NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

 Statistical Analysis Report September 1996

 PROFILE

 OF CHILDREN

 IN U.S. SCHOOL

 DISTRICTS

 U.S. Department of Education

 Office of Educational Research and Improvement NCES 96-831
Prepared for the National Center for Education Statistics by the staff of Synectics for

Management Decisions, Inc. under Contract Number RN-91-0600.01.

U.S. Department of Education

Richard W. Riley

Secretary

Office of Educational Research and Improvement

Sharon P. Robinson

Assistant Secretary

National Center for Education Statistics

Pascal D. Forgione, Jr.

Commissioner

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for

collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and

other nations. It fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report full

and complete statistics on the condition of education in the United States; conduct and

publish reports and specialized analyses of the meaning and significance of such

statistics; assist state and local education agencies in improving their statistical systems;

and review and report on education activities in foreign countries.

NCES activities are designed to address high priority education data needs; provide

consistent, reliable, complete, and accurate indicators of education status and trends;

and report timely, useful, and high quality data to the U.S. Department of Education, the

Congress, the states, other education policymakers, practitioners, data users, and the

general public.

We strive to make our products available in a variety of formats and in language that is

appropriate to a variety of audiences. You, as our customer, are the best judge of our

success in communicating information effectively. If you have any comments or

suggestions about this or any other NCES product or report, we would like to hear from

you. Please direct your comments to:

National Center for Education Statistics

Office of Educational Research and Improvement

U.S. Department of Education

555 New Jersey Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20208-5574

September 1996

Suggested Citation

U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Profile of Children in

U.S. School Districts, NCES 96-831. Washington, D.C.: 1996.

Contact:

Samuel Peng

(202) 219-1643
iii

Acknowledgments

This report is testimony to the vision, enthusiasm, and leadership of Roger Herriott, former

Associate Commissioner for Statistical Standards and Methodology, NCES, who died

suddenly during the early preparation stages. His contributions began with his overall

guidance and support to the School District Mapping Project which provided a bridge

between the results of the 1990 Census and the nearly 15,000 School Districts throughout the

United States. It was his inspiration that led to the subsequent development of the School

District Data Book (SDDB) CD-ROMs. The next step, in collaboration with Marilyn

McMillan, a Senior Technical Advisor, NCES, was the design of an analytic tool, the School

District Analysis Book (SDAB), from which the data for this report were developed. Finally,

he conceptualized the report and initiated the planning and development which has led to this

point. Simply put, this valuable, new data source owes its existence to his imagination and his

efforts on its behalf.

Grateful thanks are extended to all of those who contributed time, knowledge, and efforts to

this report. In this connection, Sam Peng deserves special mention for assuming responsibility

for the report after the death of Roger Herriott and shepherding it to publication.

Among Synectics staff, principal thanks goes to Bob Parke and Meyer Zitter, who oversaw

the writing of the report, coordinating the material, resolving differences, and reacting to

NCES comments. Special mention goes to James Cochrane for creating the cross-tabulations.

Michael Chang created the figures, David Monaco created the maps, Elizabeth Walter and

Rita Bureika edited. Dhiren Ghosh of Synectics and Robert Burton of NCES worked to settle

issues of sampling error and design effect. Robert Lehnen, Glynn Ligon, and Roy Pearson

were the content consultants for, respectively, school finance, children at risk, and preschool

and public versus private enrollment. Ann Costello and Elizabeth Ashburn edited the material.

Warren Glimpse provided details about the preparation of the School District Data Book.

Sue Ahmed, Chief Statistician of NCES, Statistical Standards and Services Group, chaired the

adjudication committee. This report also received extensive review by individuals within and

outside the Department of Education: from NCES, Robert Burton and Mike Cohen, Statistical

Standards and Services Group; Edith McArthur, Data Development and Longitudinal Studies

Group; and William Fowler, Kerry Gruber, and John Sietsema, Surveys and Cooperative

Systems Group; from the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs,

Milagros Lanauze; from the Bureau of the Census, Paul Siegel; from the Educational

Research Service, Nancy Protheroe; from Westat, Inc., Daniel Levine; and from the

Education Statistics Services Institute, Karol Krotki and Jon Cohen.
For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office

Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop: SSPO, Washington, DC 20402-9328

ISBN 0-16-048782-X
Contents

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts v

Page

Acknowledgments...................................................................................................................iii

Chapter 1 Introduction....................................................................................................1 - 1

Organization of the Report.......................................................................................1 - 2

Highlights ................................................................................................................1 - 3

Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Children 5 to 19 Years Old..................1 - 3

Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Youth 14 to 19 Years Old

(i.e., Teenagers).......................................................................................1 - 4

Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk .......................................................1 - 5

Enrollment Patterns of Children 3 to 4 Years Old

 (i.e., Prekindergarten-Age).....................................................................1 - 5

Private School Enrollment Patterns of Children 5 to 17 Years Old..............1 - 6

Population and Enrollment Characteristics of School-Age Children

in School Districts...................................................................................1 - 7

Availability of Public Prekindergarten Programs in School Districts...........1 - 8

Distribution of Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure in School Districts.......1 - 9

Chapter 2 Demographic Profile of American Youth.....................................................2 - 1

Age and Sex .............................................................................................................2 - 1

Race and Ethnicity ...................................................................................................2 - 4

Family Structure and Living Arrangements .............................................................2 - 7

Income, Poverty, and Public Assistance ..................................................................2 - 8

Other Characteristics ................................................................................................2 -10

Chapter 3 Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children..................................................3 - 1

Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Children 5 to 19 Years Old,

 by Selected Characteristics..................................................................................3 - 4

Enrollment Patterns by Living Arrangements...............................................3 - 6

Enrollment Patterns by the Relationship to Household Head.......................3 - 7

Enrollment Patterns by Subfamilies..............................................................3 - 8

Enrollment Patterns by Parents’ Education ..................................................3 - 9

Enrollment Patterns by Income and Poverty Level ......................................3 -10

Enrollment Patterns by Housing Type..........................................................3 -11

Enrollment Patterns by Family Mobility ......................................................3 -13

Enrollment Patterns by Race and Ethnicity ..................................................3 -14

Enrollment Patterns by Linguistic Isolation of Household...........................3 -15

Enrollment Patterns among All School-Age 14- to 19-Year-Olds................3 -17

Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk...................................................................3 -19

Enrollment Patterns of 4- and 5-Year-Old Children at Risk by Language ...3 -21

Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk by Status of Mother.......................3 -22

Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk by Race and Ethnicity...................3 -23

Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk in Public Prekindergarten..............3 -25
Contents

vi Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Children 3 and 4 Years Old

 (i.e., Prekindergarten-Age)..................................................................................3 -26

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Race and Ethnicity..................................3 -27

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Mother’s Current Age.............................3 -28

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Parents’ Education..................................3 -29

Enrollment in Prekindergarten for Children of Single Parents .....................3 -29

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Race and Ethnicity and Relationship to

Household Head......................................................................................3 -30

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Family Mobility......................................3 -31

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Family Income........................................3 -32

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Family Income and Race........................3 -33

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Poverty Status and Race and Ethnicity...3 -34

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Mother’s Language Status......................3 -35

Private School Enrollment Patterns..........................................................................3 -36

Private School Enrollment by Grade Level and Sex.....................................3 -38

Private School Enrollment by Race and Ethnicity........................................3 -39

Private School Enrollment by Relationship to Household Head

and Race and Ethnicity ...........................................................................3 -40

Private School Enrollment by Child’s Place of Birth ...................................3 -42

Private School Enrollment by Home-ownership Status of Parents...............3 -42

Private School Enrollment by Mother’s Current Age...................................3 -42

Private School Enrollment by Mother’s Ability to Speak English ...............3 -43

Private School Enrollment by Parents’ Education and Race and

Ethnicity..................................................................................................3 -44

Private School Enrollment by Family Income..............................................3 -46

Private School Enrollment by Family Mobility............................................3 -47

Private School Enrollment by Household Location......................................3 -48

Chapter 4 School District Profile.....................................................................................4 - 1

General Characteristics of School Districts..............................................................4 - 2

Characteristics of Minority-Predominant School Districts ...........................4 - 5

Other Characteristics of School Districts......................................................4 - 7

Prekindergarten Enrollment by School District Characteristics ...............................4 - 8

Prekindergarten Enrollment by Size of School District................................4 - 9

Prekindergarten Enrollment by Community Type........................................4 -10

Prekindergarten Enrollment by District Family Income...............................4 -11

Prekindergarten Enrollment by District Incidence of Poverty......................4 -12

Prekindergarten Enrollment by Family Structure .........................................4 -13

Public Prekindergarten Availability and School District Characteristics.................4 -14

Public Prekindergarten Availability by Size and Community Type.............4 -15

Public Prekindergarten Availability by District Family Income...................4 -16

Public Prekindergarten Availability by Unemployment and Poverty...........4 -17

Public Prekindergarten Availability by District Minority Populations.........4 -18
Contents

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts vii

Private School Enrollment Rates by School District Characteristics:

Using the SDAB.......................................................................................................4 -19

School District Characteristics and Higher Private School Enrollment ...................4 -23

Instructional Expenditure Profile .............................................................................4 -26

Distribution of School-Age Children by Average Per Pupil Instructional

Expenditure of the School District..........................................................4 -27

Estimated Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure Rate by State.........4 -28

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Size......................4 -31

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by Community Type .............4 -32

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Dropout Rate .......4 -33

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by Amount of Federal

Transfer Payments to Districts ................................................................4 -34

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Minority

Population ...............................................................................................4 -35

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Household

Income ....................................................................................................4 -36

