How Did the 100 Largest School Districts Compare With All School Districts?

General Characteristics

In the 2004–05 school year, each of the 100 largest school districts had at least 46,711 students, whereas 72 percent of all regular school districts had fewer than 2,500 students (tables 3 and A-1). However, these smaller districts served only 17 percent of all students; 83 percent of students were enrolled in districts of 2,500 or more students (table 3).

The average school district in the United States and jurisdictions had 5.6 schools; in comparison, the 100 largest school districts averaged 163.3 schools per district (derived from table 1). Two of the three largest districts—New York City Public Schools, New York, and the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico—each had over 1,200 schools (table A-1).

School Characteristics

Average regular school⁵ size ranges from a low of 376 students (in District of Columbia Public Schools, District of Columbia) to a high of 1,369 (in Gwinnett County School District, Georgia) in the 100 largest school districts in the 2004–05 school year (table A-2). The largest regular school in the 100 largest districts, and also one of the three largest regular schools in the United States, was the 5,213 student Belmont Senior High, Los Angeles Unified District, California.⁶

The 100 largest school districts had more students per school than the average school district (702 vs. 518) (table 1). Thirteen of the 100 largest school districts had an average regular school size of over 1,000 students (table A-2). In addition to larger school sizes, the 100 largest school districts also had a higher median pupil/teacher ratio than the average school district (16.2 to 1 vs. 15.5 to 1) (table 1). Among the 100 largest public school districts for which data were available, Jordan School District, Utah, had the highest median pupil/teacher ratio in regular schools (24.8 to 1) and Boston School District, Massachusetts, had the smallest (12.5 to 1) (table A-3). The median pupil/teacher ratio for regular primary schools in the 100 largest districts was lower than that for high schools (16.0 to 1 vs. 18.0 to 1).

Of the 16,016 schools with membership in the 100 largest public school districts, 10,033 were primary schools, 2,477 were middle schools, 2,322 were high schools, and 1,184 were schools with other instructional levels (table A-4). The Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico—which had the most schools with membership in total—had the largest number of primary (881), middle schools (226), and other instructional level (223) schools of the 100 largest public school districts, whereas New York City Public Schools, New York, had the largest number of high schools (186) and the second largest number of primary (702), middle (199), and other instructional level (104) schools.

School staff. At the national level, 51 percent of staff were teachers (Sable and Hill 2006),⁷ while in the 99 of the 100 largest districts for which data were available 52 percent of staff were teachers (table A-5). Fifty-eight of these 99 districts reported that 50 percent or more of staff were teachers, and 5 districts reported that 60 percent or more of staff were teachers (these districts were City of Chicago School District, Illinois; Clark County School District, Nevada; Greenville County School District, South Carolina; Washoe County School District, Nevada; and San Francisco Unified, California). Twenty of these 99 school districts had 1 percent or more of their staff assigned as LEA administrators.⁸

Title I participation. The percentage of Title I eligible schools in these districts ranged from 5.7 percent (Jordan School District, Utah) to 99.2 percent (in Cleveland City School District, Ohio) (table A-6). Within the 97 largest school districts for which data were available, 54 percent of students attended a Title I eligible school, compared to 50 percent of students nationally (Sable and Hill 2006).

Magnet schools and charter schools. The largest number of magnet schools among the 62 districts that reported data on magnet schools or reported that magnet schools did not exist in that state was in the City of Chicago School District, with 299 magnet schools (or 47 percent of its schools and 51 percent of its students in magnet schools). In the 2004–05 school year, there were 707 charter schools administered by the 97 of the 100 largest school districts that had legislation authorizing charter schools (table A-7). This number does not include charter schools that are independent of the school district.⁹ Two percent of the students in these districts attended one of these charter schools. In the 50 states and the District of Columbia, there were 3,294 charter schools, including both independent and dependent charter schools, attended by 2 percent of students in 2004–05 (Sable and Hill 2006). The largest number of charter schools administered by a district (120) was in the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico, followed by Los Angeles Unified, California (68 charter schools) (table A-7).

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Student Body

Overall, the 100 largest school districts in 2004–05 had 23 percent of the United States and jurisdictions' public school students (table 1). The 100 largest school districts were not homogeneous, and certain student characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, poverty level, and disability status, varied across the districts.

Race/ethnicity. American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asians/Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, non-Hispanic Blacks, and non-Hispanic Whites are the five racial/ethnic groups about which the CCD collects data. In 65 of the 95 districts among the 100 largest districts for which racial/ethnic data were available, non-Hispanic Whites comprised less than 50 percent of student membership (table A-8). These 95 school districts served 37 percent of the 21.4 million public school students in the United States and jurisdictions who are other than White, non-Hispanic, compared to serving 12 percent of the 28.2 million students in the U.S. and jurisdictions who are White, non-Hispanic (derived from tables 1 and 2).¹⁰ In more than one-third (35) of the 95 districts for which racial/ethnic data were available, students who were other than White, non-Hispanic comprised more than 75 percent of the student membership (table A-8). In the 9 of the 10 largest school districts for which racial/ethnic data were available, 7 districts had other than White, non-Hispanic student membership of at least this size.

Even with the relatively high other than White, non-Hispanic membership in the 100 largest school districts, 30 of the 95 districts with racial/ethnic data reported 50 percent or more of their students as White, non-Hispanic (table A-8). In 6 of these 30 districts, at least 75 percent of students were White, non-Hispanic. In 15 of the 95 districts, half or more of the membership was Black, non-Hispanic. Twenty districts reported that the majority of students were Hispanic; 4 of these were among the 10 largest districts for which racial/ethnic data were available (table A-9). In Hawaii, a one-district state, and the San Francisco Unified District, California, the majority of students were Asian/Pacific Islander.

