Question:
How many educational institutions exist in the United States?
Response:
During most of the last century, the trend to consolidate small schools brought a large decline in the total number of public schools in the United States. In 1929-30, there were approximately 248,000 public schools, compared with about 97,000 in 2005-06. But this number has been increasing in recent years; between 1995-96 and 2005-06, there was an increase of approximately 10,300 schools.
The shift in structure of public school systems toward middle schools (grade spans beginning with 4, 5, or 6 and ending with 6, 7, or 8) since the early 1970s has continued. The number of all elementary schools (beginning in grade 6 or below, with no grade higher than grade 8) rose by 10 percent to 67,291 between 1995-96 and 2005-06, and the subset of middle schools rose by 23 percent during the same time period. Meanwhile, the number of junior high schools (grades 7 and 8 or 7 to 9) declined by 13 percent.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2008). Digest of Education Statistics, 2007 (NCES 2008-022), Chapter 2.
Number of educational institutions, by level and control of institution: Selected years, 1980-81 through 2005-06 | |||||||||||||
Level and control of institution | 1980-81 | 1990-91 | 1995-96 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | ||||
Elementary and secondary schools | 106,746 | 109,228 | 122,059 | --- | 130,007 | --- | 130,407 | --- | --- | ||||
Public | 85,982 | 84,538 | 87,125 | 93,273 | 94,112 | 95,615 | 95,726 | 96,513 | 97,382 | ||||
Private1 | 20,764 | 24,690 | 34,934 | --- | 35,895 | --- | 34,681 | --- | --- | ||||
Postsecondary Title IV institutions | --- | --- | --- | 6,479 | 6,458 | 6,354 | 6,412 | 6,383 | 6,463 | ||||
Degree-granting institutions2 | 3,231 | 3,559 | 3,706 | 4,182 | 4,197 | 4,168 | 4,236 | 4,216 | 4,276 | ||||
2-year colleges | 1,274 | 1,418 | 1,462 | 1,732 | 1,710 | 1,702 | 1,706 | 1,683 | 1,694 | ||||
4-year colleges | 1,957 | 2,141 | 2,244 | 2,450 | 2,487 | 2,466 | 2,530 | 2,533 | 2,582 | ||||
Non-degree granting | --- | --- | --- | 2,297 | 2,261 | 2,186 | 2,176 | 2,167 | 2,187 |
--- Not available.
1 Data for 1980-81 and 1990-91 include schools with first or higher grades. Data for 1995-96 and later years include schools with kindergarten or higher grades.
2 Postsecondary data through 1990-91 are for institutions of higher education, while later data are for Title IV degree-granting and non-degree-granting institutions. Degree-granting institutions grant associate's or higher degrees and participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs. The degree-granting classification is very similar to the earlier higher education classification, but it includes more 2-year colleges and excludes a few higher education institutions that did not grant degrees.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2008). Digest of Education Statistics, 2007 (NCES 2008-022), Table 5.
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