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Incidence

of Poverty................................................................................................4 -37

Appendix A. Concepts and Definitions..........................................................................A - 1

Appendix B. SDAB: Data Sources and Data Quality Limitations...............................B - 1

Appendix C. SDAB: Accuracy of Data ..........................................................................C - 1
Contents

viii Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

List of Figures

Figure 2-1 Males per 100 females among school-age children: 1990............................2 - 2

Figure 2-2 18- and 19-year-olds by graduation status and by sex: 1990........................2 - 3

Figure 2-3 Population distribution, by race and ethnicity: 1990 ....................................2 - 4

Figure 2-4 High school graduation status of 18-19-year-olds, by race and

ethnicity: 1990 ........................................................................................2 - 5

Figure 2-5 Distribution of white and minority 18- and 19-year-olds: 1990 ...................2 - 6

Figure 2-6 Distribution of school-age children, by household type: 1990.....................2 - 7

Figure 2-7 Distribution of school-age children, by family income: 1990 ......................2 - 8

Figure 2-8 Percentage of school-age children in poverty: 1990.....................................2 - 9

Figure 2-9 Percentage of school-age children receiving public assistance: 1990 ..........2 - 9

Figure 3-1 Percentage of school-age children enrolled in elementary and

secondary school, by age: 1990 ..............................................................3 - 4

Figure 3-2 Schooling status of 14- to 19-year-olds: 1990..............................................3 - 5

Figure 3-3 Enrollment patterns by living arrangements by age: 1990............................3 - 6

Figure 3-4 Percent of enrolled 5- to 19-year-olds, by relationship to household head:

1990 ........................................................................................................3 - 7

Figure 3-5a Enrolled subfamily parents up to 19 years old, by subfamily type: 1990.....3 - 8

Figure 3-5b Enrolled subfamily children 5 to 19 years old, by subfamily type: 1990 .....3 - 8

Figure 3-6 Enrolled 5- to 19-year-olds, by educational attainment of parent(s)

with whom the child lives: 1990.............................................................3 - 9

Figure 3-7 Enrolled 5- to 19-year-olds, by family income: 1990...................................3 -10

Figure 3-8 Enrolled 5- to 19-year-olds by household ownership status: 1990...............3 -11

Figure 3-9 Enrolled 14- to 19-year-olds, by household home-ownership status: 1990..3 -12

Figure 3-10 Distribution of enrolled and not enrolled 5- to 19-year-olds, by mobility:

1990 ........................................................................................................3 -13

Figure 3-11 Percentage of children enrolled by race/ethnicity and age group: 1990.......3 -14

Figure 3-12 Enrolled 5- to 13-year-olds, by linguistic isolation: 1990.............................3 -15

Figure 3-13 Enrolled 14- to 19-year-olds, by linguistic isolation: 1990...........................3 -16

Figure 3-14 14- to 19-year-olds, enrolled and not enrolled: 1990....................................3 -18

Figure 3-15 Percent of 4- to 5-year-old at-risk children whose mothers spoke a

language other than English, by race and ethnicity: 1990.......................3 -21

Figure 3-16 Enrolled at-risk children: 1990 .....................................................................3 -22

Figure 3-17 Enrolled at-risk 6- to 19-year-olds, by race and ethnicity: 1990...................3 -23

Figure 3-18 Enrolled at-risk 4- to 5-year-olds, by race and ethnicity: 1990.....................3 -24

Figure 3-19 Percentages of 3- to 4-year-olds enrolled in prekindergarten: 1990.............3 -26

Figure 3-20 Variations in prekindergarten enrollment rates, by race and ethnicity:

 1990 .......................................................................................................3 -27

Figure 3-21 Enrolled prekindergarten children, by current age of mother in household:

1990 ........................................................................................................3 -28

Figure 3-22 Prekindergarten enrollment, by relation to household head and race and

ethnicity: 1990 ........................................................................................3 -30

Figure 3-23 Prekindergarten enrollment, by length of residence in home: 1990 .............3 -31

Figure 3-24 Prekindergarten enrollment, by family income: 1990 ..................................3 -32
Contents

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts ix

Figure 3-25 Prekindergarten enrollment rates, by race and poverty: 1990 ......................3 -34

Figure 3-26 Prekindergarten enrollment rate for children of mothers whose primary

language is not English: 1990.................................................................3 -35

Figure 3-27 Private school enrollment of 5- to 17-year-olds: 1990 .................................3 -37

Figure 3-28 Enrollment of 5- to 17-year-olds in grades 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12 in public and

private schools: 1990 ..............................................................................3 -38

Figure 3-29 Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by race and ethnicity: 1990.....................................................................3 -39

Figure 3-30 Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds

in families, by relationship to guardian: 1990.........................................3 -40

Figure 3-31 Percent enrolled in private school of all children in grades 1-4, by race and

ethnicity and relationship to guardian: 1990...........................................3 -41

Figure 3-32 Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by age of mother: 1990 ...........................................................................3 -42

Figure 3-33 Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by English-speaking ability of their mothers: 1990 ................................3 -43

Figure 3-34 Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds, by

educational attainment of mother in the household: 1990 ......................3 -44

Figure 3-35 Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by family income: 1990 ..........................................................................3 -46

Figure 3-36 Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by year family moved into present home: 1990......................................3 -47

Figure 3-37 Distribution of 5- to 17-year-olds enrolled in public and private

school, by area of residence: 1990..........................................................3 -48

Figure 4-1 Distribution of school districts by size of district and distribution of

children by size of district: 1990.............................................................4 - 3

Figure 4-2 Distribution of school districts and of children, by type of

community: 1990 ....................................................................................4 - 4

Figure 4-3 Percentage of children living in minority-predominant school

districts: 1990..........................................................................................4 - 5

Figure 4-4 Percentage of each race/ethnicity enrolled in public schools in minoritypredominant school districts: 1990 .........................................................4 - 6

Figure 4-5 Enrollment of 3- and 4-year-olds in prekindergarten by size of school

districts: 1990..........................................................................................4 - 9

Figure 4-6 Higher prekindergarten enrollment rates in districts, with higher rates of

two-parent families: 1990 .......................................................................4 -13

Figure 4-7 Percentage of school districts in each state offering public

prekindergarten: 1990.............................................................................4 -14

Figure 4-8 School districts with public prekindergarten, by size of school

district: 1990 ...........................................................................................4 -15

Figure 4-9 School districts with public prekindergarten programs, by

districts’ median family income: 1990....................................................4 -16

Figure 4-10 School districts with public prekindergarten, by poverty levels: 1990.........4 -17
Contents

x Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Figure 4-11 School districts with public prekindergarten programs, by minority

school-age population: 1990...................................................................4 -18

Figure 4-12 Enrollment of 5- to 19-year-olds in private school, by percent of

urban population in school district: 1990................................................4 -20

Figure 4-13 Enrollment of 5- to 19-year-olds in private school, by size of urban

area: 1990................................................................................................4 -20

Figure 4-14 Private school enrollment, by districts’ minority percentage: 1990..............4 -21

Figure 4-15 Enrollment of 5- to 19-year-olds in private school, by school district

median family income: 1990...................................................................4 -22

Figure 4-16 Enrollment of 5- to 19-year-olds in private school, by percent of

college educated parents in school district: 1990....................................4 -23

Figure 4-17 Distribution of school-age children, by districts’ average per pupil

instructional expenditure: 1990...............................................................4 -27

Figure 4-18 Estimated average per pupil instructional expenditure rate by state: 1990...4 -29

Figure 4-19 Average per pupil instructional expenditure, by school district

size: 1990 ................................................................................................4 -31

Figure 4-20 Average per pupil instructional expenditure, by community type: 1990......4 -32

Figure 4-21 Average per pupil instructional expenditure, by school district

dropout rate: 1990...................................................................................4 -33

Figure 4-22 Average per pupil instructional expenditure, by amount of federal

transfer payments: 1990..........................................................................4 -34

Figure 4-23 Average per pupil instructional expenditure, by percent of district

minority population: 1990.......................................................................4 -35

Figure 4-24 Average per pupil instructional expenditure, by districts’ median

household income: 1990 .........................................................................4 -36

Figure 4-25 Average per pupil instructional expenditure, by districts’ percent in

poverty: 1990 ..........................................................................................4 -37

Figure B-1 Relationship of data .....................................................................................B - 2

Figure B-2 Percent difference between average ppe in the SDAB (estimated) and the

F-33.........................................................................................................B - 9
Contents

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts xi

List of Tables

Table 2-1 Number of school-age children: 1990 ..........................................................2 - 1

Table 2-2 Selected characteristics of the families/households of school-age

children: 1990 .........................................................................................2 -10

Table 2-3 All children by age and social characteristics: United States 1990...............2 -11

Table 3-1 Percent of children enrolled by age and social characteristics: United

States 1990..............................................................................................3 - 2

Table 3-2 Children (0 to 19 years old) at risk, by age groups: 1990.............................3 -19

Table 3-3 Children (0 to 19 years old) at risk, by race and ethnicity: 1990..................3 -20

Table 3-4 Preschool enrollment of at-risk 4- and 5-year-olds, by availability of

public prekindergarten: 1990 ..................................................................3 -25

Table 3-5 Percent of 3- to 4-year-olds enrolled in prekindergarten, by parents’

education: 1990.......................................................................................3 -29

Table 3-6 Prekindergarten participation rates of 3- to 4-year-olds by family income

and race and ethnicity: 1990 ...................................................................3 -33

Table 3-7 Private schools by type and enrollments: 1990-91 .......................................3 -36

