October is National Principals Month! This celebration marks the invaluable leadership contributions of U.S. K–12 public and private school principals.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) would like to thank principals and administrators from across the country whose support and guidance improve their schools and the successes of their students and staff each and every day.

The data in this blog would not be possible without the participation of principals and school staff in the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS). We have recently concluded the 2023–24 NTPS; to learn more about our most recent data on teachers’ and principals’ experiences and perspectives, please stay tuned to NCES’s website for upcoming reports.

Here are some facts and figures about principals from the NTPS for the 2020–21 school year. Click the links to dig deeper into each of the topics.

Principals’ Educational Attainment, Salary, and Professional Experiences in the 2020–21 school year

• About 7 percent of all K-12 public and private school principals had a bachelor’s degree or less, nearly 60 percent had a master’s degree, about 22 percent had an education specialist or professional diploma,[1] and nearly 11 percent had a doctorate or first professional degree.
• The average annual salary for all principals was $100,500 and ranged from $92,800 for principals with less than 3 years of experience to $106,900 for principals with 10 years of experience or more.
• All principals had an average of 7 total years of experience and an average of 5 years at their current school.
• Among all public school principals in 2020–21, six percent of principals moved to become principal of a new school between the 2020–21 and 2021–22 school years and 11 percent left the profession altogether, while about 80 percent stayed to lead the same school during the 2021–22 school year (figure 1).

Figure 1. Percentage distribution of 2020–21 public school principals, by 2021–22 status

Principal Satisfaction in the 2020–21 School Year

• The 2020–21 NTPS asked all K–12 public and private school principals to rate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with six different statements about their position as a principal (figure 2).
  • About 94 percent of all principals agreed that they were generally satisfied with being a principal at their school.
  • About 34 percent indicated they don’t seem to have as much enthusiasm now as they did when they began their job.
  • About 24 percent indicated they would leave their job as soon as possible if they could get a higher-paying job.
  • About 17 percent indicated the stress and disappointments involved in being a principal at their school weren’t really worth it.
  • Some 17 percent of all principals agreed that they thought about staying home from school because they were just too tired to go.
  • About 17 percent thought about transferring to another school.

Figure 2. Percentage of all K–12 school principals who agreed with statements about their position as a principal: 2020–21

Demographics and Other Characteristics of Principals in the 2020–21 school year

• All K–12 public and private school principals had an average of 7 total years of experience and an average of 5 years at their current school.
• Most principals (78 percent) were White, while about 9 percent were Black or African-American and 9 percent were Hispanic.^[2] Over half of all principals were women (57 percent),^[3] and 43 percent were White women (figure 3).
• The average age of all principals was 49 years old, and the median age was 48 years old.
• About 33 percent of all principals were younger than 45 years old, about 41 percent were between 45–54 years old, and 26 percent were 55 years or older.

Figure 3. Percentage distribution of all K–12 school principal sex by race/ethnicity: 2020–21

For more information about the National Teacher and Principal Survey, please visit https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps/. More findings and details are available in the NTPS school, teacher, and principal First Look reports.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) offers a variety of tools to support hurricane planning, response, and recovery efforts. These resources provide crucial data on educational institutions and infrastructure, helping decision-makers during this critical time. Below is an overview of the key NCES resources available to assist with hurricane response activities.

Key NCES Resources

Interactive Web Maps and APIs

Figure 1: School Weather Watch - Hurricane Milton

NCES provides interactive maps with detailed information on educational institutions across the United States, including the School Weather Watch - Hurricane Milton.

These maps are accessible via application programming interface (APIs), allowing users to easily integrate these data into their own applications. Available resources identify:

• Private School Locations
• Public School Locations
• Public School District Boundaries
• Postsecondary Institution Locations

Public and Private School Search Tools

• The Elementary/Secondary Information System (ELSI): A web application that enables users to view data and create reports on public and private schools across various metrics.
• Private School Search Tool: Search for private schools by state county, or ZIP Code to access detailed information, including addresses, enrollment numbers, and other key data.
• Public School Search Tool: Find public schools by state, county, or ZIP Code to access detailed information, including addresses, enrollment numbers, and other key data.

Postsecondary and Public School District Lookup Tools

School district boundaries and postsecondary institutions are critical for planning resource allocation and understanding affected regions.

• College Navigator: Search for postsecondary institutions by location, programs offered, and other characteristics.
• Public School District Lookup: Explore district boundaries and access information about schools within those districts.

