is a degree granted for the successful completion of a subbaccalaureate program of studies, usually requiring at least 2 years (or equivalent) of full-time college-level study. This includes degrees granted in a cooperative or work-study program.
average daily attendance (ADA)
is the aggregate attendance of a school during a reporting period (normally a school year) divided by the number of days school is in session during this period. Only days on which the pupils are under the guidance and direction of teachers should be considered days in session.
bachelor's degree
is a degree granted for the successful completion of a baccalaureate program of studies, usually requiring at least 4 years (or equivalent) of full-time college-level study. This includes degrees granted in a cooperative or work-study program.
Carnegie unit
is the standard of measurement that represents one credit for the completion of a 1-year course.
civilian labor force
comprises the total of all civilians classified as employed or unemployed in accordance with the criteria described below. Members of the armed forces stationed either in the United States or abroad are included in the "labor force" (see below), but not in the civilian labor force.
college
is a postsecondary school which offers general or liberal arts education, usually leading to an associate, bachelor's, master's, doctoral, or first-professional degree. Junior colleges and community colleges are included under this terminology.
constant dollars
are dollar amounts that have been adjusted by means of price and cost indices to eliminate inflationary factors and allow direct comparison across years. Constant dollars are expressed in two ways in this publication: 1) according to calendar year and 2) according to school year.
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
is a price index that measures the average change in the cost of a fixed market basket of goods and services purchased by consumers.
consumer unit
is defined as either: (1) all members of a particular household who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or other legal arrangements; (2) a person living alone or sharing a household with others or living as a roomer in a private home or lodging house or in permanent living quarters in a hotel or motel, but who is financially independent; or (3) two or more persons living together who pool their income to make joint expenditure decisions. Financial independence is determined by the three major expense categories: Housing, food, and other living expenses. To be considered financially independent, at least two of the three major expense categories have to be provided by the respondent.
current dollars
are dollar amounts that have not been adjusted to compensate for inflation.
current expenditures
(elementary/secondary) are the expenditures for operating local public schools excluding capital outlay and interest on school debt. These expenditures include such items as salaries for school personnel, fixed charges, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs. Beginning in 1980-81, expenditures for state administration are excluded.
doctoral degree
is an earned degree carrying the title of Doctor. The Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) is the highest academic degree and requires mastery within a field of knowledge and demonstrated ability to perform scholarly research. Other doctorates are awarded for fulfilling specialized requirements in professional fields, such as education (Ed.D.), musical arts (D.M.A.), business administration (D.B.A.), and engineering (D.Eng. or D.E.S.). Many doctoral degrees in academic and professional fields require an earned master's degree as a prerequisite. First professional degrees, such as M.D. and D.D.S., are not included under this heading.
dropouts
are persons who are not enrolled in school and who have not completed high school. People who have received high school equivalency credentials are counted as having completed high school.
educational attainment
is the highest grade of regular school attended and completed.
elementary school
is a school classified as elementary by state and local practice and composed of any span of grades not above grade 8. A preschool or kindergarten school is included under this heading only if it is an integral part of an elementary school or a regularly established school system.
employment
refers to the activities of civilian, noninstitutional persons who (1) worked during any part of the survey week as paid employees; worked in their own business, profession, or farm; or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in a family-owned enterprise; or (2) were not working but had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent due to illness, bad weather, vacation, labor-management dispute, or personal reasons, whether or not they were seeking another job.
enrollment
is the total number of students registered in a given school unit at a given time, generally in the fall of a year.
expenditures
are charges incurred, whether paid or unpaid, which are presumed to benefit the current fiscal year. For elementary/ secondary schools, these include all charges for current outlays plus capital outlays and interest on school debt. For institutions of higher education, these include current outlays plus capital outlays. For government, these include charges net of recoveries and other correcting transactions other than for retirement of debt, investment in securities, extension of credit, or as agency transactions. Government expenditures include only external transactions, such as the provision of perquisites or other payments in kind. Aggregates for groups of governments exclude intergovernmental transactions among the governments.
expenditures per pupil
are charges incurred for a particular period of time divided by a student unit of measure, such as fall enrollment.
