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ContactIn the 2003–04 school year, each of the 100 largest school districts had at least 46,594 students, whereas 73 percent of all regular school districts had fewer than 2,500 students (tables 3 and A-1). However, these smaller districts served only 17 percent of all students; 83 percent of students were enrolled in districts of 2,500 or more students (table 3).
The average school district in the United States and jurisdictions had 5.6 schools; in comparison, the 100 largest school districts averaged 161.8 schools per district (derived from table 1). Two of the three largest districts—New York City Public Schools, New York, and the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico—each had over 1,200 schools (table A-1).
Average school size ranges from a low of 375 students (in Seattle, Washington) to a high of 1,373 (in Gwinnett County School District, Georgia) in the 100 largest school districts in the 2003–04 school year (table A-2). The largest school in the 100 largest districts, and also one of the two largest regular schools in the United States, was the 5,299-student Belmont Senior High, Los Angeles Unified District, California.4
The 100 largest school districts had more students per school than the average school district (697 vs. 503) (table 1). Ten of the 100 largest school districts had an average regular school5 size of over 1,000 students (table A-2). In addition to larger school sizes, the 100 largest school districts also had a higher median pupil/teacher ratio than the average school district (15.8 to 1 vs. 15.2 to 1) (table 1). Among the 100 largest public school districts, Jordan School District, Utah, had the highest median pupil/teacher ratio (25 to 1) and Newark City, New Jersey, had the smallest (12.1 to 1) (table A-3). The pupil/teacher ratio for primary schools in the 100 largest districts was lower than that for high schools (16.4 to 1 vs. 17.8 to 1).
Of the 15,891 schools with membership in the 100 largest public school districts, 9,959 were primary schools, 2,471 were middle schools, 2,240 were high schools, and 1,221 were schools with other instructional levels (table A-4). The Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico—which had the most schools with membership in total—had the largest number of primary (833) and other instructional level (301) schools of the 100 largest public school districts, whereas New York City Public Schools, New York, had the largest number of middle (207) and high schools (195).
School staff. At the national level, 51 percent of staff were teachers (Hoffman and Sable 2006),6 while in the 100 largest districts 53 percent of staff were teachers (table A-5). Sixty-six of the 100 largest districts reported that 50 percent or more of staff were teachers, and 7 districts reported that 60 percent or more of staff were teachers (these districts were Alpine School District, Utah; Chesterfield County Public Schools, Virginia; City of Chicago School District, Illinois; Clark County School District, Nevada; Greenville County School District, South Carolina; New York City Public Schools, New York; San Francisco Unified, California). Twenty of the 100 largest school districts had 1 percent or more of their staff assigned as LEA administrators.
Title I participation.Ninety-nine of the 100 largest school districts reported data for Title I eligible schools and programs for the 2003–04 school year (table A-6). The percentage of Title I eligible schools in these 99 districts ranged from 6 percent (in Jordan School District, Utah) to 99 percent (in the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico). Within the districts that reported Title I data, 53 percent of students attended a Title I eligible school, compared to 50 percent of students nationally (Hoffman and Sable 2006). Also, the percentages of students in Title I eligible schools in the 100 largest school districts ranged from 4 percent (in Jordan School District, Utah) to 100 percent (in Aldine Independent School District, Texas).
Charter schools and magnet schools. There were 602 charter schools administered by the 100 largest school districts in the 2003–04 school year (table A-7). This number does not include charter schools that are independent of the school district.7 Almost 2 percent of the students in these districts attended one of these charter schools. In the 50 states and the District of Columbia, there were 3,181 charter schools attended by 2 percent of students in 2003–04 (Hoffman and Sable 2006). The largest number of charter schools administered by a district (120) was in the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico (table A-7). In the 58 of the 100 largest districts reporting magnet school data, there were 1,017 magnet schools. The largest number of magnet schools was in the City of Chicago School District, with 312 magnet schools (or 49 percent of its schools and 55 percent of its students in magnet schools).
Student Body
Overall, the 100 largest school districts in 2003–04 had 23 percent of the United States and jurisdictions’ public school students (table 1). The 100 largest school districts were not homogeneous, and certain student characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, poverty level, and disability status, varied across the districts.
