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Statistics in Brief:
Public School Student Staff and Graduate Counts by State, School Year 1995-96
July 1997
Contact: Beth Young
(NCES 97-541) Ordering information
How many students were enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in 1995–96? How many staff members were paid to teach, supervise, and provide support services for education? How many students graduated from high school? The information to answer these and other questions is reported in the ' State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary and Secondary Education, School Year 1995–96.
How Many Students Were Enrolled in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools?
In school year 1995–96, there were 44.8 million students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia ((table 1)). Of these students, 25.1 million were in prekindergarten through grade 6, an additional 19.0 million were in grades 7 through 12, and the remaining 0.7 million were ungraded students. (The five outlying areas are not included in national totals.)
California had the most public elementary and secondary school students (5,536,000), followed by Texas (3,748,000) and New York (2,813,000). The three lowest student counts were in the District of Columbia (80,000), Wyoming (100,000), and Vermont (106,000).
How Many Teacher's Were There?
About 2.6 million teachers provided instruction in public elementary and secondary schools in the 1995–96 school year ((table 2)). Among this group, 1,429,000 were elementary school teachers (including prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers) and 952,000 were secondary school teachers. The remaining 217,000 teachers taught ungraded students or were not assigned a specific grade.
The ratio of total students to total teachers for the nation was 17.3 students per teacher. These ratios ranged from lows of 13.8 students per teacher in New Jersey and Vermont to highs of 24.0 in California and 23.8 in Utah. The median student per teacher ratio was 16.7:1, that is, half the states had a higher student/teacher ratio than 16.7:1, and half the states had a lower ratio. Student/teacher ratios should not be interpreted as average class size since not all teachers are assigned to a class (for example, music and reading teachers in elementary schools).
How Many Staff Supervised or Provided Support Services for Public Education?
In addition to the teachers described previously, about 494,000 teacher's aides directly assisted teachers in providing instruction ((table3)). An additional 34,000 instructional coordinators and supervisors helped teachers through curriculum development and in-service training. Support staff for students included 88,000 guidance counselors and 51,000 librarians. This translates to about 512 students for every guidance counselor reported, and 882 students for each librarian. An additional 1,218,000 staff members provided support services for schools and students. This support included food, health, library, maintenance, transportation, security and other services in the nation's public schools. There were 121,000 school administrators (mostly principals and assistant principals), 49,000 school district administrators, and about 342,000 administrative support staff.
The relative distribution of all staff is illustrated in figure 1. Instructional staff made up 63 percent of all staff. Another 27 percent of all staff provided support services to schools and students. Administrative staff made up 10 percent of all education staff. On the average, there were 15 teachers and 9 support staff for each administrator. All of these distributions and ratios vary greatly from state to state.
How Many Students Graduated from High School During the 1994-95 School Year?
Some 2,274,000 students received regular high school diplomas in the 50 states and the District of Columbia during the 1994–95 school year and subsequent summer ((table 4)). An additional 207,000 students received alternative diplomas or high school equivalency certificates (the latter group includes only those who are 19 or younger except in Minnesota where they are 20 or younger). National totals for alternative and high school equivalency certificate recipients and other completers represent an undercount due to missing data in some states. Finally, some 22,000 students received some high school completion certificate other than a diploma. Note that some states grant only regular diplomas and the high school equivalency certificates.
Technical Notes
The "State Nonfiscal Survey" is an annual state-level collection of student, staff, and high school graduate counts for grades prekindergarten through 12. The data are collected from state education agencies (SEAs), processed and edited by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and then verified by NCES. The "State Nonfiscal Survey" is part of the Common Core of Data collection.
All staff counts (including teachers) are in full-time equivalency units. This is 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.
All states and outlying areas provided data for this survey. However, state agencies vary in their data collection and reporting systems, with resulting inconsistencies across states. Values that were missing and not reported elsewhere by the states were imputed. These items are noted as "imputed" in the data tables. The method used for all of the imputations was to: (a) create a subset of states reporting the item in question; (b) calculate the ratio of the missing item to total student membership for each state in the subset; (c) calculate the average ratio of item to membership; (d) multiply the total student membership of the state with the missing item by the average ratio; (e) substitute the imputed estimate for the missing item and then recompute the subtotals and totals. Imputations for prekindergarten students were ratioed to total students in grades K-12. Imputations for prekindergarten teachers were ratioed to prekindergarten students. Missing prekindergarten students were imputed first, and missing staff counts afterwards. Totals and subtotals are footnoted in the tables when one or more items included in the total are imputed or adjusted.