Table 3-8 Percent of children in grades 1 through 4 enrolled in private school,

by education of parents with whom the child lives and by race: 1990 ...3 -45

Table 4-1 Type of school district and enrollment: 1990 ...............................................4 - 2

Table 4-2 School district profiles: 1990........................................................................4 - 7

Table 4-3 Prekindergarten enrollment, by type of community: 1990 ..........................4 -10

Table 4-4 Prekindergarten enrollment, by districts’ median household income: 1990.4 -11

Table 4-5 Prekindergarten enrollment, by districts’ percent living below poverty

threshold: 1990 .......................................................................................4 -12

Table 4-6 Percent of students in grades 1-12 enrolled in private school, by school

district characteristic: 1990 .....................................................................4 -24

Table B-1 Number of regular school districts in original source files versus the number

of matched school districts used in SDAB calculations of average ppe,

by state ....................................................................................................B - 7

Table B-2 Average per pupil instructional expenditure (ppe), by state, for SDAB

(estimated) and the 1990 F-33 ................................................................B - 8

Table C-1 Standard error design factors ........................................................................C - 2

Table C-2 Unadjusted standard error for estimated totals..............................................C - 6

Table C-3 Unadjusted standard error in percentage points for estimated percentage....C - 6
Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 1-1

Chapter 1. Introduction

This report presents a mosaic picture of American school children illuminated by the school

districts in which they lived. Specifically, the characteristics of school districts were examined

against the characteristics of school-age children to provide important insights into the

observed interrelationships. For example, the report describes how the characteristics of the

children—such as average household income, poverty status, and racial and ethnic

composition—varied across school districts of varying types—such as those in large cities as

against those in suburban locations, or those with large per pupil instructional expenditures as

compared to those with small per pupil instructional expenditures. It also provides

information about the children who were living within district boundaries. Individual,

parental, and household characteristics of American school children are described and

compared, as in the case of children attending private schools as against public schools.

These relationships are presented through the use of text, statistical tables, and graphs. The

numbers in this report refer either to children or to school districts. Characteristics of

households and parents, such as educational level and family income, were used to classify

children and school districts.

The material in this report is based on the School District Analysis Book (SDAB), which was

developed in response to a Congressional mandate,1 requiring the National Center for

Education Statistics (NCES) to report on the characteristics of school districts and school-age

children. In a collaborative effort, NCES and the Census Bureau linked 1990 Census data on

the characteristics of school-age children to maps of the school districts in which the children

resided to create statistical summaries by districts. To this information, NCES and Census

added data on the characteristics of and expenditures by school districts to classify the

districts into various categories. State- and national-level data are presented in the SDAB to

provide a comprehensive view of the approximately 15,000 school districts and of the

children who lived in them. The data are easily accessible through the use of a PC and a CDROM reader. As a result, data which previously were accessible only on a large computer

system are now readily and economically available to any school district, researcher, or local

education official.

It is hoped that both this report and the SDAB will prove responsive to congressional needs

by providing a rich statistical source to support comparative analysis and policy development

on the national, state, and local level. Further, these resources should be of interest and useful

to educators, administrators, researchers, and others concerned with the social, economic, and

educational status of children and school districts.

 

1

 General Education Provisions Act, Public Law 100-297.
Introduction

Page 1-2 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Further information on the SDAB may be obtained from the National Center for Education

Statistics.2

Organization of the Report

This report presents information about school-age children and school districts from three

perspectives:

• demographic profile of school-age children,

• enrollment profile of school-age children, and

• school district profile.

“School-age children” are the 55.3 million children in the United States who were (as of the

last decennial census, April 1, 1990) 3 to 17 years old plus the 18- and 19-year-olds who had

not graduated from high school. The report focuses on the following groups: children 3 and 4

years old, many of whom were enrolled in prekindergarten; children 5 to 13 years old, most

of whom were enrolled in kindergarten through the eighth grade; and children 14 to 17 years

old, most of whom were enrolled in high school. The population also includes non-high

school graduate 18- and 19-year-olds, as mentioned above.

In addition to data on school-age children, this report presents data on the 14,897 school

districts in which they lived. In this report, a school district is an education agency or

administrative unit that operates under a public board of education and is recognized by state

education authorities. This report excluded about 1,300 nonregular school districts

(supervisory units and regional, state, and federal administrative units); it also excluded a few

regular school districts for which maps were not available. (See appendix B, SDAB: Data

Sources and Data Quality Limitations for information about maps.)

Throughout the report, references to the SDAB tabulation numbers enable readers to explore

the national-level relationships provided here for their own states. However, it must be said

that many apparent paradoxes emerge in the report, such as that minorities were less likely to

enroll in private schools, but high minority districts had higher private school enrollment. We

have chosen not to speculate on the possible reasons for these paradoxes because the SDAB

data base is a simplistic expression of the data—simple 1- or 2-way classifications—and

cannot support all of the analysis that might be desired.

Chapter 2 describes demographic characteristics of the total population of school-age

children, including age, sex, race and ethnicity, family structure, and other population

characteristics derived from the 1990 Census.

 

2

 To obtain a copy of the SDAB, contact the National Data Resource Center. Tel: (703) 845-3151; Fax: (703)

820-7465; Internet account ndrc@pcci.com.
Introduction

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 1-3

Chapter 3 addresses the characteristics of school-age children, comparing those who are

enrolled with those who are not enrolled, both in public and private schools.

Chapter 4 describes school districts according to their administrative, financial, social, and

demographic characteristics.

This report also has three appendices. Appendix A, Concepts and Definitions, provides

detailed definitions related to the SDAB data. Appendix B, SDAB: Data Sources and Data

Quality Limitations, describes the SDAB sources—the Census Mapping Project and the 1990

Decennial Census—and their development into the 1990 Census School District Special

Tabulation. It explains that some additional administrative data from the 1990 NCES

Common Core of Data and financial data from the 1990 Census of Governments School

District Finance data were used to classify school districts. It also explains certain limitations

inherent in the SDAB data, and provides information on differences in average per pupil

instructional expenditures between the SDAB and the F-33. Appendix C, SDAB: Accuracy of

Data, demonstrates how to compute a standard error and the corresponding confidence

interval of a proportion, a percentage, and a total, and to test hypotheses for the equality of

two percentages.

Highlights

“School-age children” in this report and the SDAB are children in the United States who were

(as of April 1, 1990) 3- to 17-year-olds plus those 18- and 19-year-olds who had not

graduated from high school. Of the 55.3 million school-age children in this country, 7.3

million were prekindergarten age (3 to 4 years old), 32 million were elementary school age (5

to 13), and 16 million were high school age (14 to 19). (The SDAB population does not

include the 4.7 million 18- and 19-year-olds who were high school graduates at the time of

the 1990 Decennial Census.) Please note that in all tabulations (except as noted), the data for

each race group excludes Hispanics, who were grouped separately. Therefore, “white,” for

example, stands for “white, non-Hispanic.”

The following sections provide a summary of the highlights in the report.

Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Children 5 to 19 Years Old

• Of the 48 million school-age 5- to 19-year-olds in this country, 91 percent were enrolled

in school below the college level. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Children 5 to

19 Years Old, by Selected Characteristics)

• Among school-age 5- to 19-year-olds, 75 percent of the children enrolled in school and 67

percent of the children not enrolled in school lived in families headed by a married couple.

(Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns by Living Arrangements)

• Of school-age children 5 to 19 years old, roughly 5 percent (or 2,000,000) lived with their

grandparents. Generally, children living with grandparents or other head-of-household
Introduction

Page 1-4 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

relatives had somewhat lower enrollment rates than children living with birth, adopted, or

stepparents. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns by the Relationship to Household Head)

• Thirty percent of the school-age children of recent movers were not enrolled in school

compared to 20 percent not enrolled among the school-age children of parents who had

not recently moved. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns by Family Mobility)

• Comparing enrollment status across racial and ethnic groups, among school-age 14- to 19-

year-olds, Hispanics were less likely than other groups to be enrolled in school (80 percent

enrolled compared to 90 percent for whites and 86 percent for blacks). The enrolled rate

among 5- to 13-year-old children was similar across racial and ethnic groups—about 92

percent. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns by Race and Ethnicity)

• School-age 14- to 19-year-olds who lived in linguistically isolated households (i.e.,

households where English was not spoken or was spoken very poorly) were less likely to

be enrolled than teenagers in households where English was spoken as a matter of course

(69 percent and 89 percent, respectively). (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns by Linguistic

Isolation of Household)

Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Youth 14 to 19 Years Old (i.e., Teenagers)

For this report, “teenagers” include all 14- to 17-year-olds (13.1 million) plus the 18- and 19-

year-olds who had not graduated from high school (2.9 million). Thus, among all 18- and 19-

year-olds (7.6 million), only the 34 percent (approximately 1.3 million out of 3.7 million) of

females who had not graduated from high school and the 43 percent (approximately 1.7

million out of 3.9 million) of males who had not graduated are included. [Taking a look at the

race and ethnicity of the graduates, about two-thirds of white youth had graduated, compared

to 53 percent of blacks and 44 percent of Hispanics.]