Race/ethnicity. American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asians/Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, non-Hispanic Blacks, and non-Hispanic Whites are the five racial/ethnic groups about which the CCD collects data. In 63 of the 100 largest districts, non-Hispanic Whites comprised less than 50 percent of student membership (table A-8). The 100 largest school districts served 40 percent of the 19.9 million public school students in the United States and jurisdictions who are other than White, non-Hispanic, compared to serving 12 percent of the 28.3 million students in the U.S. and jurisdictions who are White, non-Hispanic (derived from tables 1 and 2).8 In more than one-third (36) of the 96 districts among the 100 largest districts for which racial/ethnic data were available, students who were other than White, non-Hispanic comprised more than 75 percent of the student membership (table A-8). Eight of the 10 largest school districts had other than White, non-Hispanic student memberships of at least this size.
Even with the relatively high other than White, non-Hispanic membership in the 100 largest school districts, 33 of the 96 districts with racial/ethnic data reported 50 percent or more of their students as White, non-Hispanic (table A-8). In 6 of these 33 districts, at least 75 percent of students were White, non-Hispanic. In 18 of the 96 districts, half or more of the membership was Black, non-Hispanic. Nineteen districts reported that the majority of students were Hispanic; 4 of these were among the 10 largest districts (table A-9). In Hawaii, a one-district state, and the San Francisco Unified District, California, the majority of students were Asian/Pacific Islander.
Free and reduced-price lunch participation. The 100 largest school districts had a disproportionate percentage of students eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program relative to all public school districts. Among schools that reported free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, 47 percent of students in the 100 largest school districts were eligible, compared with 37 percent of students in all districts (table 2). Among the 94 of the 100 largest school districts that reported data on free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, 42 districts reported 50 percent or more of their students as eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program (table A-9).
Students with disabilities. Approximately 1.3 million students in the 100 largest school districts had Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) (table A-10). Students with IEPs made up 12 percent of all students in these districts, slightly lower than the percentage for the United States and jurisdictions as a whole (14 percent) (Hoffman and Sable 2006). In the largest school district reporting IEP data, Los Angeles Unified, California, 11 percent (or 85,441 students) had IEPs. About 3 percent of the schools in the 100 largest school districts were special education schools (derived from table A-11).
English language learner (ELL) and migrant students. In the 92 largest school districts for which data were available, over 1.3 million English language learner (ELL) students were served in 2003–04, or about 12 percent of all students in these districts (table A-12). Data on the number of migrant students enrolled in the previous school year were available for 88 of the 100 largest public school districts; the number of migrant students ranged from 0 in some districts to 13,725 students in the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico.
High school completers. The number of 2002–03 high school completers in the 100 largest school districts ranged from 1,617 (in Oakland Unified, California) to 39,539 (in New York City Public Schools, New York) (table A-13). The averaged freshman graduation rate9 was 69 percent for the 100 largest school districts in 2002–03. This ranged from a low of 39 percent (in New York City Public Schools, New York) to a high of nearly 100 percent (in San Juan Unified, California).
Revenues and Expenditures for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003
In the 2002–03 school year (FY 2003), the 100 largest school districts received over $99 billion for public elementary and secondary education (table A-14). Of this $99 billion, 30 percent ($30 billion) went to the 5 largest school districts (New York City Public Schools, New York; Los Angeles Unified, California; Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico; City of Chicago School District, Illinois; and Dade County School District, Florida). Across the 100 largest districts, state sources accounted for 47 percent of revenues, local sources for 43 percent, and federal sources for 10 percent (table A-15). Revenues from the federal government received by the 100 largest school districts constituted between 3 percent (in the Plano Independent School District, Texas) and 31 percent (in the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Puerto Rico) of all revenues to the district.
The two largest school districts, New York City Public Schools, New York, and Los Angeles Unified, California, spent a little more than 1 out of every 5 current expenditure dollars spent by the 100 largest school districts (table A-14). The percentage of total current expenditures spent on instruction ranged from 52 percent (in Jefferson County, Colorado) to 78 percent (in New York City Public Schools, New York) in the 100 largest school districts (table A-15).
Current expenditures per pupil in FY 2003 ranged from $4,413 (in the Alpine School District, Utah) to $17,652 (in Newark City, New Jersey) in the 100 largest school districts in FY 2003 (table A-14). (See appendix C for definitions of specific revenues and expenditures.)
Expenditures for charter and private schools. Payments by, or on behalf of, public school districts to independent charter schools and private schools are not included in the expenditures in this report. In some states these payments are made by some entity other than the public school district, and are therefore not reported on the School District Finance Survey. Information on expenditures for independent charter schools and private schools, for those school districts reporting these expenditures, can be found on the Build a Table application.