Several states collapse two or more categories of staff into one. In these cases, NCES disaggregates this number by distributing the reported amount to the several categories based on the average distribution of these staff in other states. Values affected by these distributions are footnoted as "adjusted" in the data tables. NCES made no adjustments or imputations to high school equivalency or other high school completion data.
For further information
For more information about the content of this report, or the data set, please contact CCD staff ..
Definitions
Administrative Support Staff: This category contains staff members who provide direct support to LEA and school administrators. This includes secretarial and other clerical staff, and persons whose activities are concerned with support of the teaching and administrative duties of the office of the principal or department chairpersons.
Graduate, High School: This is an individual who has received formal recognition from school authorities, by the granting of a diploma, for completing a prescribed course of studies at the secondary level school. See "Regular High School Graduates."
High School Equivalency Certificate: This is a formal document certifying that an individual met the state requirements for high school graduation equivalency by obtaining satisfactory scores on an approved examination, and meeting other performance requirements (if any) set by a state education agency or other appropriate body.
High School Equivalency Recipients: These are individuals age 19 or younger who received a high school equivalency certificate during the previous school year or subsequent summer.
Membership Count: This comprises the total student enrollment on October 1 (or the closest school day to October 1) for all grade levels and ungraded pupils. Includes students both present and absent on the measurement day.
Other Diploma Recipients: These are individuals who received a diploma from other than the regular school program during the previous school year and subsequent summer school.
Other High School Completers: These are individuals who received a certificate of attendance, or other certificate of completion, in lieu of a diploma during the previous school year and subsequent summer school.
Other Student Support Staff: This category contains library support staff, professional and supervisory staff providing non-instructional services to students, and support services staff not reported in other categories, (e.g., data processing, health, building and equipment maintenance, bus drivers, security, and food service workers).
Regular High School Graduates: These are those graduates who received a regular diploma during the previous school year and subsequent summer school.
Teachers of Ungraded Classes: This category includes teachers of classes or programs to which students are assigned without standard grade designation.
Ungraded: These are classes or programs to which students are assigned without standard grade designation.
Table 1.-- Public school membership, by grade and state: Fall 1995
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pre- kinder- Kinder- State Total garten garten Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ United States 44,840,481 a/ 636,846 a/ 3,536,227 3,670,903 3,507,022 3,444,740 3,430,583 3,437,943 Alabama 746,149 a/ 9,324 a/ 59,739 61,694 57,452 57,732 56,486 57,142 Alaska 127,618 2,419 10,567 10,444 10,352 10,030 10,222 10,112 Arizona 743,566 4,027 61,420 64,215 61,418 59,828 60,202 59,894 Arkansas 453,257 1,525 36,731 36,369 34,257 33,621 33,955 34,875 California 5,536,406 a/ 69,182 a/ 472,334 466,167 453,020 435,380 428,553 424,838 Colorado 656,279 10,472 50,316 52,767 51,786 52,030 52,783 52,646 Connecticut 517,935 8,093 44,148 45,969 43,030 42,010 41,365 40,650 Delaware 108,461 670 7,775 8,579 8,721 8,425 