Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 2003–04
NCES 2006-329
September 2006


Table 1.  Selected statistics for the United States and jurisdictions and the 100 largest and 500 largest school districts: School year 2003–04
 
100 largest districts 500 largest districts
Data item National total Total Percent of
national total
  Total Percent of
national total
Districts1  17,512 100 0.6 500 2.9
Schools  98,213 16,178 16.5 31,315 31.9
Students  49,349,550 11,280,667 22.9 21,313,480 43.2
Teachers (full-time equivalent)  3,102,832 672,174 21.7 1,262,896 40.7
High school completers (2002–03)2  2,808,662 551,581 19.6 1,077,578 38.4
 
Median pupil/teacher ratio3  15.2 15.8 16.1
Average school size  502.5 697.3 680.6
† Not applicable.
1 Totals for number of districts may differ from published estimates since they exclude closed, inactive, and future school districts.
2 Includes high school diploma recipients as well as other high school completers (e.g., certificates of attendance). Total may differ from other published estimates due to inclusion of Puerto Rico, the outlying areas, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Department of Defense schools.
3 Includes only schools where student membership was greater than zero. The median is given because it is unaffected by very high or very low values.
NOTE: The universe for this table includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, four outlying areas (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands), the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Department of Defense schools. The 500 largest school districts include 20 school districts that are some other configuration besides prekindergarten (PK) or K–12, although all of the 100 largest school districts are PK or K–12.
SOURCE: Data reported by states to U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Local Education Agency Universe Survey," 2002–03, Version 1b, and "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," 2003–04, Version 1a.

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