• Of the almost 16 million school-age 14- to 19-year-olds, about 1.8 million were not

enrolled in school. Thirty percent of the not enrolled lived in families below the poverty

level, 38.7 percent of the not enrolled did not live in two-parent families, and 21.4 percent

of the not enrolled lived in the central city of a large metropolitan area. Thirty-seven

percent of the not enrolled were black or Hispanic. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns among All

School-Age 14- to 19-Year-Olds)

• Of the 14.1 million 14- to 19-year-olds who were still enrolled in school, 14 percent lived

in families below the poverty level, 26.4 percent did not live in two-parent families, and

15.1 percent of the enrolled lived in the central city of a large metropolitan area. Just over

25 percent of the enrolled were black or Hispanic. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns among All

School-Age 14- to 19-Year-Olds)

• Teenage groups with lower proportions of enrolled included married teenagers living with

their parents, married teenagers living separately from their parents, those living in mobile

homes (especially in rental units), institutionalized youth, teenagers who lived in

linguistically isolated households (i.e., living in households where the primary language is
Introduction

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 1-5

not English and no adult spoke English “very well”), and those whose families had

incomes below the poverty level. (The Bureau of the Census collected data about children

where they lived; this included institutions, detention centers, etc.) (Ch. 3 Enrollment

Patterns of School-Age Children 5 to 19 Years Old, by Selected Characteristics;

Enrollment Patterns by Living Arrangements; Enrollment Patterns by Subfamilies;

Enrollment Patterns by Income and Poverty Level; Enrollment Patterns by Housing Type)

• Two groups of teenagers with extremely low enrolled rates were those who were

themselves heads of households or spouses, and those who had children and still lived in

their own parents’ home. Only 26 percent of these married couple subfamilies (couples

living in their parents’ home) were enrolled in school. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns by the

Relationship to Household Head, Enrollment Patterns by Subfamilies)

Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk

At-risk children are defined in the SDAB as children 0 to 19 years old living with a female

parent who is not a high school graduate, who is single, divorced, or separated, and who is

below the 1989 poverty level (as of the last decennial census). At-risk prekindergarten

children are those under 6 years of age. At-risk school-age children are 6 to 19 years old.

Such children are regarded as being at high risk of educational failure.

• Among all children 0 to 19 years old, nearly 3.8 million (out of a total number of 71.3

million) were classified “at risk.” In this group, 860,000 children were born to mothers

under 20 years old. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk)

• Close to half of at-risk children were black. Just over one-fourth were white, and another

one-fourth were Hispanic. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk)

• Forty-five percent of at-risk 4- to 5-year-olds were enrolled in school. (Ch. 3 Enrollment

Patterns of Children at Risk by Race and Ethnicity)

• About half (52 percent) of the at-risk 4- to 5-year-olds lived in school districts that did not

offer public prekindergarten programs. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk in

Public Prekindergarten)

Enrollment Patterns of Children 3 to 4 Years Old (i.e., Prekindergarten-Age)

Children that were three and four years old are considered prekindergarten-age.

• Of the 7.3 million children 3 or 4 years old in the United States, about 2 million (29

percent) were enrolled in prekindergarten programs. Twice as many 4-year-olds were

enrolled as 3-year-olds. (Ch. 3 Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Children 3 and 4 Years

Old and tabulation X01G01)

• One-in-five Hispanic 3- and 4-year-old children were enrolled in prekindergarten; about

one-in-three each of white, black, and Asian/Pacific Islander 3- and 4-year-old children
Introduction

Page 1-6 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

were enrolled in prekindergarten. (Ch. 3 Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Race and

Ethnicity)

• Prekindergarten-age children living with parents who had college degrees were about

twice as likely to be enrolled in prekindergarten as those living with parents who did not

have college degrees. (Ch. 3 Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Parents’ Education)

• The percentage of 3- and 4-year-old children from female-headed families who

participated in prekindergarten programs was only slightly lower than that for children

living in married couple families (27 percent versus 30 percent). (Ch. 3 Enrollment in

Prekindergarten for Children of Single Parents)

• The enrollment rate into prekindergarten programs for prekindergarten-age children from

families with low annual incomes was about 23 percent compared to about 50 percent for

high income families. (Ch. 3 Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Family Income)

• Forty-three percent of suburban school districts had high prekindergarten enrollment rates;

that is, more than 40 percent of the 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in prekindergarten in

43 percent of suburban school districts. More than 40 percent of the 3- and 4-year-olds

were enrolled in prekindergarten in 18 percent of country school districts, 12 percent of

town school districts, and 15 percent of central city school districts. (Ch. 4

Prekindergarten Enrollment by Community Type)

• Generally, school districts with low median family incomes had low prekindergarten

enrollment rates (i.e., less than 20 percent of the 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in

prekindergarten), while high-income districts had higher prekindergarten enrollment rates

(over 40 percent of the 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in prekindergarten). (Ch. 4

Prekindergarten Enrollment by District Family Income)

• School districts where two-parent families predominate tended to have higher

prekindergarten enrollment rates. Among districts where most children were in two-parent

families, about 40 percent of the children were in districts with prekindergarten enrollment

rates of over 40 percent. (Ch. 4 Prekindergarten Enrollment by Family Structure)

Private School Enrollment Patterns of Children 5 to 17 Years Old3

• Ten percent of American children ages 5 through 17 were being educated in private

schools. While private schools served children from all population groups, their students

were more likely to reside in metropolitan areas, live in families with relatively high

incomes, and live with parents who held college degrees. (Ch. 3 Private School

Enrollment Patterns, Private School Enrollment by Parents’ Education and Race and

 

3

 Private school enrollment of 3 and 4 year old children is not discussed in this report due to data quality

limitations. See appendix B.
Introduction

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 1-7

Ethnicity, Private School Enrollment by Family Income, Private School Enrollment by

Household Location, and Table 2-3)

• Seventy-five percent of the 4.0 million 5- to 17-year-old students in private schools were

in grades 1-8. (Ch. 3 Private School Enrollment by Grade Level and Sex)

• White and Asian populations enrolled in private schools at about the same rate, 13

percent. This level of participation was over twice as high as that of black children, while

about 8 percent of enrolled Hispanics went to private schools. (Ch. 3 Private School

Enrollment by Race and Ethnicity)

• Private school enrollment rates were greater for children living with parents who had

higher levels of educational attainment. Children living with a mother or father who had a

college degree were four times more likely to be enrolled in private school than children

living with a mother or father who did not have a high school diploma (roughly 20 percent

versus 5 percent). (Ch. 3 Private School Enrollment by Parents’ Education and Race and

Ethnicity)

• Children of recent movers (those who had moved within 15 months of the Census) were

less likely to be enrolled in private school than children in families that had lived in their

homes for longer periods. (Ch. 3 Private School Enrollment by Family Mobility)

• Families living in urban areas were twice as likely to send their children to private schools

as were families living outside such areas. The higher the population per square mile, the

higher were the private school enrollment rates. (Ch. 4 Table 4-6)

Population and Enrollment Characteristics of School-Age Children in School Districts

To connect information from different sources on school districts and children, the “relevant”

populations of children were identified and assigned in the data base to a school district. The

relevant population for a school district would be those children who lived in the school

district and whose grade levels, estimated from Census data, were appropriate for that school

district. For example, there were about 3,000 elementary school districts. Tabulations of the

characteristics of children living in such districts excluded children in high school because

they were not “relevant” to the elementary districts. Children in high school were “relevant”

to the corresponding secondary school district or consolidated school district. The SDAB

associated each child with only one school district to avoid double counting and problems

with the interpretation of the data.

Data on the geographical characteristics of the school district were used to classify districts

into several community types: Urban School District, a school district with 70 percent or

more of its population residing in urban areas (urban school districts have three subcategories:

central city, suburban, and areas that are urban but lie outside of an “urbanized” area); Rural

School District, a school district with 30 percent or less of its population residing in urban

areas (rural school districts have two subcategories: town and country); and Mixed School
Introduction

Page 1-8 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

District, a school district with more than 30 percent but less than 70 percent of its population

residing in urban areas.

There were about 15,000 regular school districts in the United States. Although the majority

of school districts were located in rural areas, most children were enrolled in urban school

districts. The 25 percent of school districts located in urban areas enrolled 68 percent of all

school-age children in 1990. In contrast, the 60 percent of school districts in rural areas

enrolled 17 percent of school-age children. The 15 percent of school districts of mixed urbanrural character enrolled 16 percent of the school-age children.

• Sixty percent of all minority school-age children enrolled in public schools in 1990 were

enrolled in minority-predominant districts. (Districts in which non-Hispanic whites made

up less than 50 percent of the school-age population were classified as minoritypredominant school districts.) Hispanic school-age children were more likely to be

enrolled in such districts than were black school-age children (66 percent versus 56

percent). (Ch. 4 Characteristics of Minority-Predominant School Districts)

• In 9 percent of school districts (approximately 1,300), the combined minority populations

made up over 50 percent of the total school-age population in 1990. (Ch. 4

Characteristics of Minority-Predominant School Districts)

• One-fourth of all school-age children enrolled in public schools lived in these minoritypredominant school districts. (Ch. 4 Characteristics of Minority-Predominant School

Districts)

• Black and Hispanic school-age children were about equally likely to be enrolled in the

same race-ethnic predominant districts. That is, 29 percent of black school-age children

were enrolled in districts where black children were in the majority; 31 percent of

Hispanic school-age children were enrolled in districts where Hispanic students were in

the majority. (Ch. 4 Characteristics of Minority-Predominant School Districts)

• There were about 1,200 school districts where the median family income was less than

$20,000, and about the same number of districts where the median family income was

over $50,000. (Ch. 4 Other Characteristics of School Districts)

Availability of Public Prekindergarten Programs in School Districts

• Nationally, about one-fourth of the nearly 15,000 school districts provided public

prekindergarten programs. Seven states did not provide public prekindergarten programs

in any of their school districts. (Ch. 4 Public Prekindergarten Availability and School

District Characteristics)

• Large school districts (all of those with 10,000 students or more) were about two-and-ahalf times more likely to provide public prekindergarten programs than small school

districts (fewer than 1,000 students). About half of large school districts offered
Introduction

