Selected Findings: 2007-08 School Year

• Public elementary and secondary schools had 49.3 million students in membership³ in school year 2007-08 (table 1). This was a decrease of less than 0.1 percent from student membership in school year 2006-07 (Sable and Noel 2008, table 1).
• Summing across grades, 34.3 million students were enrolled in prekindergarten through grade 8 and ungraded classes; 15.0 million students were enrolled in grades 9-12 in the 2007-08 school year (derived from table 1).
• When examining students for whom race/ethnicity was reported in the 2007-08 school year,⁴ 55.8 percent were White, non-Hispanic; 21.1 percent were Hispanic; 17.0 percent were Black, non-Hispanic; 4.8 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander; and 1.2 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native (table 2). The percentage of students who were White, non-Hispanic decreased from 56.5 percent for White, non-Hispanic students in school year 2006-07 (Sable and Noel 2008).
• In school year 2007-08, public elementary and secondary schools and local education agencies employed a total of 6.2 million FTE staff (table 3). This was an increase of less than 1 percent from the number of FTE staff employed in school year 2006-07 (Sable and Noel 2008, table 3).
• Of the FTE staff in the 2007-08 school year, 51.1 percent were teachers, 15.3 percent were instructional aides, instructional coordinators and supervisors, guidance counselors, or librarians, and 23.1 percent were student and other support staff. About 3.5 percent were school or district administrators and 7.0 percent were administrative support staff (derived from table 3).
• The student/teacher ratio in public schools in school year 2007-08 was 15.5 (i.e., there were about 16 students for every FTE teacher employed) (table 4). The ratio ranged from a high of 23.7 in Utah to a low of 10.7 in Vermont. The elementary student/teacher ratio was 20.1, while the secondary student/teacher ratio was 11.9.
• The category of other instructional and student support includes instructional aides, instructional coordinators and supervisors, librarians, library support, and student support services staff. In the 2007-08 school year, there were about 43 students for every instructional and student support staff member (table 4).

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3 Membership is the number of students enrolled on October 1 of the school year.
4 Race/ethnicity was reported for 98.4 percent of the total student membership.

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