8,527 8,362 District of Columbia 79,802 5,387 7,736 7,931 6,533 6,063 5,852 5,332 Florida 2,176,222 51,123 176,767 180,182 175,891 172,039 173,169 175,358 Georgia 1,311,126 22,621 111,462 110,955 105,752 103,936 103,072 102,516 Hawaii 187,180 609 16,562 16,013 15,546 15,106 14,867 14,489 Idaho 243,097 1,665 17,750 18,260 18,285 17,952 17,640 18,626 Illinois 1,943,623 45,947 151,485 154,534 149,128 142,500 142,660 142,836 Indiana 977,263 4,901 73,833 80,279 74,964 71,585 72,356 73,101 Iowa 502,343 5,957 37,629 36,107 35,029 34,884 36,431 37,204 Kansas 463,008 3,209 33,925 35,538 35,037 35,100 36,004 36,596 Kentucky 659,821 20,290 45,038 47,250 45,845 56,613 46,834 48,572 Louisiana 797,366 19,440 61,323 63,719 59,414 59,552 61,315 61,232 Maine 213,569 821 16,826 17,250 17,003 16,568 17,419 17,397 Maryland 805,544 19,092 63,232 67,348 65,055 63,940 62,207 61,814 Massachusetts 915,007 14,792 79,163 79,565 75,647 73,380 71,800 71,606 Michigan 1,641,456 8,870 141,238 134,513 125,809 124,197 122,266 123,894 Minnesota 835,166 8,340 63,896 63,268 62,511 62,564 64,545 65,191 Mississippi 506,272 1,083 39,632 42,510 39,015 37,304 38,004 38,332 Missouri 889,881 16,225 68,513 69,659 67,080 66,928 68,159 68,889 Montana 165,547 519 b/ 12,214 12,519 12,279 12,535 12,899 13,200 Nebraska 289,744 3,853 22,282 21,748 21,082 21,210 21,886 22,351 Nevada 265,041 1,631 22,074 23,301 22,368 21,752 21,784 21,253 New Hampshire 194,171 1,357 8,859 17,973 16,601 16,566 16,275 16,480 New Jersey 1,197,381 9,301 93,978 102,521 95,581 91,352 88,686 86,889 New Mexico 329,640 3,426 24,329 26,152 24,703 24,395 24,200 24,407 New York 2,813,230 32,087 216,112 231,136 218,744 209,174 203,089 200,446 North Carolina 1,183,090 9,013 100,525 100,945 96,229 92,552 90,795 90,445 North Dakota 119,100 551 8,573 8,824 8,678 8,590 9,017 9,201 Ohio 1,836,015 18,997 141,589 148,354 140,090 138,135 138,942 140,465 Oklahoma 616,393 5,470 48,635 54,178 46,642 46,456 47,407 48,073 Oregon 527,914 855 39,875 41,952 40,802 40,790 41,721 42,083 Pennsylvania 1,787,533 3,502 134,584 146,077 139,562 136,887 137,850 135,565 Rhode Island 149,799 531 10,947 13,868 12,343 12,053 11,596 11,439 South Carolina 645,586 a/ 8,067 a/ 39,964 55,944 51,837 50,451 50,860 51,338 South Dakota 144,685 1,475 10,609 10,700 10,365 10,675 10,937 11,234 Tennessee 893,770 a/ 11,168 a/ 73,962 76,015 69,266 67,326 67,705 67,859 Texas 3,748,167 133,754 281,708 303,928 294,298 291,993 292,191 293,834 Utah 477,121 3,455 34,645 34,857 34,782 33,937 34,598 34,976 Vermont 105,565 1,111 7,953 8,371 8,067 8,200 8,287 8,327 Virginia 1,079,854 3,111 87,618 89,183 83,414 82,713 82,797 83,955 Washington 956,572 5,984 73,581 75,721 73,810 73,888 75,186 75,599 West Virginia 307,112 3,499 22,577 22,875 21,610 21,991 22,178 22,478 Wisconsin 870,175 18,045 62,859 64,574 63,141 64,541 65,427 66,577 Wyoming 99,859 0 c/ 7,135 7,102 7,148 7,311 7,577 7,965 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Outlying Areas American Samoa 14,576 1,458 1,162 1,189 1,142 1,181 1,089 1,052 Guam 32,960 962 2,961 2,994 2,856 2,739 2,722 2,549 Northern Marianas 8,809 560 598 781 781 805 683 667 Puerto Rico 627,620 255 44,566 54,545 50,423 49,531 49,762 49,863 Virgin Islands 22,737 0 c/ 1,638 1,647 1,654 1,717 1,655 1,712 (Table 1.-- Public school membership, by grade and state: Fall 1995--continued) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- State Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 Ungraded ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- United States 3,395,307 3,422,290 3,356,338 3,704,455 3,237,391 2,826,023 2,487,135 747,278 Alabama 58,704 61,122 59,914 65,299 53,780 46,780 40,981 0 Alaska 9,870 9,845 9,573 10,263 9,045 7,765 7,111 0 Arizona 58,281 58,829 56,407 59,346 52,654 43,547 39,197 4,301 Arkansas 35,104 37,023 36,696 37,005 35,209 30,566 27,083 3,238 California 413,776 