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Glossary
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- Added School
- A school that is reported for the first time although it has been in operation for more than 1 year.
- Alternative Education School
- A public elementary/secondary school that (1) addresses needs of students that typically cannot be met in a regular school, (2) provides nontraditional education, (3) serves as an adjunct to a regular school, or (4) falls outside the categories of regular, special education, or vocational education.
- Bureau of Indian Education School and District
- A school or district that is directly funded by the Bureau of Indian Education (formerly Bureau of Indian Affairs), U.S. Department of the Interior.
- Changed Agency School
- A school that is affiliated with a different local education agency than was reported on the previous year's CCD.
- Charter School
- A school providing free public elementary and/or secondary education to eligible students under a specific charter granted by the state legislature or other appropriate authority, and designated by such authority to be a charter school.
- City Locale
- See "Locale, Urban-Centric".
- Closed School
- A school that was operating in the prior year, but is closed in the current reporting year.
- Elementary/secondary Education
- Programs providing instruction, or assisting in providing instruction, for students in prekindergarten, kindergarten, grades 1 through 12, and ungraded programs.
- Free and Reduced-price Lunch Eligible
- The number of students who are eligible for the Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Program under the National School Lunch Act, which provides cash subsidies for free and reduced-price lunches to students based on family size and income.
- Full-time Equivalent (FTE)
- The amount of time required to perform an assignment stated as a proportion of a full-time position and computed by dividing the amount of time employed by the time normally required for a full-time position.
- Future School
- A school that is scheduled to become operational within 2 years.
- Instructional Level
- The lowest and highest grade offered by a school determines its instructional level. The four instructional levels are: primary (lowest grade of prekindergarten to 3; highest grade up to 8), middle (lowest grade 4 to 7; highest grade 4 to 9), high (lowest grade 7 to 12; highest grade 12), and other (all other configurations, including prekindergarten, kindergarten, or 1 to 12).
- Kindergarten
- A group or class that is part of a public school program and is taught during the year preceding first grade.
- Local Education Agency (LEA)
- The agency at the local level whose primary responsibility is to operate public schools or to contract for public school services.
- Locale Code, Metro-Centric
- See "Locale, Metro-Centric".
- Locale Code, Urban-Centric
- See "Locale, Urban-Centric".
- Locale, Metro-Centric
- An indication of school's location relative to a populous area. The locales assigned to school districts are based on the locale code of their schools, weighted by the size of the schools' membership. The metro-centric locale assignment system was used until 2005-06.
The locale code categories are defined below.
Large city: A principal city of a metropolitan core based statistical area (CBSA), with the city having a population greater than or equal to 250,000.
Mid-size city: A principal city of a metropolitan CBSA, with the city having a population less than 250,000.
Urban fringe of a large city: Any incorporated place, Census-designated place, or non-place territory within a metropolitan CBSA of a large city and defined as urban by the Census Bureau.
Urban fringe of a mid-size city: Any incorporated place, Census-designated place, or non-place territory within a metropolitan CBSA of a mid-size city and defined as urban by the Census Bureau.
Large town: An incorporated place or Census-designated place with a population greater than or equal to 25,000 and located outside a metropolitan CBSA or inside a micropolitan CBSA.
Small town: An incorporated place or Census-designated place with a population less than 25,000 and greater than or equal to 2,500 and located outside a metropolitan CBSA or inside a micropolitan CBSA.
Rural, outside CBSA: Any incorporated place, Census-designated place, or non-place territory not within a metropolitan CBSA or within a micropolitan CBSA and defined as rural by the Census Bureau.
Rural, inside CBSA: Any incorporated place, Census-designated place, or non-place territory within a metropolitan CBSA and defined as rural by the Census Bureau.
- Locale, Urban-Centric
- An indication of school's location relative to a populous area. The locales assigned to school districts are based on the locale code of their schools, weighted by the size of the schools' membership. The urban-centric locale assignment system has been used starting in 2006-07.
The locale code categories are defined below.
City, Large: Territory inside an urbanized area and inside a principal city with population of 250,000 or more.
City, Mid-size: Territory inside an urbanized area and inside a principal city with population less than 250,000 and greater than or equal to 100,000.
City, Small: Territory inside an urbanized area and inside a principal city with population less than 100,000.
Suburb, Large: Territory outside a principal city and inside an urbanized area with population of 250,000 or more.
Suburb, Mid-size: Territory outside a principal city and inside an urbanized area with population less than 250,000 and greater than or equal to 100,000.
Suburb, Small: Territory outside a principal city and inside an urbanized area with population less than 100,000.
Town, Fringe: Territory inside an urban cluster that is less than or equal to 10 miles from an urbanized area.
Town, Distant: Territory inside an urban cluster that is more than 10 miles and less than or equal to 35 miles from an urbanized area.
Town, Remote: Territory inside an urban cluster that is more than 35 miles of an urbanized area.
Rural, Fringe: Census-defined rural territory that is less than or equal to 5 miles from an urbanized area, as well as rural territory that is less than or equal to 2.5 miles from an urban cluster.
