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Introduction
This publication provides basic descriptive information about
the 100 largest school districts (ranked by student membership)
in the United States, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of
Defense (overseas) schools and outlying areas (American Samoa,
Guam, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands).
For the sake of simplicity, when discussing characteristics, the
term "nation (or United States)" is used to refer to all 50 states,
the District of Columbia, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department
of Defense (overseas) schools and outlying areas. This is different
from most NCES reports, which only include the 50 states and the
District of Columbia in the United States totals. Almost one in
every four public school students in this nation is served by
one of these 100 districts. They are distinguished from smaller
districts by characteristics in addition to sheer size, such as
average and median school size, pupil-teacher ratios, number of
high school graduates, number of pupils receiving special education
services, and minority enrollment as a proportion of total enrollment.
Information about the characteristics cited above is found in
the fourteen basic tables. Four text tables provide national and
100 largest school district data and precede the basic tables
for the purpose of establishing a meaningful context for the information
on the 100 largest districts. Following the basic tables, appendix A lists the 500 largest school districts with some identifying
information and basic statistical data. Appendix B is an alphabetical list of the 500 districts and their rank
by size. Appendix C provides the
same data as table 1 but for the 1988-1989
school year. Appendix D provides
the number of the 100 largest districts by state. On all basic
tables and appendices, with the exception of appendix B
and D, districts are presented by
decreasing order of size.
Overview of the 100 Largest Districts
In the 1998-1999 school year, there were 16,542 public school
districts, over 92,000 schools and 47.4 million students in public
education in the United States and its outlying areas. There were
2.9 million teachers in the 1998-1999 school year and 2.5 million
high school graduates in the 1997-1998 school year. The 100 largest
school districts made up less than 1 percent of all total public
school districts but served 23 percent of the total public elementary
and secondary school students (table A).
The 100 largest school districts represent 17 percent of schools
and employ 21 percent of all teachers. The 500 largest districts
make up 3 percent of all school districts and serve 20.2 million
students, or 43 percent of the total public elementary and secondary
school student population in the United States.
All of the 100 largest school districts have at least 45,000
students and 25 of these school districts have over 100,000 students.
The largest school district in the country is the New York City
Public Schools, with 1,072,628 students enrolled in 1,162 schools.
(The New York City School District is so large it has more students
than the sixth- through tenth-ranked school districts added together).
The second largest school district is the Los Angeles Unified
School District with 695,885 students in 650 schools (table 1). The New York City and Los Angeles Unified School Districts
are larger in size than twenty-seven states, five outlying areas,
and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Department of Defense (overseas)
schools1.
Ninety-two of the 100 largest districts reported staff by type.
In 88 of those districts, 45 percent or more of their staff were
teachers, and in 4 of these districts over 60 percent were teachers.
At the national level, 52 percent of staff were teachers. Only
16 of the 92 districts that reported staff by type had over 1
percent of their staff assigned to district administration (table 11).
Where Are the 100 Largest School Districts?
The District of Columbia, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico each have
only one school district for the entire jurisdiction, and each
is represented among the 100 largest school districts (table 1). There are 34 states and jurisdictions that contain at
least one of the 100 largest school districts. Two states, Florida
and Texas, each have 14 districts among the 100 largest, California
has 11. Only a few other states have more than one district represented
in the 100 largest: Georgia and Maryland each have 5, Louisiana,
North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia each have 4, Ohio
has 3, and Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and New York
have 2. The following states each have one school district among
the 100 largest: Alabama, Alaska, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin (appendix D).
As expected, these 100 largest districts tend to be in cities
and counties having large populations, with administrative offices
typically located in large cities and their environs. Many of
the districts are in states where the school districts have the
same boundaries as counties. Over 70 percent of these districts
are located in coastal and gulf coast states.
How Do These Districts Compare With the Average
School District?