extracurricular activities
are activities that are not part of the required curriculum and that take place outside of the regular course of study. As used here, they include both school-sponsored (e.g., varsity athletics, drama and debate clubs) and community-sponsored (e.g., hobby clubs and youth organizations like the Junior Chamber of Commerce or Boy Scouts) activities.
family
is a group of two persons or more (one of whom is the householder, see below) related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together; all such persons (including related subfamily members) are considered as members of one family. Beginning with the 1980 Current Population Survey (CPS), members of unrelated subfamilies (referred to in the past as secondary families) are not included in the count of family members.
family household
is a household maintained by a householder who is in a family (as defined above), and includes any unrelated people (unrelated subfamily members and/or secondary individuals) who may be residing there. The number of family households is equal to the number of families. The count of family household members differs from the count of family members, however, in that the family household members include all people living in the household, whereas family members include only the householder and his/ her relatives.
first-professional degree
is a degree that signifies both completion of the academic requirements for beginning practice in a given profession and a level of professional skill beyond that normally required for a bachelor's degree. This degree usually is based on a program requiring at least 2 academic years of work prior to entrance and a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete the degree program, including both prior-required college work and the professional program itself. By NCES definition, first-professional degrees are awarded in the fields of dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.), medicine (M.D.), optometry (O.D.), osteopathic medicine (D.O.), pharmacy (D.Phar.), podiatric medicine (D.P.M.), veterinary medicine (D.V.M.), chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.), law (J.D.), and theological professions (M.Div. or M.H.L.).
full-time enrollment
The number of students enrolled in higher education courses with total credit load equal to at least 75 percent of the normal full-time course load.
higher education
is study beyond secondary school at an institution that offers programs terminating in an associate, bachelor's, or higher degree.
high school
is a secondary school offering the final years of school work necessary for graduation, usually including grades 10, 11, 12 (in a 6-3-3 plan) or grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 (in a 6-2-4 plan).
household
consists of all the persons who occupy a housing unit. A house, an apartment or other group of rooms, or a single room, is regarded as a housing unit when it is occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters, that is, when the occupants do not live and eat with any other person in the structure and there is direct access from the outside or through a common hall.
A household includes the related family members and all the unrelated persons, if any, such as lodgers, foster children, wards, or employees who share the housing unit. A person living alone in a housing unit, or a group of unrelated persons sharing a housing unit as partners, is also counted as a household. The count of households excludes group quarters.
householder
refers to the person (or one of the people) in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented (maintained) or, if there is no such person, any adult member, excluding roomers, boarders, or paid employees. If the housing unit is owned or rented jointly by a married couple, the householder may be either the husband or the wife. The person designated as the householder is the "reference person" to whom the relationship of all other household members, if any, is recorded. Prior to 1980, the husband was always considered the householder in married-couple households. The number of householders is equal to the number of households. Also, the number of family householders is equal to the number of families.
labor force
includes persons employed as civilians, unemployed (but looking for work), or as members of the armed forces, (see below) during survey week. The "civilian labor force" (see above) comprises all civilians classified as employed or unemployed.
labor force participation rate
epresents the proportion of the noninstitutionalized population (see below) that is in the labor force. The civilian labor force participation rate is the ratio of the civilian labor force to the civilian noninstitutional population.
married couple
is defined for census purposes as a husband and wife enumerated as members of the same household. The married couple may or may not have children living with them. The expression "married-couple" before the term "household," "family," or "subfamily" indicates that the household, family, or subfamily is maintained by a husband and wife. The number of married couples equals the count of married-couple families plus related and unrelated married-couple subfamilies.
master's degree
is a degree awarded for successful completion of a program generally requiring 1 or 2 years of full-time college-level study beyond the bachelor's degree. One type of master's degree, including the Master of Arts degree, or M.A., and the Master of Science degree, or M.S., is awarded in the liberal arts and sciences for advanced scholarship in a subject field or discipline and demonstrated ability to perform scholarly research. A second type of master's degree is awarded for the completion of a professionally oriented program, for example, an M.Ed. in education, an M.B.A. in business administration, an M.F.A. in fine arts, an M.M. in music, an M.S.W. in social work, and an M.P.A. in public administration. A third type of master's degree is awarded in professional fields for study beyond the first-professional degree, for example, the Master of Laws (L.L.M.) and Master of Science in various medical specializations.
