Skip Navigation
small NCES header image
Common Core of Data (CCD)

CCD Quick Facts


Facts, Figures and Frequently Asked Questions About Schools and School Districts


How many public schools are there?
There are approximately 100,000 public schools in the 2007-08 school year. For more information on the number of schools, districts, and their characteristics by state see our annual publications on the subject, School and Agency Reports.

Top


Can I get a list of public schools? How about just high schools?
CCD does offer a name and address file of all schools, which includes a grade level identifier that allows you to search for schools of a specific level and only retrieve their records.

Top


How many public school students and teachers are there? Can I get a count of students by race/ethnicity?
In the 2007-08 school year, there were 49.3 million public school students and 3.2 million teachers. For more information on total public school student and staff counts by state see another of our annual reports State Nonfiscal Reports. These reports also include students and graduates by race/ethnicity.

Top


How many students are in private school? Are there lists of private schools?
Although 9 out of 10 school students attend public schools, approximately 5.1 million students were enrolled in private school education in the Fall of 2007. For more information on private schools and students visit Characteristics of Private Schools in the United States: Results From the 2007–08 Private School Universe Survey. Lists of private schools can be created and downloaded using the Private School Search tool.

Top


Do you collect any information on how much is spent on education per pupil?
Yes, about $555.3 billion of revenues were raised by local, state and federal governments to fund public education for grades prekindergarten through the 12th grade in fiscal year 2007. Current expenditures per pupil for public elementary and secondary education were $9,683 in fiscal year 2007, including $6,373 on instruction and instruction-related activities. This information can be found in State Fiscal Reports.

Top


Are there counts of dropouts and high school graduates, how about rates?
Yes, there are a few national counts of dropouts from the Current Population Survey, as well as state dropout rates calculated from the Common Core of Data. For more information on national dropout and completion rates from the Census Bureau see our annual Dropout Report. The Common Core of Data also collects high school dropout information and has reports on high school dropout and completion rates at the district and state level.

Top


Are there numbers of students eligible for free lunch, schools participating in Title I programs, or numbers of Magnet and Charter school on the CCD?
There are numbers of Free Lunch eligible students for almost every state that are collected by CCD data. In our 1998-99 school year data collection, we expanded the question on free lunch to include eligibility for reduced-price lunch as well as adding questions on Title I schools and programs and Magnet and Charter schools. You can find this new information in the School and Agency Reports.

Top


How do I find out how high a school is ranked or graded?
There are no accepted indicators or rankings of schools in this country. If you are interested in seeing assessment test scores by state our National Assessment of Education Progress can give you that information. We also have SAT scores by state.

Top


What is the pupil-teacher ratio in my child's district?
Information about individual schools and school districts, including pupil-teacher ratios, can be obtained through the on-line search tools.

Top


Do you have a measure of school district poverty?
There has been much discussion on poverty measures in education. The CCD does collect students eligible for free lunch and per pupil expenditures; however, a better resource for you on this matter might be NCES's Public School District Finance Peer Search .

Top


I need to know my NCES School and District ID code for my grant application, how do I find it?
If you need an ID code for a school that was open in the 2007–08 school year, you can get this information from our School and District Locator. You can get codes for 2008–09 new schools and new districts as well.

Top


How can I tell which schools are in my county or congressional district?
School district boundaries are not always equal to county or congressional district boundaries. However, you can search for schools by county, school district, or town name with our School and District Locators. To search for schools by congressional district, go to the Build a Table tool and use the column variable "congressional code" from the "school/district classification information" group of column variables.

Top


Are there any measures on teachers, like teacher salaries or education?
We do not collect this information on the CCD but it is collected on NCES's teacher survey, the Schools and Staffing Survey. Vew the SASS report here.

Top


Do you have any other resources for State or Local Education Staff looking for information?
Yes, NCES sponsors the National Forum on Education Statistics. The Forum works to improve the quality, comparability, and usefulness of education data. NCES also has Data Handbooks. The latest NCES Nonfiscal Handbook can be accessed on the NCES website. NCES also has a site called State Education Data Profiles which includes profiles of each state using CCD, SASS, NAEP, and Census data. In addition, NAEP also has selected state profiles. We also have a list of links to the State Education Agency websites. Finally, we have a K-12 Practitioner's Circle which serves as a resource site for education practitioners.

Top


I'm a state CCD Coordinator and I have some questions about my data submission; where do I go?
We have a page just for CCD Coordinators called The Coordinator's Corner. The purpose of this web page is to communicate with CCD coordinators, however; all visitors to the site are welcome to read this information and to ask any questions they may have about CCD data. Or you can contact Patrick Keaton.

Top


Would you like to help us improve our products and website by taking a short survey?

YES, I would like to take the survey

or

No Thanks

The survey consists of a few short questions and takes less than one minute to complete.