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 1-9

prekindergarten programs, compared to only 18 percent of smaller school districts. (Ch. 4

Public Prekindergarten Availability by Size and Community Type)

• The higher the median income of the school district, the more likely that the school district

offered public prekindergarten programs. (Ch. 4 Public Prekindergarten Availability by

District Family Income)

• In districts where minorities made up 70 percent or more of the school-age population,

about one-third of the districts offered prekindergarten programs. Where minorities were

under one percent of the total number of district students, only a seventh of the districts

provided public prekindergarten opportunities. (Ch. 4 Public Prekindergarten Availability

by District Minority Populations)

Distribution of Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure in School Districts

Data used to categorize school districts on the basis of average per pupil instructional

expenditures in this report were based on expenditures information collected in the 1990

Survey of Local Government Finances, a component of the Census of Governments. In the

development of the SDAB, all direct instructional expenses, including salaries and wages,

retirement, and other personnel benefits, as well as direct expenditures for supplies and materials

were included in the count of instructional expenditures. Nationally, instructional expenditures

were around 58 percent of total school district current expenditures in fiscal year 1990. Per

Pupil Instructional Expense did not include all of the components of Total Expenditure per Pupil

which in addition to instructional expenses included expenses for support services, noninstructional expenses, capital outlays, payments to other governments, and interest payments on

debt. Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure, therefore, excluded payments for such items as building

construction, equipment purchases, utility charges, and salaries and benefits for administrative and

non-certified personnel such as secretaries, food service employees and maintenance workers, bus

drivers, and security officers. The estimates of average per pupil instructional expenditure for

states presented in this report were based on numbers in the SDAB tabulations. See appendix B,

SDAB: Data Sources and Data Quality Limitations, for a detailed explanation of how the estimates

were calculated.

• The estimated average per pupil instructional expenditure was $2,893 as reported in 1990.

(Ch. 4 Estimated Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure Rate by State)

• Estimated average instructional expenditures varied from a high of $4,924 per pupil in

Connecticut to a low of $1,782 in Utah. Nine of the ten states with the highest per pupil

instructional expenditures were in the New England or the Middle Atlantic regions. (Ch. 4

Estimated Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure Rate by State)

• Smaller school districts spent more per pupil than larger ones, except for the very largest

districts (50,000 students or more). The greatest difference in average instructional

expenditure occurred between districts with fewer than 150 students ($3,383) and districts

with between 10,000 and 25,000 students ($2,643). (Ch. 4 Average Per Pupil

Instructional Expenditure by District Size)
Introduction

Page 1-10 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

• Comparing expenditures by community type, suburban districts—in urbanized areas

outside central cities—had the highest average expenditure ($3,110 per pupil), while

districts categorized as urban, outside urbanized areas had the lowest average ($2,531).

(Ch. 4 Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by Community Type)

• School districts with lower dropout rates (less than 12 percent) tended to spend

substantially more than the national average per pupil on instruction. (Ch. 4 Average Per

Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Dropout Rate)

• Districts receiving large Federal transfer payments had higher per pupil instructional

expenditures, on average, than districts receiving small Federal payments. For example, in

districts receiving $1,000 or more per pupil from the Federal government, the instructional

expenditure average exceeded $4,000 per pupil, compared with the national average of

$2,893. (Ch. 4 Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by Amount of Federal

Transfer Payments to Districts)

• The wealthiest school districts—those with median family incomes of $50,000 or more—

spent on average 50 percent more on instruction than the poorest districts (those with

median family incomes less than $25,000): $3,725 per pupil versus $2,427. (Ch. 4

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Household Income)
Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 2-1

Chapter 2. Demographic Profile of American Youth

There were 55.3 million school-age children (defined as all 3- to 17-year-olds and those 18-

and 19-year-olds who had not graduated from high school) as of April of 1990. A closer look

at the age, sex, and race/ethnicity distributions, along with a consideration of family structure

and living arrangements, family income, poverty, and public assistance status of those youth

is essential to understanding the needs of school-age children and the changing demands that

may be placed on the education system.

Age and Sex

Of the 55.3 million school-age children, about 32 million were elementary school age (5 to 13

years old). Half that many, about 16 million, were high school age (14 to 19 years old). The

remainder, just over 7 million, were prekindergarten age (3 or 4 years old) (table 2-1).

Table 2-1. Number of school-age children: 1990

Age group Number

Prekindergarten (3-4) 7,339,000

Elementary (5-13) 32,007,000

High school (14-19) 15,980,000

 All 14-17* 13,060,000

 18-19 non-high school

 graduates*

 2,919,000

Total 55,326,000

* The 14- to 17-year-old age group includes approximately 260,000 youths who had graduated high school and who were included in the SDAB

population. The total number of 18- and 19-year-olds was 7.6 million; 4.7 million had graduated from high school and were not included in the

SDAB population.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C03G.
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Page 2-2 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Among the children ages 3 through 17 there were a few more boys than girls, reflecting the

sex discrepancy evident at birth where there are 106 boys born for every 100 girls1 (figure 2-

1).

By the time these youths reached ages 18 and 19, a number of them had graduated from high

school and left the ranks of the school-age population. This is more often the case for young

women than young men. 1990 Census data show that two-thirds of the 18- and 19-year-old

women had graduated from high school compared with a little over one-half of the men

(figure 2-2). As a result, there were 33 additional males for every 100 females among the 18-

and 19-year-olds who had not completed high school.

Although the majority of the school-age children were elementary aged or high schoolers ages

14 through 17, the varied experiences of young men and women ages 18 and 19 pointed to

the potential need for programs targeted at different needs. One-third of the young women

and nearly half of the young men ages 18 and 19 had not completed high school in 1990for

these young adults, efforts targeted at keeping them in school, or getting those who have

dropped out back in school, were essential to helping these young adults acquire the skills

they needed to make their way in contemporary American society. On the other hand, for the

two-thirds of the young women and one-half of the young men in this age group who had

 

1 National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Statistics of the United States. Annual Reports.

Figure 2-1. Males per 100 females among school-age children*: 1990

104.7

105.1

107.0

133.0

100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135

3-4

5-13

14-17

18-19

Age (years)

Sex ratio (males per 100 females)

* Note: The 18 to19 ratio is so skewed because more 18- and 19-year-old girls than boys had graduated from high school. See figure 2-2.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C03G.
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 2-3

completed high school, the focus should be on the transition to work or postsecondary

education, or both.

Figure 2-2. 18- and 19-year-olds by graduation status and by sex: 1990

Female

Not graduates, 

included in SDAB 

population: 1.26 

million (33.7%)

High school 

graduates, not 

included in SDAB 

population: 2.47 

million (66.3%)

Male

Not graduates, 

included in SDAB 

population: 1.67 

million (43.1%)

High school 

graduates, not 

included in SDAB 

population: 2.2 

million (56.9%)

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population: Education in the United States , 1990 CP-3-4, Washington, DC, 1994.
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Page 2-4 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Race and Ethnicity

Members of racial and ethnic minority groups comprised about a quarter of the total U.S. population

(figure 2-3). Within the school-age population, the minority representation increased to nearly onethird. About 16 million youths were of racial or ethnic groups other than white. Nearly half of the

minority youths were black, close to 40 percent were Hispanic, and 10 percent were Asian/Pacific

Islanders. Minority populations tended to be younger than whites.

A number of these youths had special needs and might benefit from programs and services

offered through their local schools. To followup on the experiences of the 18- and 19-yearolds, high school graduation rates show that the majority of the minority students (blacks,

Hispanics, and native Americans) were not as likely to have completed school as their white

and Asian/Pacific Islander peers (44-53 percent versus 64-66 percentfigure 2-4). As a

result, the SDAB population was more heavily minority than the total population of 18- and

19-year-olds (figure 2-5). This suggests that efforts to encourage young adults to complete

high school should include minority youths from immigrant families. In fact, 22 percent of the

school-age population lived in language minority families and a number of these youths might

be in need of bilingual education or ESL programs.

Figure 2-3. Population distribution, by race and ethnicity: 1990

1.2

3.1

12.0

14.8

68.9

0.8

2.8

9.0

11.7

75.6

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

American Indian/ 

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Percent distribution

Total population

School-age population, all 3- to 17-year-olds plus 18- and 19-year-old not high

school graduates

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population: Education in the United States, 1990 CP-3-4, Washington, DC, 1994 .
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 2-5

Figure 2-4. High school graduation status of 18-19-year-olds, by race and ethnicity: 1990

47

64

44

53

66

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

American Indian/

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific

Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Percent graduated

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population: Education in the United States , 1990 CP-3-4, Washington, DC, 1994.
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Page 2-6 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Figure 2-5. Distribution of white and minority 18- and 19-year-olds: 1990

Distribution of 18- and 19-year-olds in SDAB population

Minority

45.5%

White, nonHispanic

54.5%

Distribution of 18- and 19-year-olds in total population

White, nonHispanic

70.5% Minority

29.5%

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population: Education in the United States , 1990 CP-3-4, Washington, DC, 1994.
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 2-7

Family Structure and Living Arrangements

The type of family a child lived in, and in particular the number of adults in the family, was

likely to affect the amount of adult supervision outside the immediate family that was needed,

the time a child spent alone, and perhaps the emphasis on study time and school work. One

quarter of school-age children lived in single parent householdsthe majority of these

households (21 percent out of 25 percent) were headed by women (figure 2-6).

In addition to the children who lived in households, about 300,000 (0.5 percent) of all schoolage children lived in a nonhousehold (group quarters) (Tabulation X01H02G). For those 14

and older, this was typically a juvenile or correctional institution; those under 14 were more

typically at an emergency shelter or were homeless. Please note that the Bureau of the Census

collected data about children where they livedthis included institutions, detention centers,

etc.

