States report data to EDFacts through multiple file groups that fall into different reporting schedules throughout the year. The 2008–09 school year EDFacts collection of CCD data opened in January 2009. The data in the school file were extracted from EDFacts before January 2010.
NCES imputes (replaces a nonresponse with a plausible value) some missing items in the State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education, but does not impute missing items in the Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey (used in this report) or the Local Education Agency Universe Survey.
When reporting results, NCES treats missing data within individual states differently than it treats missing data across all states and the District of Columbia. An individual state is considered to have missing data if an item is reported for less than 80 percent of possible cases.
If information is missing for some, but no more than 15 percent, of possible cases across the 50 states and District of Columbia, NCES calculates totals and identifies them as "reporting states" totals (rather than totals for the United States). Precise information about the extent of missing data is included in the documentation for the Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey 2008–09 file.
EDFacts accepted blank responses in 2008–09 school year reports and did not require that states distinguish among missing, not applicable, and "zero" values. Every effort was made to correctly identify responses as missing, not applicable, or zero after the fact, but it is possible that some blank responses were categorized incorrectly.
NCES also applies various data adjustments to all three data files to reduce data anomalies. For example, in 2008–09, some states reported more full-time equivalent (FTE) counts at the school level than the state level and the states confirmed that the state figures were accurate. Therefore, NCES adjusted the FTE data at the school level to match the data at the state level. More information about the adjustments is included in the documentation for the Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey 2008–09 file.
Some substantial data changes from 2007–08 to 2008–09 may be partly attributed to improved reporting. For example, prior to 2008–09, Utah included instructional aides and instructional coordinators in its reports of teacher FTE. This practice was corrected in 2008–09, which contributed to the increase in the primary school student/teacher ratio from 23.3 (2007–08) to 33.1 (2008–09)