Skip Navigation
Illustration/Logo View Quarterly by  This Issue  |  Volume and Issue  |  Topics
Education Statistics Quarterly
Vol 2, Issue 1, Topic: Elementary and Secondary Education
State Profiles of Public Elementary and Secondary Education: 1996-97
By: Victor Bandeira de Mello and Beth Aronstamm Young
 
This article was excerpted from the Introduction and Wyoming State Profile in the Statistical Analysis Report of the same name. The universe data are primarily from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD). Additional sources of universe and sample survey data are listed at the end of this article.
 
 

Examinations of the status and quality of education in the United States are often based on comparisons among states. Comparisons of this type are most useful, valid, and constructive when states are examined alongside other states with similar characteristics. It is also helpful to have a variety of factors that are important to public education conveniently arrayed for individual states.

State Profiles of Public Elementary and Secondary Education : 1996-97 is the third in a series of publications reporting summary data on the general characteristics, fiscal revenues and expenditures, education agency and school numbers and sizes, and students and staff for each state, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense Dependents Schools (Overseas), and the five outlying areas-American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

The factors for which these data are reported are those most commonly used to present a thumbnail sketch of the resources, needs, organization, and special characteristics of education within a state. When available, equivalent data for the 1987-88 school year are presented side by side with the 1996-97 data to help in the assessment of changes over a 10-year period. This information is displayed in numeric and graphic form to make it useful for a wide range of audiences and purposes.

This report is divided into three major sections:

  • U.S. Profile, summarizing the statistics across the 50 states and the District of Columbia on all variables;
  • Ranking of the States, consisting of a collection of tables depicting the relative position of the various states and the District of Columbia on selected variables; and
  • Profiles of the States and Outlying Areas, providing numeric and graphic information, listed alphabetically with Department of Defense Dependents Schools and the outlying areas appearing after the states.
back to top


The bulk of this report consists of the state-level profiles, each 8 pages long and featuring the same set of tables and figures. (By way of illustration, this article excerpts several examples from the Wyoming profile.) Each profile presents five categories of relevant information:

  • General characteristics: demographic (table A) and fiscal characteristics of the state, as well as the numbers of students, teachers, and public schools.
  • Agency/school information: membership characteristics and sizes of schools and education agencies, grade levels in schools, and proportion of students and schools in different locales (figure A).
  • Student information: the numbers and ethnic backgrounds of students, the numbers of high school completers and dropouts, and achievement levels for students in selected grades (table B).
  • Staff information: the numbers and proportions of instructional, support services, and administrative staff (table C); average student/teacher ratios; salary information; and teacher characteristics.
  • Fiscal information: revenue and expenditure data for elementary and secondary education (table D), as well as federal aid to education under selected programs.

Table A.-Selected demographic data for the state of Wyoming: 1987 and 1996

Table A.- Selected demographic data for the state of Wyoming: 1987 and 1996

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics: Common Core of Data (CCD), school years 1987-88 and 1996-97; and State Profiles of Public Elementary and Secondary Education: 1991-92 (NCES 95-668). (Originally published as the Wyoming "Demographics" table on p. 429 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Figure A.-Percentage distribution of Wyoming public schools and students by type of locale: 1996

Figure A.- Percentage distribution of Wyoming public schools and students by type of locale: 1996

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), school year 1996-97; and State Profiles of Public Elementary and Secondary Education: 1991-92 (NCES 95-668). (Originally published as figure 3 for Wyoming, on p. 431 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Table B.-Mathematics and science achievement levels for 4th- and 8th-graders in Wyoming public schools: 1996

Table B.- Mathematics and science achievement levels for 4th- and 8th-graders in Wyoming public schools: 1996

-Not available.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics: NAEP 1996 Mathematics Report Card for the Nation and the States (NCES 97-488) and NAEP 1996 Science Report Card for the Nation and the States (NCES 97-497). (Originally published as the Wyoming table of achievement levels on p. 433 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Table C.-Number and percentage distribution of educational staff in Wyoming public schools: 1987 and 1996

Table C.- Number and percentage distribution of educational staff in Wyoming public schools: 1987 and 1996

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), school years 1987-88 and 1996-97. (Originally published as the Wyoming "Educational staff" table on p. 434 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Table D.-Revenues and expenditures for public elementary and secondary education in Wyoming: Fiscal years 1987 and 1996

Table D.- Revenues and expenditures for public elementary and secondary education in Wyoming: Fiscal years 1987 and 1996

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics: Common Core of Data (CCD), school year 1996-97; and Digest of Education Statistics: 1991 (NCES 91-697). (Originally published as the Wyoming "Revenues and expenditures" table on p. 436 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

back to top  


Data sources:

NCES: Common Core of Data (CCD), school years 1987-88 and 1996-97; the following editions of the Digest of Education Statistics: 1989 (NCES 89-643), 1990 (NCES 91-660), 1991 (NCES 91-697), 1992 (NCES 92-097), and 1997 (NCES 98-015); State Profiles of Public Elementary and Secondary Education: 1991-92 (NCES 95-668); NAEP 1996 Mathematics Report Card for the Nation and the States (NCES 97-488); NAEP 1996 Science Report Card for the Nation and the States (NCES 97-497); and Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), "Public School Teacher Questionnaire," 1987-88 and 1993-94.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census: (1998) State Population Estimates by Age and Sex: 1980 to 1992 (Current Population Reports, Series P25-1106); (1998) Estimates of the Population of the U.S., Regions, and States by Selected Age Groups and Sex: Annual Time Series, July 1, 1990, to July 1, 1997 ; (1989) 1988 State Government Finance Data, by State ; (1998) 1997 State Government Finance Data, by State (available: http://www.census.gov/govs/www/st97.html ); (1998) Federal Expenditures by State for Fiscal Year 1997 ; and Current Population Survey Supplement (March 1997).

Other: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, (1998) Gross State Product: New Estimates for 1995-96 and Revised Estimates for 1977-94; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, unpublished table prepared January 25, 1999; American Federation of Teachers, (1998) Survey and Analysis of Salary Trends 1997 .

For technical information, see the complete report:

Bandeiro de Mello, V., and Young, B.A. (2000). State Profiles of Public Elementary and Secondary Education: 1996-97 (NCES 2000-304).

Author affiliations: V. Bandeiro de Mello, American Institutes for Research (AIR); B.A. Young, NCES.

For questions about content, contact Lee Hoffman (lee.hoffman@ed.gov).

To obtain the complete report (NCES 2000 - 304), call the toll-free ED Pubs number (877-433-7827), visit the NCES Web Site (http://nces.ed.gov), or contact GPO (202-512-1800).


back to top