• The Early Estimates System
• Highlights

The early estimates system is designed to allow the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to publish selected key statistics during the school year in which they are reported. The source of universe statistical information about public elementary and secondary education is The Common Core of Data (CCD)—data collected annually by NCES from state education agencies. The estimates included in this report were reported in December 1999 for the 1999-2000 school year.^*

In early October 1999, survey forms were sent to each state education agency. States were asked to complete the form and return it by mail or facsimile (fax). States that had not responded by mid-November were contacted by telephone. All data were checked for reasonableness against prior years' reports, and follow-up calls were made to resolve any questions. When states did not supply a data item, NCES estimated a value. These values are footnoted in the tables. If one or more states required an estimated number, then the national total for that item is marked as estimated. Any state early estimate that indicated a change of greater than 10 percentage points more or less than the national growth rate was replaced with an adjusted early estimate.

Forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, and two outlying areas participated in the 1999-2000 "Early Estimates of Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey." The estimates reported here were provided by state education agencies and represent the best information on public elementary and secondary schools available to states at this stage of the school year. They are, however, subject to revision. All estimates for the two nonreporting states and the three outlying areas were calculated by NCES. (California, New Jersey, Guam, and Puerto Rico did not return the completed survey form. American Samoa's survey form was received after the cut-off date.) NCES also estimated missing data items for a number of reporting states.

The tables in this publication include three kinds of data. "Reported" data are previously published figures. "Preliminary" data have not been published previously by NCES; for these, data collection is complete, and processing and data adjustments are through all but the final stage of review. "Estimated" data are those for the current (1999-2000) school year.

Estimated data for the current school year are of three types: estimates derived by the states for NCES (most of the data are of this type); preliminary actual counts reported by individual states; and estimated values developed by NCES using a combination of state-specific and national data.

The estimates in this publication are key statistics reported during the 1999-2000 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. Highlights of these statistics include the following:

• There were approximately 46.8 million prekindergarten through grade 12 students in the nation's public elementary and secondary schools in fall 1999, compared with 46.5 million in fall 1998. Student membership has increased by 1.9 million since fall 1995 (table 1).
• Public school students were taught by an estimated 2.9 million teachers in school year 1999-2000 (table 2).
• The student membership and teacher count data show a pupil-to-teacher ratio of 16.2 for grades prekindergarten through 12 for public schools in school year 1999-2000 (table 7).
• An estimated 2.5 million public school students graduated from high school in the 1998-99 school year. In the 1999-2000 school year, 2.6 million students are expected to graduate from high school (table 3).
• Revenues for public elementary and secondary education in fiscal year (FY) 1999 are estimated to be $337.0 billion, and they are expected to rise to approximately $354.4 billion in FY 2000 (table 4).
• Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education for FY 2000 are estimated to be $308.0 billion, an increase of 3.3 percent over the FY 1999 estimate of $298.2 billion. The per pupil expenditure is anticipated to be $6,585 per student in membership for the 1999-2000 school year (tables 6 and 7).

Table 1.—Student membership in public elementary and secondary schools, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: Fall 1995 to Fall 1999

Table 2.—Number of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12:

School years 1995-96 to 1999-2000

Table 3.—Number of public high school graduates, by state: School years 1995-96 to 1999-2000

Table 4.—Revenues for public elementary and secondary education, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: Fiscal years 1996 to 2000 (School years 1995-96 to 1999-2000) (In thousands of dollars)

Table 5.—Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: Fiscal years 1996 to 2000 (School years 1995-96 to 1999-2000) (In thousands of dollars)

Table 6.—Preliminary student membership and number of teachers, and estimates of revenues, expenditures, and pupil/teacher ratio, for public elementary and secondary schools, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: School year 1998-99/Fiscal year 1999

Table 7.—Estimated student membership, number of teachers, revenues, expenditures, and pupil/teacher ratio, for public elementary and secondary schools, by state, for grades prekindergarten through 12: School year 1999-2000/Fiscal year 2000