• Introduction
• Selected Findings

This report presents information about public elementary and secondary education for the 2002–03 school year. The data were provided by state education agencies through the Common Core of Data (CCD) survey system. Discussion of data is limited to the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and excludes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Defense schools, and five outlying areas: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. (Note that tables include data for all jurisdictions.)

More than 48.2 million students were enrolled in public schools in 2002–03. Among the states with the largest number of students in membership were California (6.4 million); Texas (4.3 million); and Florida, Illinois, and New York, which each reported more than 2 million students. The total 2002–03 student membership was an increase of 5.4 million, or 13 percent more students than in 1992–93 (table A).

Approximately 6.4 million students, or 13 percent of the total membership, had special education individualized education programs (IEPs) and received special education services in 2002–03 (table B). English language learner (ELL) services were provided to 4 million students (8 percent of all students), and 16.4 million (34 percent) were eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

A total of 2.6 million students were awarded a high school diploma in 2001-02, and an additional 45,000 received a certificate of completion or comparable credential (table C).

The average student/teacher ratio in 2002–03 was 15.9, or about 16 students for every teacher employed. This was a decrease from the pupil/teacher ratio of 17.4 in 1992–93 (derived from table A). In 2002–03, California, Oregon, and Utah had student/teacher ratios of more than 20 to 1.

Overall, public education employed almost 6 million full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions in 2002–03 (table D). More than 3 million of these were teachers and 664,000 were teacher aides. These instructional staff accounted for 62 percent of the reported personnel. School and school district administrators accounted for 4 percent of all staff.

More than 92,000 public schools had students in membership during 2002–03. Of these schools, 57 percent were primary schools, 17 percent were middle schools, and 19 percent were high schools. An additional 6 percent of schools had some other grade configuration.

The average number of students in primary schools was 439 in 2002–03, in middle schools it was 617, and in high schools 754. In Florida, Hawaii, and Maryland, the average-size high school had more than 1,200 students.

In 2002–03, almost 13 percent of all public schools were in large cities. Another 29 percent were located in rural areas. The remaining 59 percent of schools were in midsize cities, urban fringes, or towns.

Across the states that reported these school characteristics, there were almost 50,000 Title I eligible schools in 2002–03 and these schools accounted for about 50 percent of all students. There were close to 2,600 charter schools. About 45 percent were administered directly by public school districts that also included noncharter schools, and 55 percent were administered by exclusively charter districts.

Not all local education agencies in 2002–03 were regular school districts. While 83 percent of local agencies were in this category, another 8 percent provided other services (e.g., administration, staff development) to local school districts. The remaining 8 percent of agencies were state- or federally administered, or charter school, districts.

Table A. Public school student membership and number of teachers: United States and other jurisdictions, school years 1992–93 and 2002–03

¹ U.S. totals include the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

²Includes prekindergarten data imputed based on current-year (fall 2002) data.

³ California did not report the number of ungraded teachers, and the total number of teachers in California is therefore underestimated.

⁴ Data imputed based on prior-year (fall 2001) data.

⁵ Data disaggregated from reported total.

NOTE: Teacher counts are full-time-equivalency (FTE) counts.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), “State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education,” 1992–93, Version 1c; and “State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education,” 2002–03, Version 1a. (Originally published as table 2 on pp. 5–6 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Table B. Number and percentage of public school students participating in selected programs: United States and other jurisdictions, school year 2002–03

¹ Migrant students include those who were enrolled at any time during the previous (2001–02) regular school year. They are reported for each school in which they enrolled; because this is a duplicated count, the table does not show migrants as a percentage of all students.

² Reporting states total includes the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It is suppressed if data were missing for 15 percent or more of all schools or agencies. State totals exclude states for which data were missing for 20 percent or more of the schools or agencies.

³ Data were missing for more than 20 percent of schools or districts.

NOTE: IEP is the acronym for individualized education program. ELL is the acronym for English language learner. Some data items were more likely to be missing from charter schools than from other schools. Free lunch data were missing for 459 of 2,575 charter schools in the 50 states and District of Columbia, and migrant student data were missing for 417. Data on ELL students were missing for 248 of the total 1,241 operational charter school districts in the 50 states and District of Columbia. Percentages are based on schools and agencies reporting. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), “Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey,” 2002–03, Version 1a; and “Local Education Agency Universe Survey,” 2002–03, Version 1a. (Originally published as table 3 on pp. 7–8 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Table C. Number of public high school completers, by type of completion: United States and other jurisdictions, school year 2001–02

† Not applicable.

¹Includes individuals who receive certificates of attendance or some other credential in lieu of diplomas. Total other high school completers does not include New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Wisconsin.

² Includes recipients ages 19 or younger, except in Minnesota, where they are ages 20 or younger.

³ U.S. totals include the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

⁴ Data imputed based on prior-year (fall 2001) data.

⁵ Number was withheld from publication because the number of completers exceeded 12th-grade membership in 2001–02.

NOTE: High school completer categories may include students not included in 12th-grade membership in the 2001–02 school year.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), “State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education,” 2002–03, Version 1a. (Originally published as table 4 on pp. 9–10 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

View:

• Table D. Number of staff employed by public elementary and secondary school systems and percentage of total staff, by category: United States and other jurisdictions, school year 2002–03