median
is the measure of central tendency that occupies the middle position in a rank order of values. It generally has the same number of items above it as below it. If there is an even number of items in the group, the median is taken to be the average of the middle two items.
nonfamily householder
is a person maintaining a household alone or with nonrelatives only.
noninstitutional population
refers to all those who are not inmates of an institution such as a home, school, hospital, or ward for the physically or mentally handicapped; a hospital or ward for mental, tubercular, or chronic disease patients; a home for unmarried mothers; a nursing, convalescent, or rest home for the aged and dependent; an orphanage; or a correctional institution.
nonresident alien
is a person who is not a citizen of the United States and who is in this country on a temporary basis and does not have the right to remain indefinitely.
own children
in a family are sons and daughters, including stepchildren and adopted children, of the householder. Similarly, "own" children in a subfamily are sons and daughters of the married couple or parent in the subfamily. The counts include never-married children living away from home in college dormitories.
part-time enrollment
is the number of students enrolled in higher education courses with a total credit load less than 75 percent of the normal full-time credit load.
poverty
is based on a definition developed by the Social Security Administration in 1964 and revised in 1969 and 1981. The poverty index provides a range of income cutoffs adjusted by such actors as family size, sex of the family head, and number of children under 18 years old. The poverty thresholds rise each year by the same percentage as the annual average Consumer Price Index.
pupil/teacher ratio
is the enrollment of pupils at a given period of time, divided by the fulltime-equivalent number of classroom teachers serving these pupils during the same period.
racial/ethnic group
is classification indicating general racial or ethnic heritage based on selfidentification, as in data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau or on observer identification, as in data collected by the Office for Civil Rights. These categories are in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget standard classification scheme presented below:
White
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East. Normally excludes persons of Hispanic origin except for tabulations produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, which are noted accordingly in this volume.
Black
A person having origins in any of the black racial groups in Africa. Normally excludes persons of Hispanic origin except for tabulations produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, which are noted accordingly in this volume.
Hispanic
A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
Asian or Pacific Islander
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, or the Pacific Islands. This area includes, for example, China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippine Islands, and Samoa.
American Indian or Alaska Native
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North America and maintaining cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community recognition.
resident population
includes civilian population and armed forces personnel residing within the United States. It excludes armed forces personnel residing overseas.
salary
is the total amount regularly paid or stipulated to be paid to an individual, before deductions, for personal services rendered while on the payroll of a business or organization.
secondary school
is a school comprising any span of grades beginning with the next grade following an elementary or middle school (usually 7, 8, or 9) and ending with or below grade 12. Both junior high schools and senior high schools are included.
subfamily or related subfamily
is a married couple with or without children, or one parent with one or more own single (never-married) children under 18 years old, living in a household and related to, but not including, the person or couple who maintains the household. The most common example of a related subfamily is a young married couple sharing the home of the husband's or wife's parents. The number of related subfamilies is not included in the count of families.
total expenditure per student in fall enrollment
includes all expenditures allocable to per pupil costs divided by fall enrollment. These allocable expenditures include current expenditures for regular school programs, interest on school debt, and capital outlay. Beginning in 1980-81, expenditures for state administration are excluded.
unemployed
refers to civilians who had no employment but were available for work, and (1) had engaged in any specific job seeking activity within the past 4 weeks; (2) were waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off; or (3) were waiting to report to a new wage or salary job within 30 days.
unemployment rate
represents the number unemployed as a percent of the civilian labor force (see above).
unrelated subfamily
is a group of two persons or more who are related to each other by birth, marriage, or adoption, but who are not related to the householder. The unrelated subfamily may include persons such as guests, roomers, boarders, or resident employees and their relatives living in a household. The number of unrelated subfamily members is included in the number of household members but is not included in the count of family members.
vocational education
refers to organized educational programs, services, and activities which are directly related to the preparation of individuals for paid or unpaid employment, or for additional preparation for a career, requiring other than a baccalaureate or advanced degree.