Figure 2-6. Distribution of school-age children, by household type: 1990

Married couple 

household

74%

Single female 

head

21%

Single male head

4%

Nonfamily 

household

1%

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H01G.
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Page 2-8 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Income, Poverty, and Public Assistance

More than 10 million children (20 percent of all school-age children) had families with

incomes below $15,000 (figure 2-7). Another 8.4 million children (15 percent of school-age

children) had families with incomes between $15,000 and $25,000.

Figure 2-7. Distribution of school-age children, by family income: 1990

$35,000-49,999

21%

Less than 

$15,000

20%

$50,000 or 

more

28%

$15,000-24,999

15%

$25,000-34,999

16%

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H12G.
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 2-9

Poverty classifications take into account the income and number of people living in the

household. (See appendix A.) About 9.9 million children18 percent of school-age

childrenlived in poverty. About 6.5 million of school-age children12 percentlived in

families receiving public assistance. (See figures 2-8 and 2-9.)

Figure 2-8. Percentage of school-age children in poverty: 1990

18

0 5 10 15 20

In poverty

Percent

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H18G .

Figure 2-9. Percentage of school-age children receiving public assistance: 1990

12

0 5 10 15 20

Receiving public

assistance

Percent

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H15G.
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Page 2-10 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Other Characteristics

There are several other measurable social and demographic factors that are part of each

child’s environment and have the potential for impacting the child’s access to school, and

ultimately, the child’s ability to learn. For example, school-age children and their families can

be described by such characteristics as parental education, mobility, type of community, and

duration in present residence. A number of these distinguishing characteristics, applied to the

school-age population overall, are listed in table 2-2. (See appendix A for definitions of these

characteristics.)

Table 2-2. Selected characteristics of the families/households of school-age children:

1990

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB

tabulation references X01H01G, X01H09G, X01P25G, X01H22G, X01H28G, and X01H29G.

Table 2-3 on the following pages is a more extensive look at all children by age and social

characteristics.

Characteristics

Percent of

children

Language minority 22

Linguistically isolated household 4

Two-parent households where both parents in

the household have college degrees and oneparent households where that parent has a

college degree

12

One- or two-parent households where no parent

in the household is a high school graduate

16

Central city residence 30

Rural residence 27

Renter 35

Recent mover (within 1-1/4 years of the 1990

Census)

22
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 2-11

Table 2-3. All children by age and social characteristics:

United States 1990

(School-age children 3 to 19 years old. Numbers in thousands.1)

Child characteristics

Total,

3-19 years

3-4

years

5-13

years

14-19

years

Total 55,326 7,339 32,007 15,980

Sex

Male 28,562 3,754 16,400 8,409

Female 26,763 3,585 15,608 7,571

Race2 and ethnicity

White 38,131 5,054 22,190 10,888

Black 8,174 1,062 4,679 2,434

Hispanic 6,659 915 3,778 1,966

Asian or Pacific Islander 1,715 222 987 506

American Indian, Alaskan native 554 71 319 164

Language minority3

Total 12,156 1,529 6,877 3,750

Linguistically isolated 2,275 376 1,458 442

Family income

Less than $25,000 18,594 2,748 10,908 4,938

$25,000-$39,999 9,095 1,287 5,409 2,399

$40,000-$49,999 11,692 1,531 6,880 3,281

$50,000 and more 15,642 1,764 8,747 5,131

Poverty status

In poverty 9,870 1,441 5,690 2,739

Not in poverty 44,569 5,777 25,779 13,012

Public assistance

Receives public assistance 6,553 967 3,775 1,810

No public assistance 48,470 6,363 28,168 13,939

Household composition

Married couple household 40,951 5,612 24,073 11,266

Single female head of household 11,300 1,389 6,435 3477

Single male head of household 2,289 281 1,222 786

Nonfamily household 483 49 214 220

Institutions and group quarters 303 9 64 230

(1) Details may not add up to total due to rounding.

(2) All race groups are non-Hispanic. Tabulation excludes other races, not shown separately.

(3) Language spoken at home is other than English.
Demographic Profile of American Youth

Page 2-12 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Table 2-3. All children by age and social characteristics:

United States 1990--Continued

(School-age children 3 to 19 years old. Numbers in thousands.1)

Child characteristics

Total,

3-19 years

3-4

years

5-13

years

14-19

years

Parents’ education

Living in two-parent household: 39,037 5,346 23,202 10,489

Both parents college graduates 5,231 826 3,218 1,187

Neither parent high school diploma 3,934 451 2,204 1,281

All other 29,872 4,069 17,780 8,021

Living with mother only:

College graduate 1,000 91 588 321

High school diploma only 5,231 493 2,065 973

No high school diploma 3,324 494 1,884 946

Length of residence in present home

Less than 1-1/4 years (1989-1990) 11,977 2,142 7,000 2,837

From 1-1/4 to 5-1/4 years (1985-1988) 19,029 3,143 11,500 4,386

From 5-1/4 to 10-1/4 years (1980-

1984)

10,408 1,314 6,430 2,664

More than 10-1/4 years (before 1980) 14,018 855 7,285 5,878

Tenure

Owner 35,904 4,294 20,807 10,803

Renter 19,526 3,161 11,405 4,962

Residence

Inside metropolitan area 42,174 5,805 24,466 11,903

Central city 16,539 2,367 9,503 4,669

Not central city 25,635 3,438 14,963 7,235

Urban 19,226 2,644 11,204 5,377

Rural 6,409 793 3,759 1,857

Outside metropolitan area 13,257 1,649 7,746 3,862

Urban 4,650 618 2,715 1,317

Rural 8,607 1,031 5,031 2,545

Rural nonfarm 14,130 1,735 8,278 4,118

Farm 906 93 524 289

(1) Details may not add up to total due to rounding.

(2) All race groups are non-Hispanic. Tabulation excludes other races, not shown separately.

(3) Language spoken at home is other than English.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation references: sex

X01C03G, race X01C05G, language minority X01H08G and X01H09G, family income X01H10G, poverty X01H18G, public assistance

X01H15G, household composition X01H01G and X01H02G, parents’ education X01P25G, school district X01H29G, tenure X01H28G,

residence X01H22G, nonfarm/farm X01H21G.
Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-1

Chapter 3. Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

This chapter describes whether or not school-age childrenchildren ages 3 to 17 and those

18- and 19-year-olds who have not finished high schoolwere enrolled in school.

Demographic and social factors like those described in the preceding chapter are examined

first individually; then, a composite of factors that are thought to have the potential for a

negative impact on a child’s schooling is considered. These analyses are followed by

reviews/analyses of private as opposed to public school enrollments, and prekindergarten

enrollment.

Generally, the data cited in this chapter relate to national populations. As indicated in chapter

1, state and school district data are summarized in the School District Analysis Book (SDAB),

which is available to the public. Therefore, educators, administrators, and others interested in

public education can compare their local and state data to other local and state data and to

national data.

This chapter has four sections:

• Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Children 5 to 19 Years Old, by Selected

Characteristics

• Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk

• Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Children 3 and 4 Years Old1

• Private School Enrollment Patterns

Before breaking into the sections, table 3-1 provides a quick overview of the percent of

children enrolled in school and their characteristics within four age categories.

 

1

 This section does not discuss enrollment in public versus private prekindergarten programs because of data

quality limitations, see appendix B.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-2 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Table 3-1. Percent of children enrolled by age and social characteristics:

United States 1990

(School-age children 3 to 19 years old.)

Child characteristics

Total,

3-19 years

3-4

years

5-13

years

14-19

years

Total 82.7 28.9 92.2 88.4

Sex

Male 82.5 28.7 92.1 87.9

Female 82.8 29.0 92.3 88.9

Race1and ethnicity

White 83.8 29.8 92.3 90.1

Black 82.4 31.1 91.9 86.4

Hispanic 78.6 21.1 91.6 80.3

Asian or Pacific Islander 85.0 30.7 92.7 93.8

American Indian, Alaskan native 81.2 25.5 92.3 83.6

Language minority2

Total 81.5 25.5 91.7 85.7

Linguistically isolated 74.5 19.6 90.4 68.7

Family income

Less than $25,000 78.4 21.1 91.0 82.6

$25,000-$39,999 81.3 24.3 91.7 88.5

$40,000-$49,999 84.1 30.8 92.6 91.2

$50,000 and more 87.8 47.9 93.6 93.3

Poverty status

In poverty 77.4 21.1 90.9 79.1

Not in poverty 84.0 31.0 92.5 90.7

Public assistance

Receives public assistance 78.3 22.0 91.3 81.2

No public assistance 83.4 29.9 92.3 89.8

Household composition

Married couple household 83.4 29.7 92.3 91.2

Single female head of household 82.1 27.1 92.1 85.4

Single male head of household 78.1 22.1 90.3 79.2

Nonfamily household 67.1 21.9 90.1 54.7

Institutions and group quarters 63.6 17.6 83.3 59.9
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-3

Table 3-1. Percent of children enrolled by age and social characteristics:

United States 1990--Continued

(School-age children 3 to 19 years old.)