Rural, Distant: Census-defined rural territory that is more than 5 miles but less than or equal to 25 miles from an urbanized area, as well as rural territory that is more than 2.5 miles but less than or equal to 10 miles from an urban cluster.
Rural, Remote: Census-defined rural territory that is more than 25 miles from an urbanized area and is also more than 10 miles from an urban cluster.
- Magnet School or Program
- A special school or program designed to attract students of different racial/ethnic backgrounds for the purpose of reducing, preventing, or eliminating racial isolation (50 percent or more minority enrollment); and/or to provide an academic or social focus on a particular theme (e.g., science/mathematics, performing arts, gifted/talented, or foreign language).
- Middle School
- A school offering a low grade of 4 to 7 and a high grade of 9 or lower.
- Non-operating School
- A school that does not provide services during the reported school year. Include inactive, closed, and future schools.
- Operating School
- A school that provides services during the reported school year. Include continuing, added, reopened, changed agency, and new schools.
- Operational Status, School
- Classification of the operational condition of a school. Classifications include currently operational; closed; new; added; changed agency; temporarily closed and may reopen within 3 years; scheduled to be operational within 2 years; and reopened.
- Other Instructional Level School
- A school offering a grade span that is not included in primary, middle, or high school definitions.
- Prekindergarten
- A group or class that is part of a public school program taught during the year or years preceding kindergarten, excluding Head Start students, unless Head Start is part of an authorized public education program of an LEA.
- Primary School
- A school offering a low grade of prekindergarten to 3 and a high grade of 8 or lower.
- Public School
- An institution that provides educational services and: 1) has one or more grade groups (prekindergarten through grade 12) or is ungraded; 2) has one or more teachers to give instruction; 3) is located in one or more buildings or sites; 4) has an assigned administrator; 5) receives public funds as primary support; and 6) is operated by an education agency.
- Pupil/teacher Ratio
- The ratio of pupils to teachers in a school district, based on the total number of pupils (student membership) and the total full-time-equivalent (FTE) number of teachers reported in the schools associated with the school district. The pupil/teacher ratio does not represent class size, but rather is a district-level measure of pupils and teachers.
- Reduced-Price Lunch Eligible Student
- A student who is eligible to participate in the Reduced-Price Lunch Program under the National School Lunch Act.
- Regular School
- A public elementary/secondary school providing instruction and education services that does not focus primarily on special education, vocational/technical education, or alternative education, or on any of the particular themes associated with magnet/special program emphasis schools.
- Reopened School
- A school that was closed in the prior year and is reopened during the reported school year.
- Reportable Program
- A program within a school that may be self-contained, but does not have its own principal.
- Rural Locale
- See "Locale, Urban-Centric".
- Schoolwide Title I Eligible School
- A school that is a Title I eligible school and its percentage of low-income students is at least 40 percent. (See also "Title I Eligible School".)
- Shared Time School
- A school in which some or all of the students are enrolled at a different school of record and attend the shared time school on a part-day basis: for example, a regional vocational center attended by students from multiple high schools on a part-day basis.
- Special Education School
- A public elementary/secondary school that focuses primarily on special education—including instruction for students with any of the following conditions: autism, deaf-blindness, developmental delay, hearing impairment, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, serious emotional disturbance, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment, and other health impairments—and that adapts curriculum, materials, or instruction for students served.
- State Education Agency (SEA)
- An agency of the state charged with primary responsibility for coordinating and supervising public instruction, including setting standards for elementary and secondary instructional programs.
- Student
- An individual for whom instruction is provided in an elementary or secondary education program that is not an adult education program and is under the jurisdiction of a school, school system, or other education institution.
- Student Membership
- Annual headcount of students enrolled in school on October 1 or the school day closest to that date. In any given year, some small schools will not have any students.
- Suburb Locale
- See "Locale, Urban-Centric".
- Teacher
- A professional school staff member who instructs students in prekindergarten, kindergarten, grades 1 through 12, or ungraded classes and maintains daily student attendance records.
- Title I Eligible School
- A Title I eligible school is a school designated under appropriate state and federal regulations as being high poverty and eligible for participation in programs authorized by Title I of P.L. 107-110. A Title I eligible school is one in which the percentage of children from low-income families is at least as high as the percentage of children from low-income families served by the LEA as a whole or that the LEA has designated as Title I eligible because 35 percent or more of the children are from low-income families.
- Town Locale
- See "Locale, Urban-Centric".
- Ungraded Class
- A class that is not organized on the basis of grade grouping and has no standard grade designation. This includes regular classes that have no grade designations and special classes for exceptional students that have no grade designations. Such a class is likely to contain students of different ages who, frequently, are identified according to level of performance in one or more areas of instruction rather than according to grade level or age level.
- Vocational Education School
- A public elementary/secondary school that focuses primarily on providing formal preparation for semiskilled, skilled, technical, or professional occupations for high school-age students who have opted to develop or expand their employment opportunities, often in lieu of preparing for college entry.
