Selected Findings: School Year 2005–06

• Public elementary and secondary schools had 49.1 million students in membership in school year 2005–06 (table 1). This was an increase of 1 percent from the 48.8 million students in membership in school year 2004–05 (Sable and Hill 2006, table 1).
• In the 2005–06 school year, 34.3 million students (69.9 percent of all students) were enrolled in prekindergarten through grade 8 and ungraded classes; 14.8 million students (30.1 percent of all students) were enrolled in grades 9–12 (derived from table 1).
• When examining students for whom race/ethnicity was reported in the 2005–06 school year,⁴ 57.1 percent were White, non-Hispanic; 19.8 percent were Hispanic; 17.2 percent were Black, non-Hispanic; 4.6 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander; and 1.2 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native (derived from table 2). The percentage of students who were White, non-Hispanic decreased from 57.9 percent for White, non-Hispanic students in school year 2004–05 (Sable and Hill 2006, derived from table 3).
• Almost 2.8 million students were awarded a high school diploma in the 2004–05 school year and following summer (table 3). An additional 54,012 received another high school completion credential.⁵
• The averaged freshman graduation rate (AFGR), an estimate of the percentage of high school students who graduate on time (i.e., within 4 years), was 74.7 in school year 2004–05 (table 4).⁶ The AFGR ranged from 85.1 percent or more in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin to 64.1 percent or less in Alaska, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, and South Carolina.
• In school year 2005–06, public elementary and secondary schools and local education agencies employed a total of 6.1 million FTE staff (table 5). This was an increase of 1 percent from the number of FTE staff employed in school year 2004–05 (Sable and Hill 2006, table 4).
• Of the FTE staff in the 2005–06 school year, 51.2 percent were teachers, 14.7 percent were instructional aides, instructional coordinators and supervisors, guidance counselors, or librarians, 23.2 percent were student and other support staff, and 10.8 percent were school administrators, school district administrators, and administrative support staff (derived from table 5).
• The average student/teacher ratio in public schools in school year 2005–06 was 15.7 (i.e., there were about 16 students for every FTE teacher employed) (table 6). The ratio ranged from a high of 22.1 in Utah to a low of 10.7 in Rhode Island. The average elementary student/teacher ratio was 19.4, while the average secondary student/teacher ratio was 12.9.

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