areas of instruction rather than according to grade level or age level.

unified school district—School district that provides both elementary and secondary education services and instruction.

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