Percentage of private schools with 12th-graders in 2020-21, number of graduates, graduation rate, and percentage of graduates who attended 4-year colleges, by selected characteristics: United States, school year 2021

Private School Universe Survey (PSS)

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Table 13. Percentage of private schools with 12th-graders in 2020-21, number of graduates, graduation rate, and percentage of graduates who attended 4-year colleges, by selected characteristics: United States, school year 2021–22


Selected characteristic	Percent of schools with 12th-graders in 2020–21	Number of 2020–21 graduates	2020–21 graduation rate¹	Percent of 2020–21 graduates who attended 4-year colleges by fall 2021
Total	33.0	331,584	96.0	62.5

Private school typology
Catholic	23.1	137,873	98.6	83.7
Parochial	7.5	9,133	94.9	77.0
Diocesan	19.7	65,688	98.7	83.8
Private	58.8	63,052	99.1	85.0

Other religious	37.8	106,384	96.8	60.0
Conservative Christian	63.7	41,557	95.6	61.2
Other affiliated	35.1	36,188	98.7	68.8
Unaffiliated	25.2	28,639	96.2	51.5

Nonsectarian	32.4	87,327	91.2	56.5
Regular	30.2	65,483	98.7	77.7
Special emphasis	19.7	15,048	84.1	57.0
Special education	64.1	6,795	58.7	21.7

School level
Elementary/Middle	†	†	†	†
Secondary/High	92.9	195,886	97.1	68.8
Combined/Other²	75.7	135,698	94.4	59.3

Program emphasis
Regular elementary/ secondary	36.2	298,453	98.6	69.1
Montessori	2.9	627	98.5	75.4
Special program emphasis	37.1	11,838	97.6	75.1
Special education	63.1	7,353	58.9	22.3
Vocational/technical	90.9	1,772	85.0	48.5
Alternative	54.0	11,464	74.1	42.4
Early childhood	†	†	†	†

Size (number of students)
Less than 50	19.3	7,648	76.9	36.1
50 -149	33.6	24,777	87.3	51.5
150- 299	35.6	42,725	95.2	70.7
300-499	51.8	64,719	97.4	80.9
500-749	75.1	72,741	99.4	86.0
750 or more	90.6	118,974	97.0	89.1

Region
Northeast	32.1	80,778	96.3	60.2
Midwest	24.7	64,854	95.1	61.9
South	40.4	121,491	96.2	63.7
West	30.2	64,460	96.1	62.7

Urbancity type
City	32.8	155,762	97.4	68.7
Suburban	32.0	127,664	94.6	64.2
Town	32.2	13,002	96.7	56.7
Rural	35.4	35,156	94.7	51.3
† Not applicable.
¹ The 2020–21 graduation rate is the percent of 12th graders enrolled around October 1, 2020 who graduated in 2020–21.
² Includes the schools that reported 12th grade enrollment for 2020–21, but were elementary in 2021–22 (less than 1 percent).
NOTE: These estimates include private schools which provide instruction for one or more of grades kindergarten through twelve (or comparable ungraded levels). Beginning with the 2021-22 PSS, the way ungraded levels were categorized in the school level variable was changed, and data in this table are based on the new categorization. Caution should be exercised when comparing estimates by school level over time. For more information, see the PSS User's Manual (Iaconelli et al., 2023, NCES 2024-011).
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Private School Universe Survey (PSS), 2021–22.

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