Child characteristics

Total,

3-19 years

3-4

years

5-13

years

14-19

years

Parents’ education

Living in two-parent household: 84.2 30.1 92.5 93.4

Both parents college graduates 87.8 49.5 94.1 97.3

Neither parent high school diploma 80.3 15.5 91.0 84.5

Living with mother only: 82.2 26.6 92.0 88.5

College graduate 90.0 45.5 94.2 94.9

High school diploma only 81.7 24.2 91.8 89.3

No high school diploma 77.4 19.4 90.2 82.2

Length of residence in present home

Less than 1-1/4 years (1989-1990) 75.5 23.4 90.3 78.2

From 1-1/4 to 5-1/4 years (1985-1988) 81.0 29.8 91.8 89.2

From 5-1/4 to 10-1/4 years (1980-1984) 85.1 33.8 92.9 91.5

More than 10-1/4 years (before 1980) 89.1 29.9 93.9 91.8

Tenure

Owner 85.4 32.5 92.8 92.2

Renter 77.5 23.4 91.0 80.8

Residence

Inside metropolitan area 82.7 30.8 92.2 88.4

Central city 81.1 29.1 91.9 85.5

Not central city 83.7 32.0 92.4 90.3

Urban 83.8 33.7 92.5 90.2

Rural 83.6 26.1 92.2 90.7

Outside metropolitan area 82.4 21.1 92.1 89.1

Urban 82.1 24.1 92.2 88.3

Rural 82.5 19.2 92.0 89.5

Rural nonfarm 82.9 22.4 92.1 89.9

Farm 84.1 18.2 92.0 90.9

(1) All race groups are non-Hispanic. Tabulation excludes other races, not shown separately.

(2) Language spoken at home is other than English.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation references: sex

X01C03G, race X01C05G, language minority X01H08G and X01H09G, family income X01H10G, poverty X01H18G, public assistance

X01H15G, household composition X01H01G and X01H02G, parents’ education X01P25G, school district X01H29G, tenure X01H28G,

residence X01H22G, nonfarm/farm X01H21G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-4 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Children 5 to 19 Years Old, by Selected

Characteristics

The vast majority of school-age youths were enrolled in school through age 17 (over 90

percent) (figure 3-1). There was, however, an increasing tendency for school-age children to

have left school without finishing high school as their ages increased.2

 

2

 For further discussion, see U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement,

National Center for Education Statistics. Dropout Rates in the United States: 1990. NCES 91-053. Washington,

D.C.: 1991.

Figure 3-1. Percentage of school-age children enrolled in elementary and secondary

school, by age: 1990

Total 90.9

92.2

93.8

64.0

0 20 40 60 80 100

5-19

5-13

14-17

18-19

Age (years)

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C02G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-5

Among the teenagers ages 14 to 17, approximately 92 percent were enrolled in school, 2

percent had graduated, and 6 percent had dropped out (figure 3-2). By age 18, the percent still

in school and the percent who graduated were fairly close (42 and 45 percent respectively,

while the percent who dropped out increased to 13 percent. Then by age 19, about threequarters had graduated, about 10 percent were still enrolled, and the percent who were

dropouts was relatively stable at 14 percent.

While a number of the 5- to 13-year-olds who were not in school were likely to be 5- and 6-

year-olds who had not started school, some of the preteens and 13-year-olds had already

dropped out of school: roughly 4 percent each of the 10-year-olds, the 11-year-olds, and the

12-year-olds were not enrolled, non-high school graduates.3 Certainly, the 6 percent at ages

14 to 17 and the 13 and 14 percent who were not enrolled at ages 18 and 19 were dropouts. A

more detailed consideration of variations in the enrollment patterns across several key social

and demographic factors should help inform educators and policy makers as to which

subgroups of young adults are most “at-risk” of not receiving educational services.

 

3

 U.S. Bureau of the Census, “Table 5, School Enrollment and Type of School by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic

Origin: 1990,” 1990 Census of Population: Education in the United States, CP-3-4, p. 597.

Figure 3-2. Schooling status of 14- to 19-year-olds: 1990

(All persons 14 through 19 years old, including high school graduates excluded from SDAB)

2

45

76

6

13

14

92

42

9

0 20 40 60 80 100

14- to 17-year-olds

18-year-olds

19-year-olds

Percent distribution

Enrolled

Not enrolled, not high school graduate

High school graduate - not in SDAB population

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population: Education in the United States, CP-3-4, Washington, DC, 1994.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-6 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment Patterns by Living Arrangements

Among school-age 5- to 19-year-olds, 75 percent of the children enrolled in school and 67

percent of the children not enrolled in school lived in families headed by a married couple

(tabulation X01H01G).

Enrollment rates differed somewhat among different household arrangements. Children who

lived in other than family householdsinstitutions, nonfamily households, or other group

quarterswere less likely to be enrolled in school than those living in family households. The

differences were particularly notable among the 14- to 19-year-old populations. As figure 3-3

indicates, among 14- to 19-year-olds, 89 percent of children from family households were

enrolled, compared to an average of less than 60 percent from other living arrangements.

Differences in enrollment rates were not as striking among 5- to 13-year-olds.

Figure 3-3. Enrollment patterns by living arrangements by age: 1990

58

61

55

89

84

82

90

92

0 20 40 60 80 100

Other group quarters

Institution

Nonfamily

household

Family household

Percent enrolled

5- to 13-year-olds

14- to 19-year-olds

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation references X01H01G and

X01H02G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-7

Enrollment Patterns by the Relationship to Household Head

Of the 48 million children 5 to 19 years old, 90 percent were either born to, adopted by, or

stepchildren, of their live-in parents. Roughly five percent each lived with grandparents

(2,000,000) and lived with other relatives or nonrelatives (2,100,000) (tabulation X01C06G).

Generally, children living with grandparents or other head-of-household relatives had

somewhat lower enrollment rates than children living with birth, adopted, or stepparents. Of

the 1.2 million children who were not related to household heads, about one-fourth (more

than 300,000) were not enrolled (tabulation X01C06G).

The most striking data relate to the nearly 300,000 teenagers who were themselves heads of

households or spouses. As figure 3-4 shows, over 20 percent of these teenagers were enrolled

in school. Although they represented a relatively small group overallonly about two percent

of all those 14 to19 years oldthey constituted 12 percent of all 14- to 19-year-olds not

enrolled (tabulation X01C06G).

Figure 3-4. Percent of enrolled 5- to 19-year-olds, by relationship to household head:

1990

47

21

88

92

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Other relationships to

household head or nonrelative

Household head or head's spouse

Grandchild of household head

Child of household head

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C06G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-8 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment Patterns by Subfamilies

Subfamilies are parent-child groups living with (grand)parents or other householder-relatives.

Subfamilies include married couple subfamiliesa married couple with or without nevermarried children under 18 years oldand mother-child/father-child subfamiliesone parent

with one or more never-married children under 18 years old. The education system is

interested in the subfamily parents and children until they graduate high school or reach the

age of 20. (If only one spouse in a subfamily was a non-high school graduate under 20, that

was the spouse counted for this report.)

Unlike the teenaged householders and spouses discussed in the prior section, married couple

subfamilies live with adult relatives, but they share a low enrollment rate: 26 percent for

married couple subfamily parents, 21 percent for teenaged householders and spouses. In

comparison, more than 60 percent of parents in single parent-child subfamilies were enrolled

(figure 3-5a). Figure 3-5b shows enrolled rates for the children in the three types of subfamily

groups.

Figure 3-5a. Enrolled subfamily parents up to 19 years old, by subfamily type: 1990

68

64

26

0 20 40 60 80 100

In a father-child

subfamily

In a mother-child

subfamily

In a married couple

subfamily

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C08G.

Figure 3-5b. Enrolled subfamily children 5 to 19 years old, by subfamily type: 1990

87

89

88

0 20 40 60 80 100

In a father-child

subfamily

In a mother-child

subfamily

In a married couple

subfamily

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C08G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-9

Enrollment Patterns by Parents’ Education

The educational background of the parents in the household had a very strong relationship to

their children’s enrollment rates, especially for teenagers. Those aged 14 to 19 years living in

families where neither parent was a high school graduate were less likely to be enrolled in

school than teenagers living with two college-graduate parents (85 percent enrolled versus 97

percent) (tabulation X01P25G).

As figure 3-6 illustrates, among all those in the 5- to 19-year-old school-age population, those

least likely to be enrolled were children living with a solo father who did not have a high

school diploma.

Figure 3-6. Enrolled 5- to 19-year-olds,

by educational attainment of parent(s) with whom the child lives: 1990

Living with:

94.5

92.8

91.0

87.5

92.6

91.2

89.9

86.3

95.0

93.4

92.7

88.6

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

College degree

Some college

High school diploma

No high school diploma

Educational 

attainment of 

parents

Percent enrolled

Two parents

Father only

Mother only

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01P25G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-10 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment Patterns by Income and Poverty Level

Of children 5 to 19 years old, close to 8.5 million (18 percent) lived in families with incomes

below the poverty level (which was $12,674 in 1989 for a family of four persons). Children

from these families were less likely to be enrolled in school than other children. This was

especially true for 14- to 19-year-olds. Seventy-nine percent of teenagers whose families had

incomes below the poverty level were enrolled, compared with 9 percent of teenagers whose

families had incomes above poverty level (tabulation X01H18G). Nineteen percent of the

children not enrolled lived in families receiving public assistance, compared to 11 percent of

the children who were enrolled (tabulation X01H15G).

As figure 3-7 shows, the lower the family income, the lower the percentage of enrolled. To

illustrate, about 79 percent of children (14 to 19) in families with incomes under $10,000

were enrolled. This compares to an average of about 94 percent enrolled among children in

this age group in families with incomes of $50,000 or more.