Free and reduced-price lunch participation. The 100 largest school districts had a disproportionate percentage of students eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program relative to all public school districts. Among schools that reported free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, 47 percent of students in the 100 largest school districts were eligible, compared with 38 percent of students in all districts (table 2). Among the 95 of the 100 largest school districts that reported data on free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, 42 districts reported 50 percent or more of their students as eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program (table A-9).

Students with disabilities. Approximately 1.3 million students in the 100 largest school districts had Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) (table A-10). Students with IEPs made up 12 percent of all students in these districts, slightly lower than the percentage for the United States and jurisdictions as a whole (14 percent) (Sable and Hill 2006). In the largest school district reporting IEP data, Los Angeles Unified, California, 11 percent (or 83,207 students) had IEPs. About 2 percent of the schools in the 100 largest school districts were special education schools (derived from table A-11).

English language learner (ELL) and migrant students. In the 92 largest school districts for which data were available, nearly 1.4 million English language learner (ELL) students were served in 2004–05, or 12 percent of all students in these districts (table A-12). Nine districts did not report data on the number of migrant students enrolled in the previous school year and 14 districts did not meet reporting standards. Among the 77 of the 100 largest public school districts for which data were available the number of migrant students enrolled in the previous year ranged from 0 in some districts to 11,413 students in Fresno Unified, California and 13,850 students in the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico.

High school completers. The number of 2003–04 high school completers in the 98 of the 100 largest school districts for which high school completer data were available ranged from a low of 1,592 (in Oakland Unified School District, California) to highs of 29,621 (in Los Angeles Unified, California) and 31,946 (in Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico) (table A-13). The averaged freshman graduation rate¹¹ was 70 percent for the 100 largest school districts in 2003–04, as compared to a rate of 75 percent for the United States (Seastrom et al. 2007). The averaged freshman graduation rate for the 98 of the 100 largest school districts for which the rate could be calculated ranged from a low of 42 percent (in Detroit City School District, Michigan, and Oakland Unified, California) to a high of 95 percent (in Alpine School District, Utah).

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Revenues and Expenditures for Fiscal Year (FY) 2004

All revenue and expenditure data presented in this report are in current (unadjusted) dollars. In the 2003–04 school year (FY 2004), the 100 largest school districts received over $106 billion for public elementary and secondary education (table A-14). Of this $106 billion, 31 percent ($32 billion) went to the 5 largest school districts (New York City Public Schools, New York; Los Angeles Unified, California; Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico; City of Chicago School District, Illinois; and Dade County School District, Florida). Across the 100 largest districts, state sources accounted for 44 percent of revenues, local sources for 44 percent, and federal sources for 11 percent (table A-15). Among the 100 largest school districts, the percentages of all revenues to the district that were received from federal sources ranged from a low of 3 percent (in the Plano Independent School District, Texas; the Howard County Public Schools System, Maryland; and Cherry Creek 5, Colorado) to a high of 17 percent (in the City of Chicago School District, Illinois; the Brownsville Independent School District, Texas; and the San Antonio Independent School District, Texas), with one exception (31 percent in the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico).

The two largest school districts, New York City Public Schools, New York, and Los Angeles Unified, California, spent a little more than 1 out of every 5 current expenditure dollars spent by the 100 largest school districts (table A-14). The percentage of total current expenditures spent on instruction ranged from a low of 37 percent (in Philadelphia City School District, Pennsylvania) to highs of 65 percent (in New York City Public Schools, New York) and 95 percent (in the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico) in the 100 largest school districts (table A-15).

Current expenditures per pupil in FY 2004 ranged from lows of $4,351 (in the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico) and $5,608 (in Jordan School District, Utah) to a high of $17,337 (in Boston School District, Massachusetts) in the 100 largest school districts in FY 2004 (table A-14). (See appendix C for definitions of specific revenues and expenditures.)

Expenditures for charter and private schools. Payments by, or on behalf of, public school districts to independent charter schools and private schools are not included in the expenditures in this report. In some states these payments are made by some entity other than the public school district, and are therefore not reported on the School District Finance Survey. Information on expenditures for independent charter schools and private schools, for those school districts reporting these expenditures, can be found on the Build a Table application.

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⁵ A regular school is a public elementary/secondary school that does not focus primarily on vocational, special, or alternative education.
⁶ Data on school enrollment can be found in the following CCD file: "Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey," 2004–05, Version 1b. This data source is available online.
⁷ The national staff ratio does not include the Bureau of Indian Education schools.
⁸ New York did not report staff data for 2004–05. Therefore, this district's staff data are not included in these data for the 100 largest school districts.
⁹ Because districts are administrative units, not geographic units, charter schools located in the same geographic area as the district's schools, but not administered by the district, are not included in this total or in table A-7.
¹⁰ For the 100 largest school districts, the numbers of students in different racial/ethnic categories are reported at the school level and are aggregated up to the district level. In the 2004–05 school year, the total number of students other than White, non-Hispanic in the 100 largest school districts was 7,968,331. The figure for the United States and jurisdictions is from the state-level CCD survey and can be found in Sable and Hill (2006).
¹¹ The averaged freshman graduation rate for 2003–04 was calculated as total high school diploma recipients in 2003–04 divided by the averaged class membership of 8th graders in 1999–2000, 9th graders in 2000–01, and 10th graders in 2001–02. See the Methodology section, appendix B, for more information.