School District Demographic Information

NCES also provides demographic data for school districts, derived from the American Community Survey. This information helps users understand the populations served by each district and is available through the NCES's School District Demographic Dashboard. Additionally, these data can be accessed through NCES’s ACS-ED Maps.

How These Resources Can Assist

By offering comprehensive, real-time access to school system data, NCES helps emergency planners, local authorities, and relief organizations make informed decisions. Whether assessing potential school closures or identifying facilities for emergency shelters, these tools ensure that educational considerations are integrated into broader response and recovery efforts.

Additional Resources

• U.S. Department of Education's Natural Disaster Resources
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Ready.gov
• NCES's Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) program

By Josue DeLaRosa and Douglas Geverdt, NCES

Note: This post was updated October 12th, 2024, with current link to the School Weather Watch resource.

NCES is pleased to present The Condition of Education 2020, an annual report mandated by the U.S. Congress that summarizes the latest data on education in the United States. This report uses data from across the center and from other sources and is designed to help policymakers and the public monitor educational progress. This year’s report includes 47 indicators on topics ranging from prekindergarten through postsecondary education, as well as labor force outcomes and international comparisons.

The data show that 50.7 million students were enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools (prekindergarten through grade 12) and approximately 5.7 million students were enrolled in private elementary and secondary schools in fall 2017, the most recent year for which data were available. In school year 2017–18, some 85 percent of public high school students graduated on time with a regular diploma. This rate was similar to the previous year’s rate. About 2.2 million, or 69 percent, of those who completed high school in 2018, enrolled in college that fall. Meanwhile, the status dropout rate, or the percentage of 16- to 24-year-olds who were not enrolled in school and did not have a high school diploma or its equivalent, was 5.3 percent in 2018.

Total undergraduate enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary institutions in 2018 stood at 16.6 million students. The average net price of college for first-time, full-time undergraduates attending 4-year institutions was $13,700 at public institutions, $27,000 at private nonprofit institutions, and $22,100 at private for-profit institutions (in constant 2018–19 dollars). In the same year, institutions awarded 1.0 million associate’s degrees, 2.0 million bachelor’s degrees, 820,000 master’s degrees, and 184,000 doctor’s degrees.

Ninety-two percent of 25- to 34-year-olds in the United States had a high school diploma or its equivalent in 2018. In comparison, the average rate for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries was 85 percent. Some 49 percent of these individuals in the United States had obtained a postsecondary degree, compared with the OECD average of 44 percent. Similar to previous years, annual median earnings in 2018 were higher for 25- to 34-year-olds with higher levels of education. In 2018, U.S. 25- to 34-year-olds with a bachelor’s or higher degree earned 66 percent more than those with a high school diploma or equivalent.

The Condition of Education includes an Executive Summary, an At a Glance section, a Reader’s Guide, a Glossary, and a Guide to Sources, all of which provide additional background information. Each indicator includes references to the source data tables used to produce the indicator.

As new data are released throughout the year, indicators will be updated and made available on The Condition of Education website. 

In addition to publishing The Condition of Education, NCES produces a wide range of other reports and datasets designed to help inform policymakers and the public about significant trends and topics in education. More information about the latest activities and releases at NCES may be found on our website or at our social media sites on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

By James L. Woodworth, NCES Commissioner

About 3 percent of the school-age population—around 1.7 million students—was homeschooled in 2016. We know that homeschooled students have different educational experiences than students who are enrolled in public or private schools, and recently released data explore some of those differences.

The Parent and Family Involvement in Education survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) provides information on homeschooled and public and private school students based on a nationally representative sample. Parents provide information about their children’s formal education and learning activities outside of school.

The survey asks about six broad types of family learning activities that students experienced in the month prior to the survey. The 2016 results indicate that homeschooled students were more likely than their peers enrolled in public or private schools to participate in five of these six activities.

In 2016, higher percentages of homeschooled students than of students enrolled in public or private schools visited a library; a bookstore; an art gallery, museum, or historical site; and a zoo or aquarium in the month prior to completion of the survey (figure 1). A higher percentage of homeschooled students also attended an event sponsored by a community, religious, or ethnic group with their parents in the month prior to completion of the survey. The one activity for which there was no measurable difference between homeschooled and students enrolled in public or private schools was going to a play, concert, or other live show.

Figure 1. Percentage of 5- to 17-year-old students participating in selected family learning activities in the past month, by homeschool and enrollment status: 2016

NOTE: Includes 5- to 17-year-old students in grades or grade equivalents of kindergarten through grade 12. Homeschooled students are school-age children who receive instruction at home instead of at a public or private school either all or most of the time. Excludes students who were enrolled in public or private school more than 25 hours per week and students who were homeschooled only because of temporary illness. Selected activities with the child may have included any member of the household.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program (PFI-NHES), 2016.

