Human Services News

Center On Education Policy

This primer provides a comprehensive picture of the nation's public schools with data about students, governance, funding, achievement, teachers, and non-instructional services.

As much as possible, the data compiled here come from the federal government---primarily from the National Center for Education Statistics.

In cases where NCES data are not available, we've carefully chosen data from other reliable sources.

Public elementary and secondary schools educate 88% of the nation's 54.9 million students, while private schools educate 12%.

Although total enrollments are projected to reach 56.7 million in 2014, the public and private school shares are expected to stay about the same.

Overall, more public school students attend school in suburbs, towns, and rural areas than in urban areas.

But more African American and Latino students attend school in urban areas than in suburban or rural areas.

Half of the nation's Latino 4th graders and almost half of African American 4th graders attend public schools in which more than three-fourths of the students come from low-income families (as measured by their eligibility for free or reduced-price school lunch).

Children qualify for free lunches under the National School Lunch Act if their family income does not exceed 130% of the federal poverty level; they qualify for reduced-price lunches if their family income is above 130% but below 185% of the poverty level.

Some districts allow students to attend public schools chosen by their parents instead of their assigned neighborhood school.

In 2003-04, three-fourths of these students with disabilities were educated in regular classrooms with other children for a significant part of the school day.

Sources: NCES, The Condition of Education 2005, table 27-1; and NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2005, table 50.

Number of local school districts in the U.S., 2003-04

Source: NCES, Public Elementary and Secondary Students, Staff, Schools, and School Districts: School Year 2003-04, table C-15.

But the very largest school districts---the top 2%---enroll a third of all students.

Note: Percentages do not total 100% due to rounding.

Although the federal role in education has expanded under the No Child Left Behind Act, most key education decisions are still made at the state or local level.

Unlike most nations in the G-8 group, the U.S. has no national curriculum or national exam.

Source: K. Zinth, What governors need to know: Highlights of state education systems (Denver: Education Commission of the States (ECS), 2005); ECS, Unions/collective bargaining, State Notes (www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/37/48/3748.pdf); ECS, Student promotion/retention policies, State Notes (www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/65/51/6551.htm); Education Week, Quality Counts at 10: A Decade of Standards-Based Education (Washington, DC: Editorial Projects in Education, 2006); National School Boards Association, Key work of school boards (www.nsba.org/keywork2/); and T. Ziebarth, The Roles and Responsibilities of School Boards and Superintendents (Denver: Education Commission of the States, 2002).

The examples in the table below illustrate the funding disparities in the same state between school districts enrolling more than 10,000 students.

The states shown are those with the greatest spending gaps among districts of that size.

Achievement in science has gone up in grade 4, remained unchanged in grade 8, and declined in grade 12.

NAEP is administered by the U.S. Department of Education and tests students in grades 4, 8, and 12.

NAEP reports student performance in terms of three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced.

Students performing at the NAEP Basic level show partial mastery of the prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade.

Although 12th graders also are tested by NAEP, the government has not reported their scores since 2000 in math and 2002 in reading.

In recent years, fewer high schools have agreed to participate in NAEP; in addition, concerns have arisen about whether high school seniors are motivated to do their best on the NAEP tests.

NAEP did report scores for 12th graders on the recently released science assessment.

Source: NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2005, table 135.

These trends have occurred even as the number of students taking these tests has reached all-time highs and the percentage of minority test-takers has grown rapidly.

Note: In 1995, the College Board, which administers the SAT, recentered the midpoint score on the test.

their international peers, including students in highly industrialized countries.

In addition, U.S. students do relatively well in math and science at the lower grades compared with students in other countries.

In a different study, a 2000 test of applied reading skills by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), U.S. 15-year-olds performed as well as or better than most of their peers in participating countries and at the average for the member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Source: NCES, The Condition of Education 2003, table 29-2.

Nine out of 10 teachers are white, and almost 8 out of 10 are female.

The percentage of teachers who are African American has declined since 1971.

And the percentage of teachers who are men has fallen to its lowest level since 1961.

Note: Percentages do not total 100% due to rounding.

Source: National Education Association, Status of the American Public School Teacher, 2001-2002 (Washington, DC: NEA, 2003).

altogether are the main reasons for teacher shortages.

Source: National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children, 2003, figure 2.

Teacher turnover and attrition are worse in high-poverty schools.

Note: For this figure only, high-poverty schools are those in which 80% or more of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, while low-poverty schools are those in which less than 10% of the students are eligible for subsidized lunches.

Source: National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children, 2003, figure 3.

The table below gives just some examples of the variety of non-instructional services and educational services beyond the K-12 range that schools provide.