General Characteristics
By definition, the 100 largest school districts are large, and
when compared to the membership distribution of all school districts,
they are considerably larger than most. In the 1998-1999 school
year, 71 percent of all regular school districts2
had memberships of fewer than 2,500 students while all of the
100 largest school districts had memberships of at least 45,000
students (table 1). Even though only
14 percent of regular school districts had 5,000 or more students,
68 percent (or 2 out of 3) of students were served by these districts
(table B) (see the Methodology section for
a definition of regular districts and schools).
The average school district in the United States has 5.6 schools
compared to the 100 largest school districts, which average 154.1
schools per district (table A). Two of the
largest school districts, New York City Public Schools and the
Puerto Rico Department of Education, have over 1,000 schools (table 1). The 100 largest school districts, on average, serve considerably
more students (108,579 compared to 2,863) and employ more teachers
(5,933 compared to 174) per district than the average school district
in the nation (table A).
School Characteristics
The 100 largest school districts have more students per school
than the average school district, 704.5 compared to 509.8 (table A). In fact, 12 of the 100 largest school districts had an
average regular school3
size of over 1,000 students (table 4).
In addition to larger school sizes, the 100 largest school districts
also have a high mean pupil/teacher ratio, 18.3 to 1 compared
to 16.5 to 1 for the average school district (table A). Among the 100 largest districts, half the schools in the
Jefferson County School District, Kentucky were below the median4
pupil/teacher ratio of 24.0 to 1 and half the schools in the St.
Paul School District, Minnesota were above the median pupil/teacher
ratio with 9.8 to 1 (table 7).
The number of high school graduates as a percentage of all students
in the 100 largest school districts was lower than that of the
average school district: 4 percent of students were graduates
in the 100 largest school districts compared to 5 percent for
the average school district (table A).
Seventy-four of the 100 largest school districts reported Title
I eligible schools and programs. The percentage of Title I eligible
schools in the 74 districts varied widely, from less than 1 to
95 percent. Furthermore, of the 74 districts reporting, a large
number reported that these schools were also Title I school-wide
eligible (table 12).
Student Body Composition
The 100 largest school districts are not homogeneous and certain
student characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, poverty level,
and disability status, vary across the districts.
The 100 largest districts, with 23 percent of the nation's public
school students, served 40 percent of the 18.4 million minority
public school students5.
The proportion of minority students in the 100 largest school
districts is almost double the proportion of minority students
in all public schools. In the 1998-1999 school year, 67 percent
of the students in the 100 largest school districts were minority
students compared to 38 percent of students nationally (table C). In fact, 8 out of the 10 largest school districts had
over 75 percent minority student membership (table 8).
Even with the relatively high minority membership in the 100
largest school districts, 44 of the 100 largest school districts
report 50 percent or more of their students as white, non-Hispanic
(table 9). Of these 44 districts, 11
reported minority representation of less than 25 percent of their
student body (table 8). In 18 of the
100 largest districts, half or more of the membership is black,
non-Hispanic. Ten districts report the majority of students are
Hispanic; 3 of these are among the largest 5 districts. In Hawaii,
which is one district, the majority of the students are Asian/Pacific
Islanders. It is also interesting to note that San Francisco Unified
School District has 49.9 percent Asian/Pacific Islander students
(table 9).
The 100 largest school districts also have a disproportionate
percentage of students eligible for the free lunch program relative
to all public school districts. Among schools that reported free
lunch eligibility, 52 percent of students in the 100 largest school
districts were eligible compared to 38 percent of students in
all districts (table C). Of the 90, 100-largest
school districts that reported data on free lunch, 42 districts
reported over 50 percent of their students eligible for the free
lunch program (table 9).
Twelve percent of students in the 100 largest school districts
had individualized education programs (IEPs) for students with
disabilities. In the largest school district, New York City Public
Schools, 14 percent, or 147,674 students, were reported to have
IEPs (table 3). Only 3 percent of schools
in the 100 largest school districts were special education schools
(table 2).