The NHES data do not tell us why these differences exist, but parents’ availability of time and parenting style may be a factor. However, more research is needed to understand these differences.

A recent report, Homeschooling in the United States: Results from the 2012 and 2016 Parent and Family Involvement Survey (PFI-NHES:2012 and 2016), provides the full complement of data from the NHES about homeschoolers’ experiences in 2016. In addition to family learning activities, the report provides information about the following:
 

• Homeschooler demographics

• Reasons for homeschooling

• Providers of homeschool instruction

• Amount of time homeschoolers spent attending public schools, private schools, or college

• Participation in local homeschool group activities

• Homeschool teaching styles

• Sources of homeschool curriculum and books

• Online coursetaking of homeschool students

• Homeschool subject areas

• Parent expectations of homeschooled students’ future education
   

For more information on the National Household Education Surveys Program, please go to https://nces.ed.gov/nhes/.

By Sarah Grady

By Dana Tofig, Communications Director, Institute of Education Sciences

Much of the data you will find on the NCES website is related to public schools. It makes sense because a majority of students do attend public schools and those schools are required to gather and report a lot of information. Still, NCES does collect a significant amount of information about non-public elementary and secondary schools and a more limited amount of information about homeschooling.

Two recently released NCES reports provide information about other types of educational programs that serve millions of students—private schools and homeschooling. 

Private Schools

Characteristics of Private Schools in the United States provides a first look at data from the 2013-14 Private School Universe Survey, which is conducted every two years to gather information about the schools that approximately 10 percent of elementary and secondary students attend. This report, released on Nov 1, provides a tremendous amount of information, such as the number, type, and religious affiliation of private schools, as well as data about enrollment and programs offered.

The report shows that there were 33,619 private schools in 2013-14, serving 4.6 million students. The majority of these schools—about 69 percent—had a religious affiliation and 68 percent were located either in cities or suburbs, rather than towns or rural areas.

Source: Characteristics of Private Schools in the United States: Results From the 2013-14 Private School Universe Survey: National Center for Education Statistics, November 2016

The new report also provides a look at the percent of seniors who graduate and the subsequent postsecondary enrollment of students in private schools and breaks that information down by a number of categories. In 2012-13, slightly more than a quarter (26 percent) of private schools had students in 12th grade, and the graduation rate at those schools was 97 percent. The graduation rate was highest (99 percent) in schools with 750 or more students and lowest (83 percent) in schools with fewer than 50 students.  

Of 2012-13 private school graduates, 65 percent attended a four-year college by fall 2013, but there was wide variance in that rate by school type and location. For instance, 85 percent of graduates who attended Catholic schools enrolled in college by fall 2013, while the percentage was lower for students who attended other religious private schools (63 percent) and nonsectarian schools (56 percent). The four-year college enrollment rate was higher in schools that were located in the city (69 percent) and suburbs (66 percent) and lower in schools in towns (61 percent) and rural areas (58 percent).

Homeschooling

Homeschooling in the United States: 2012 estimates the number and percentage of homeschooled students in the U.S. in 2012 and compares that with estimates from previous years (1999, 2003, and 2007). It also provides demographic characteristics of homeschoolers and information about the reasons parents chose to homeschool their children and where they get curricular materials. The data come from responses to the Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey that is part of the National Household Education Survey Program.

The report shows that, in 2012, there were approximately 1.8 million students who were homeschooled, representing about 3.4 percent of all students, ages 5-17, enrolled in elementary or secondary grades. Since 1999, the percentage of students who are homeschooled has doubled, with significant increases seen between 1999 and 2003 and 2003 and 2007. 

* - Statistically adjusted

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Parent Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES), 1999; Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the NHES, 2003, 2007, and 2012

When asked why they chose to homeschool their children, 25 percent parents said the most important reason was concern about the environment at other schools, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure. Other parents said the most important reasons were dissatisfaction with the academic instruction at other schools (19 percent) and a desire to provide religious instruction (17 percent). About 21 percent of parents said there were other reasons, such as family time, finances, travel, and distance.

The report also provides information about how parents accessed the curriculum and books they used for homeschooling. Non-retail website and homeschooling catalogs, providers, or specialists were the most reported sources at 77 percent each, followed by the public library (70 percent), and retail bookstores or other stores (69 percent). Other significant sources were education materials were publishers not affiliated with homeschooling (53 percent), homeschooling organization (45 percent), and church, synagogue, or other religious organization (38 percent).