• Introduction
• Characteristics of Public Schools and Agencies
• Public School Students and Outcomes
• Public School Staff
• School District Revenues and Expenditures

This report provides information about the organization, students, staff, and financial resources of public elementary and secondary education agencies and schools in the United States during the 1995-96 school year. The purpose is to make this information widely available through a comprehensive set of tables and summary text.

The information is taken from the Common Core of Data (CCD) survey system. The CCD consists of data provided voluntarily each year by the education agencies of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (overseas), and five outlying areas.¹

The CCD surveys include the "Public Elementary/ Secondary School Universe Survey" and "Local Education Agency Universe Survey," which are the major focus of this report. Data from the CCD "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education" and "National Public Education Financial Survey" also are used in the analyses, as is finance information from the CCD "School District Financial Survey (Form F-33)," collected through the U.S. Bureau of the Census' "Annual Survey of Government Finances: School Systems."

During the 1995-96 school year, there were more than 16,000 local education agencies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and almost 15,000 of these were regular school districts directly responsible for providing free public education to pupils in their jurisdictions (figure A). These education agencies administered more than 87,000 public schools. Most of these, some 81,000, were regular schools. About 1,000 others were vocational schools, 2,000 were special education schools, and approximately 3,000 were reported as other or alternative school types.

The 15 years preceding the 1995-96 school year saw a 10 percent increase in the number of public school students (table A). At the same time, the average size of districts and schools² increased by 17 and 8 percent, respectively, while the average pupil/teacher ratio decreased by 1.4 pupils.

Three out of 10 public schools enrolled fewer than 300 children in 1995-96. About 2 out of 5 schools were in towns or rural communities; these schools tended to be relatively small, and enrolled only about 1 out of 4 students (figure B). About one-third of public school students were found in the schools of large or mid-size cities.

About half of public school students (51 percent) were enrolled in primary schools, 20 percent were in middle schools, and 27 percent were in high schools. Only 3 per-cent were in schools of some other grade configuration (including ungraded schools).

Overall, middle schools were slightly larger than high schools and considerably larger than primary schools. The median size of a primary school in 1995-96 was 428 students; that of a middle school, 567 students; and a high school, 539. Schools that represented some other grade configuration tended to be much smaller, with half reporting fewer than 167 students.

Figure A.-Types and numbers of local education agencies and schools: School year 1995-96

Table A.-Numbers of education agencies, schools, and students: 1980-81 and 1995-96

Figure B.-Percentage of schools and students in different locales: School year 1995-96

There were about 45 million public school students in 1995-96. Of these, two-thirds were white, non-Hispanic. About 1 in 6 was black, non-Hispanic, and 1 in 7 was Hispanic. Among the 40 states that reported the number of students eligible for the federal Free Lunch Program, 23 states reported free-lunch data for schools in large cities. In 10 of these 23 states, half or more of the students in the large-city school districts were eligible.

Almost 2.3 million students received a regular high school diploma in 1995-96. Among the 29 states reporting drop-outs, two-thirds had a dropout rate of under 5 percent across grades 9-12. However, the dropout rate among Hispanic students was 10 percent or more in 11 reporting states.

The almost 2.6 million teachers reported in 1995-96 accounted for more than half of the almost 5 million local public education employees (figure C). When instructional aides and all library and media staff are added to this figure, almost two-thirds of all employees provided direct instructional services to students. Another 1.3 million personnel delivered student support services such as guidance counseling, and health, attendance, food, and transportation services. The approximately 170,000 school and school district administrators made up about 3 percent of the education staff reported.

The smallest districts (those with fewer than 2,500 students) tended to have fewer teachers for each administrator and more teachers for each student support staff member than the largest districts (those with 25,000 or more students). Thus, among the 34 states that had districts in both the largest and smallest size categories, 47 percent of states reported average teacher/administrator ratios of less than 12 to 1 for their smallest districts, while only 12 percent of states reported ratios this small for their largest districts. Conversely, 41 percent of states reported teacher/support staff ratios of less than 1.5 to 1 for their largest districts, while only 20 percent reported ratios this small for their smallest districts.

Figure C.-Public education elementary and secondary staff totals: School year 1995-96

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," 1995-96. (Originally published as figure I on p. 46 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Revenues and current expenditures varied by state and by school district size. In 1994-95, 31 states reported that they had districts with fewer than 12,500 students as well as districts with at least 25,000 students. In about three-fifths of these states, average per pupil revenues and expenditures were higher in the school districts serving at least 25,000 students than in those serving fewer than 12,500 students. However, the highest amounts reported were not in the districts with at least 25,000 students. Expenditures in these large districts ranged from more than $8,000 per pupil in two reporting states to less than $3,500 per pupil in one state. In districts with fewer than 12,500 students, however, the range was from more than $9,000 in two reporting states to less than $4,000 in four states.