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    School Figures: The Data behind the Debate
    School Figures: The Data behind the Debate
    School Figures: The Data behind the Debate
    Ebook371 pages2 hours

    School Figures: The Data behind the Debate

    By Hanna Skandera and Richard Sousa

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    About this ebook

    School Figures presents statistics, along with historical trends and cross-sectional comparisons, to provide a clear, factual picture of today's K12 education landscape, including information on school demographics, cost and finance, testing and achievement, public school reform, and other key areas.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIndependent Publishers Group
    Release dateNov 1, 2013
    ISBN9780817928261
    School Figures: The Data behind the Debate

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      Book preview

      School Figures - Hanna Skandera

      Jefferson

      Chapter 1: Schools

      Propositions

      THE LANDSCAPE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS IS CHANGING.

      PUBLIC EDUCATION IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY CONSOLIDATED, WHICH MEANS LESS PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT.

      SMALLER SCHOOLS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

      HIGH RATES OF STUDENT MOBILITY ARE ONE REASON FOR THE PERSISTENT GAP BETWEEN DISADVANTAGED AND NONDISADVANTAGED STUDENTS.

      STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES SPEND MORE HOURS PER YEAR IN THE CLASSROOM THAN THEIR PEERS IN OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES.

      SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT MATTERS.

      SCHOOL VIOLENCE IS ON THE DECLINE.

      Highlights

      In 2000, approximately 86 percent of students were enrolled in public schools, nearly 11 percent were in private schools, and 3 percent attended school at home.¹ Confidence in public schools has declined since the 1970s. In 1973, 58 percent of the public had a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in public schools; in 1999, only 36 percent did.²

      In 2000, there were fewer than 95,000 public elementary and secondary schools; in 1930, there were more than 260,000.³

      In the 1999-2000 school year, the average public elementary school had 477 students; the average public secondary school, excluding alternative schools, had 785 students.⁴

      In the 1999-2000 school year, 236 school districts (1.6 percent of districts nationwide) had 25,000 students or more enrolled in their district; these districts account for 32.1 percent of enrollment nationwide.⁵ In the 1999-2000 school year, there were more than 35,000 private schools, nearly three times as many as there were in 1930.⁶

      In 2000, there were more than 2,300 charter schools, enrolling nearly 580,000 students.⁷

      In 2000, an estimated 61,525 vouchers were used in private schools, accounting for more than 1 percent of private school enrollment.⁸

      Crime rates in elementary and secondary schools have decreased in recent years. Between 1993 and 1999, the percentage of students in grades 9 through 12 who reported being victims of crime at school decreased from 10 percent to 8 percent.⁹

      In 2000, the average public school had a total of 110 computers, 77 percent of instructional rooms had access to the Internet, and 98 percent of schools had access to the Internet.¹⁰

      Overview

      ince the mid-19th century, public schools have been the linchpin of the American education system. The vast majority of American children have always been educated in public schools, and they still are. In 2000, more than 86 percent of children were enrolled in the nation’s public schools. Public schools have been effective and have contributed significantly to insuring our continued, productive democracy. Most of our country’s political, intellectual, business, cultural, and military leaders have come through the ranks of the public schools. Public schools are the primary source of America’s human capital, and, according to many economists, our human capital accounts for the greatest share of capital in our economy. Education has become the primary engine for economic growth.

      Enrollment trends over the last few decades, however, have changed, reflecting a subtle shift in sentiment toward public education. The bottom line is that parents are voting with their feet—fleeing the cities for better educational opportunities in the suburbs, enrolling their children in private and religious schools, or simply choosing to teach their children themselves.

      Not only have new enrollment patterns emerged, but due to growth in the educational system overall, a move to consolidate within the school system has been underway throughout the 20th century. While there were nearly 120,000 school districts in the 1930s, there are now fewer than 15,000 nationwide. The average number of students in a school district has increased dramatically, as the total number of students has increased while the number of districts has declined. The public school system is a behemoth and, in the opinion of some, a faceless bureaucracy. The distance between parents and school administration has grown. Have parents just thrown up their hands, or are the administrators ensconced in ivory towers? Worse yet, are administrators overly burdened by bureaucracy and government regulations that distract them from their basic mission of teaching?

      The romanticized bucolic one-room schools are now a relic—a true rarity in 21st-century America; by the latest count, only 423 survive from the nearly 150,000 in the early part of the 20th century. Today’s schools are much larger and more impersonal. Some say these reasons are why the schools are not doing as good a job as they once did. Schools today are no doubt different than they were 50 years ago. Has this changed schooling in America?

      The classrooms—where the teaching and learning take place—have, over the years, remained relatively stable in size. Access to technology, however, has changed—now more than 75 percent of instructional rooms have computers in them. Teaching methodology and theories have evolved and changed, but the structure of the classroom has not changed much.

      This chapter reports on the schools—how many there are, their composition, and how they have changed. Although only a fraction of students are enrolled in private and parochial schools, we don’t ignore them—they are important components in the education equation.

      PROPOSITION: THE LANDSCAPE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS IS CHANGING.

      Many have questioned the effectiveness of the current public school system. Recent enrollment and achievement trends suggest that some kind of educational reform is desired, if not required. Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools grew rapidly during the 1950s and ’60s and peaked in 1971, as a result of the baby boom, the dramatic increase in births following World War II. From 1971 to 1984, total elementary and secondary school enrollment steadily decreased, reflecting a decline in the school-age population over that period. In 1985, however, enrollment in elementary and secondary schools started increasing, and record enrollment levels were established every year by the late 1990s. By 2000, public school enrollment totaled more than 47 million. Private school enrollment grew more slowly than public school enrollment over this period, from nearly 5.6 million in 1985 to nearly 6.0 million in 2000. (See table 1.1 and figure

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