Revenues and expenditures for fiscal year
19976
In school year 1996-1997, $307 billion dollars were collected
for public elementary and secondary education in the 50 states,
the District of Columbia, and outlying areas: 22 percent ($69
billion) of this revenue went to the 100 largest school districts.
Of the $69 billion revenue to the 100 largest school districts,
a little less than one-third ($20 billion) was received by the
5 largest school districts (New York City Public Schools, Los
Angeles Unified, Puerto Rico Department of Education, City of
Chicago School District, and Dade County School District). The
dollars from the federal government received by 99 of the 100
largest school districts comprised from 2 to 16 percent of all
revenues to the district, the exception was Puerto Rico (28 percent)
(derived from table 10).
The 100 largest school districts spent $60 billion (22 percent)
of the $273 billion in current expenditures spent on the 50 states,
the District of Columbia, and outlying areas in 1996-1997. The
two largest school districts, New York City Public Schools and
Los Angeles Unified, spent one out of every five dollars expended
by the 100 largest school districts. All of the 100 largest school
districts devoted more than 50 percent of their current expenditures
to instruction. Of the 100 largest school districts, New York
City Public Schools spent the greatest proportion, 71 percent,
on instruction.
The current expenditures per pupil were $5,923 for all districts
in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, slightly higher
than the $5,653 in the 100 largest school districts. Of the 100
largest school districts, 15 districts spent more than $7,000
per pupil (with Newark City School District, New Jersey, spending
the most at $11,578 per pupil) and one school district, Puerto
Rico Department of Education, spending less than $3,000 per pupil
(table 10). (See the Methodology section
for a further definition of specific revenues and expenditures).
Changes in the 100 largest school districts
between 1988 and 1998
While there was a lot of movement within the 100 largest school
districts over time, between the 1988-1989 and 1998-1999 school
years, the 100 largest districts remained very similar. Only 10
of the 100 largest districts in the 1998-1999 school year were
not in the 100 largest in the 1988-1989 school year. Clark County
School District in Nevada was the only district to move into the
largest 10 districts between these years (it moved from a rank
of 19 in 1988-1989 to 9 in 1998-1999) (table 1 and appendix C). Clark County
includes the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which was the fastest
growing metropolitan area in the country in the early nineties7.
The number of students in the 100 largest school districts increased
by 16 percent between 1988-1989 and 1998-1999, the number of teachers
increased by 34 percent, and the number of schools increased 9
percent. However, while the numbers of students, teachers and
schools in the 100 largest school districts have increased between
these two years, the proportion of the national total these numbers
comprised was essentially unchanged. For example, the number of
students in the 100 largest school districts went from 23.2 percent
of all districts in 1988-1989 to 22.9 percent in 1998-1999 (table D).
Footnotes
1
State enrollment and staff data can be found in Public School
Student, Staff, and Graduate Counts by State, School Year 1998-99.
The national staff ratio does not include Bureau of Indian Affairs
schools.
2
An agency responsible for providing free public education for
school-age children residing within their jurisdiction. This category
excludes local supervisory unions that provide management services
for a group of associated school districts; regional education
service agencies that typically provide school districts with
research, testing, and data processing services; state and federally
operated school districts; and other agencies that do not fall
into these groupings.
3
A public elementary/secondary school that does not focus primarily
on vocational, special, or alternative education.
4
If all the pupil/teacher ratios were listed in order, the mid-point
on the list would be the median.
5The
numbers of student in different racial/ethnic categories are reported
at the school level and are aggregated up to the school district
level. The national figure was calculated by taking the percent
of minority students among those districts that reported race/ethnicity
(99.2 percent of districts) and applying this to the total number
of public school students.
6
National revenue and expenditure data were calculated from the
state-level National Public Education Finance Survey (NPEFS) and
can be found in Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary
and Secondary Education: School Year 1996-97. The percentage distribution
was based on school district level data found on the F-33 survey.
Department of Defense and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools are
not included in these national totals.
7
U.S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United
States, 1997 (117th edition) Washington, DC, 1997.
Author:
Beth Aronstamm Young
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