409,978 399,039 437,974 396,020 343,419 287,428 99,298 Colorado 51,856 52,282 51,180 52,472 47,128 41,751 35,480 1,330 Connecticut 39,468 38,253 37,320 39,380 34,797 31,198 28,282 3,972 Delaware 8,520 8,883 8,566 10,112 8,325 6,785 6,211 0 District of Columbia 4,980 5,052 4,749 5,159 4,896 3,700 2,972 3,460 Florida 174,079 171,381 163,521 182,980 154,030 126,183 99,519 0 Georgia 103,015 102,287 100,091 117,429 90,117 74,137 63,736 0 Hawaii 14,617 14,022 13,793 16,277 13,274 11,442 10,478 85 Idaho 19,392 19,857 20,129 20,195 19,349 17,904 16,093 0 Illinois 138,679 133,484 132,678 149,289 139,115 122,384 107,244 91,660 Indiana 74,734 77,279 78,278 83,436 76,232 67,902 62,659 5,724 Iowa 37,117 38,833 38,715 41,385 39,680 36,861 34,565 11,946 Kansas 36,534 37,317 36,782 38,484 35,290 31,064 28,491 3,637 Kentucky 49,131 51,000 50,091 56,572 49,429 43,614 38,797 10,745 Louisiana 60,647 62,873 57,918 68,655 55,225 47,422 40,663 17,968 Maine 17,280 17,206 16,771 16,007 14,636 13,773 12,670 1,942 Maryland 61,099 60,747 58,835 64,468 54,286 47,345 42,974 13,102 Massachusetts 69,122 67,176 65,724 68,623 62,856 57,029 51,911 6,613 Michigan 120,347 120,121 118,996 129,820 112,588 99,551 87,840 71,406 Minnesota 64,439 65,677 65,649 67,226 64,478 59,589 57,793 0 Mississippi 38,737 41,223 39,809 43,241 35,552 28,587 25,741 17,502 Missouri 67,847 69,368 66,493 72,575 66,804 59,378 52,939 9,024 Montana 13,153 13,407 13,342 13,921 12,569 11,635 10,897 458 Nebraska 22,777 22,817 23,016 23,813 23,184 20,450 19,275 0 Nevada 20,616 20,449 19,970 19,661 18,773 16,553 14,143 713 New Hampshire 15,805 15,798 15,487 15,420 13,597 12,387 10,996 570 New Jersey 84,950 83,920 81,997 84,649 76,042 70,493 65,647 81,375 New Mexico 25,300 26,434 25,893 29,164 24,981 20,195 17,078 8,983 New York 197,470 199,440 194,347 235,320 205,305 178,043 142,841 149,676 North Carolina 88,925 89,747 88,056 100,505 82,512 69,100 59,653 23,088 North Dakota 9,270 9,770 9,859 9,927 9,377 8,950 8,513 0 Ohio 137,737 141,979 142,469 159,777 138,771 125,275 114,879 8,556 Oklahoma 48,683 49,709 49,012 49,992 45,289 38,997 35,733 2,117 Oregon 41,735 42,449 42,141 42,438 39,326 36,420 33,202 2,125 Pennsylvania 133,770 137,376 136,069 150,460 134,653 121,885 111,050 28,243 Rhode Island 11,586 11,515 11,032 11,922 10,530 9,113 8,263 3,061 South Carolina 51,322 52,214 51,308 60,808 48,165 38,508 34,800 0 South Dakota 11,143 11,583 11,654 12,176 11,388 10,090 9,116 1,540 Tennessee 66,227 68,309 66,513 74,398 64,144 55,308 49,319 16,251 Texas 288,502 292,190 284,875 335,819 255,132 213,714 186,229 0 Utah 35,877 36,693 38,090 37,941 38,485 36,487 32,006 10,292 Vermont 8,553 8,352 8,006 8,125 7,465 6,909 6,507 1,332 Virginia 82,996 81,619 81,254 86,779 76,045 66,764 62,204 29,402 Washington 75,313 75,875 75,052 78,514 73,402 65,035 59,612 0 West Virginia 22,825 24,521 25,089 26,261 24,769 22,052 21,844 2,543 Wisconsin 65,289 66,723 65,788 74,700 70,262 64,458 57,791 0 Wyoming 8,108 8,283 8,302 8,293 8,430 7,526 6,679 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Outlying Areas American Samoa 1,042 941 951 915 837 796 756 65 Guam 2,384 2,342 2,368 2,862 2,122 1,666 1,433 0 Northern Marianas 642 712 596 575 536 406 467 0 Puerto Rico 47,978 51,731 48,934 45,673 44,939 38,184 32,535 18,701 Virgin Islands 1,577 2,285 1,607 1,774 1,629 1,251 1,102 1,489 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a/ Values for prekindergarten students were imputed based on current year (Fall 1995) data. b/ Montana reports some prekindergarten students as kindergarten students. c/ Wyoming and the Virgin Islands do not have a prekindergarten program. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , Common Core of Data, State Nonfiscal Survey.
Table 2.--Public school student/teacher ratio, student membership, and teachers, by level of instruction and state: Fall 1995
