Public Elementary and Secondary Education Statistics: School Year 1996-97 / Highlights
Highlights
The estimates in this publication are key statistics reported before the close of the 1996-97 school year. They include the number of students in membership, teachers, and high school graduates for public elementary and secondary schools, and total revenues and expenditures for the operation of public elementary and secondary schools. The public school estimates consist of three kinds of data: preliminary actual counts for individual states; estimates derived by the states for the (NCES); and estimated values developed by NCES using a combination of state-specific and national data.
- There were approximately 45.2 million students in the nation's public elementary and secondary schools in fall 1996 compared with 44.7 million in fall 1995. Student membership has increased by 2.5 million since fall 1992 (table 1).
- Public school students were taught by an estimated 2.6 million teachers this school year, 1996-97 (table 2).
- The student membership and teacher count data yield pupil-to-teacher ratios for grade levels prekindergarten through 12 of 17.2 for public schools in school year 1996-97 (table 7).
- An estimated 2.3 million public school students graduated from high school in the 1995-96 school year. An additional 2.4 million students are expected to graduate from high school in the 1996-97 school year (table 3).
- Revenues for public elementary and secondary education in fiscal year 1996 are estimated to be $285.5 billion (table 4), and they are expected to rise to approximately $299.1 billion in fiscal year 1997. The per-pupil expenditure for public education is anticipated to be $6,060 per student in membership for the 1996-97 school year(table 7).
The Early Estimates System