Figure 3-7. Enrolled 5- to 19-year-olds, by family income: 1990

78.8

80.0

8 1.8

85. 1

88.5

9 1.2

92.7

93.7

95. 1

90.2

9 1.3

9 1.0

9 1.2

9 1.7

92.6

93.4

93.9

94. 1

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Less than $5,000

$5,000-9,999

$10,000-14,999

$15,000-24,999

$25,000-34,999

$35,000-49,999

$50,000-74,999

$75,000-99,999

$100,000 or more

Family income

Percent enrolled

5- to 13-year-olds

14- to 19-year-olds

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation references X01H12G and

X01H15G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-11

Enrollment Patterns by Housing Type

Of the 48 million school-age children (5 to 19 years old), almost two-thirds lived in owneroccupied units. Figure 3-8 illustrates that generally children from home-owning families had

higher enrollment rates than those from rental resident families (93 percent versus 88

percent).

Figure 3-8. Enrolled 5- to 19-year-olds by household ownership status: 1990

88

88

93

84

0 20 40 60 80 100

Renter occupied mobile

home

Renter occupied

Owner occupied mobile

home

Owner occupied

Percent enrolled 

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H28G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-12 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Children living in rented mobile homes were least likely to be enrolled in school. As figure 3-

9 illustrates, 70 percent of the children 14 to 19 years of age living in rented mobile homes

were enrolled and 85 percent of those living in family-owned mobile homes were enrolled.

The percent of not enrolled is 30 percent to 15 percent, or 2 to 1.

Figure 3-9. Enrolled 14- to 19-year-olds, by household home-ownership status: 1990

70

81

85

92

0 20 40 60 80 100

Renter occupied mobile

home

Renter occupied

Owner occupied mobile

home

Owner occupied

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H28G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-13

Enrollment Patterns by Family Mobility

There is a clear relationship between a family’s mobility and children’s enrollment rates. One

measure of a family’s mobility is length of residence. As figure 3-10 illustrates, among

children not enrolled in school, 30 percent had recently moved, compared to 20 percent of

enrolled children who had recently moved. (Recent movers are defined in the SDAB as

persons who moved in the year and a quarter (Jan. 1989- Mar. 1990) before the 1990 census

data were collected.)

The not enrolled rate was higher for recently moved teenagers. About 34 percent of children

14 to 19 years old who were not enrolled in school (619,000 out of 1,800,000) lived in

families that moved from 1989 to 1990. In contrast, 16 percent of the enrolled children moved

during that same time frame (tabulation X01H29G).

Figure 3-10. Distribution of enrolled and not enrolled 5- to 19-year-olds, by mobility:

1990

Enrolled

28.0

19.3

33.1

19.6

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

More than 10 1/4 years

From 5 1/4 to 10 1/4 years

From 1 1/4 to 5 1/4 years

Less than 1 1/4 years

Length of 

residence in 

present home...

Not enrolled

21.4

15.9

32.8

30.0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

More than 10 1/4 years

From 5 1/4 to 10 1/4 years

From 1 1/4 to 5 1/4 years

Less than 1 1/4 years

Percent distribution

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H29G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-14 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment Patterns by Race and Ethnicity

Comparing enrollment status across racial and ethnic groups, Hispanics aged 14 to 19 years

old were less likely than other groups to be enrolled (figure 3-11). The enrolled rate for 5 to

13 year old children was similar across ethnic groups—about 92 percent.

Figure 3-11. Percentage of children enrolled by race/ethnicity and age group: 1990

83.6

93.8

80.3

86.4

90.1

92.3

92.7

91.6

91.9

92.3

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

American Indian/ 

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Race and ethnicity

Percent enrolled

5- to 13-year-olds

14- to 19-year-olds

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C05G. Figures

shown in table 3-1.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-15

Enrollment Patterns by Linguistic Isolation of Household

There were 2.3 million school-age children who lived in households where the language

spoken at home was other than English and no member 14 years old or older spoke English

“very well.” Such households are referred to as “linguistically isolated.”

For the majority of children between 5 and 13 years old—ages at which school attendance is

universally mandatory (except age 5)—overall enrollment rates averaged about 90 percent

and differed little between the language skill groups.

Figure 3-12. Enrolled 5- to 13-year-olds, by linguistic isolation: 1990

90

92

0 20 40 60 80 100

Linguistically

isolated

Not isolated

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H09G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-16 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

But significant differences emerged in the rates for children aged 14 to 19; teenagers in

linguistically isolated households were less likely to be enrolled than teenagers in households

where English was spoken as a matter of course (69 percent and 89 percent—i.e., the not

enrolled rate for teenagers in linguistically isolated households was almost three times higher,

31 percent to 11 percent—see figure 3-13).

Figure 3-13. Enrolled 14- to 19-year-olds, by linguistic isolation: 1990

69

89

0 20 40 60 80 100

Linguistically

isolated

Not isolated

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H09G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-17

Enrollment Patterns among All School-Age 14- to 19-Year-Olds

The 14- to 19-year-old age group had a higher proportion of children not enrolled than did the

5- to 13-year-old age group (11.2 percent versus 7.8 percent). Among 14- to 19-year-olds,

14.1 million were enrolled and 1.8 million were not enrolled. As illustrated in figure 3-14,

those not enrolled were more likely than those enrolled to:

• Reside in the central city of a large metropolitan area

• Have no employed parent

• Live in an institution or other group quarters

• Be unrelated to the household head

• Live in a family receiving public assistance

• Live in poverty

• Have moved in the past year

• Not live in a two-parent household

• Live in a mobile home

• Live in a linguistically isolated household

• Be a teenage householder or spouse of householder

• Be in a subfamily

• Be black or Hispanic.

Among the 14.1 million 14- to 19-year-olds who were enrolled, 14 percent lived in families

with incomes below the poverty level, almost 26.5 percent did not live in a two-parent

household, and just over 15 percent lived in the central city of a large metropolitan area. A bit

over 25 percent were black or Hispanic.

Among the 1.8 million 14- to 19-year-olds who were not enrolled, 30 percent lived in families

with incomes below the poverty level, almost 40 percent did not live in two-parent

households, and over 21 percent lived in the central city of a large metropolitan area. Thirtyseven percent were either black or Hispanic.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-18 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Figure 3-14. 14- to 19-year-olds, enrolled and not enrolled: 1990

Characteristics

37.0

28.6

5 .7

7 .6

12 .0

14 .3

7 .7

10 .3

4 .8

18 .1

38.7

34.6

30.0

19 .0

4 .7

14 .9

5 .3

2 1.4

25.2

2 1.3

0 .9

3 .4

0 .4

3 .0

2 .0

5 .9

11.9

14 .1

26.4

16 .1

14 .0

10 .5

1.0

7 .7

2 .0

15 .1

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

B lack o r H ispan ic

In fema le-headed househo ld

In nonfam ily househo ld

In subfam ily

Househo lder or spouse

Not re lated to head of

househou ld

Lingu is tic a lly is o lated

In m o bile home

B o th parents (or the s in g le

parent) have co llege degrees

No parent in househo ld ha s

h igh schoo l d ip loma

Not liv ing in a 2-parent

househo ld

Recent movers ( 1989- 1990)

In poverty

Rece iv ing pub lic ass is tance

Liv ing in gro up quarters

No parent in labo r fo rc e

No emp lo yed parent

In centra l c ity o f la rge metro

a rea

Percent of children

Enrolled

Not enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation SDAB tabulation references: central city

X01H25G, employed parent and parent in labor force X01P26G, group quarters X01H02G, public assistance X01P22G, poverty X01H18G,

movers X01H29G, 2-parent X01H01G, high school diploma and college degree X01P25G, mobile home X01H28G, linguistically isolated

X01P06G, nonrelative and householder X01C06G, subfamily X01C08G, nonfamily and female-headed X01H01G, black or Hispanic X01C04G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-19

Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk

The SDAB defines children as being “at risk”meaning likely to have difficulty attending,

performing well in, or completing schoolif their mothers have a certain combination of

characteristics. These characteristics, which tend to be associated with children who do not

perform as well in school as their peers, are that the mother:

• Is not married,

• Is not a high school graduate,

• Meets the poverty criteria, and

• Was under 20 years old at the time of the child’s birth.

Using these criteria, about 860,000 children 0 to 19 years old were categorized as being at

risk (out of a total 0 to 19-year-old population of 71.3 million). If the mother’s age was not

considered relevant, then a much larger group of children was defined as at risk: children

whose mothers were unmarried, lived in poverty, and had not completed high school

numbered close to 3.8 million (table 3-2). Unless otherwise specified, it is this larger group

that is analyzed in this section because the population of the many data cells becomes to thin

to analyze satisfactorily if only the smaller group is used.

Characteristics of at-risk children are summarized in table 3-2 and 3-3 and the following

sections.

Table 3-2. Children (0 to 19 years old) at risk, by age groups: 1990

At-risk children

At-risk children born to

a mother under 20

Number

 (in thousands)

Number

(in thousands)

Age

 Under 4 years old 997 176

 4- to 5-year-olds 452 19

 6- to 19-year-olds 2,331 662

Total (0- to 19-year-olds) 3,780 857

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation SDAB tabulation references E10A14R,

E10A16R, and E10A18R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-20 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Almost half of those 3.8 million at-risk children were black. About one-fourth were white,

and just above one-fourth were Hispanic (table 3-3). (All race groups are non-Hispanic.)

Table 3-3. Children (0 to 19 years old) at risk, by race and ethnicity: 1990

At-risk children At-risk children born to a

mother under 20

Race and ethnic origin Number

(in

thousands)

Percent

of total

Number

(in thousands)

Percent

of total

Hispanic 980 26 205 24

White 1,011 27 216 25

Black 1,645 44 411 48

Asian or Pacific Islander 59 1 8 1

American Indian,

Alaskan native, and

Aleut

75 2 15 2

Other 10 0 2 0

Total 3,780 100 857 100

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation SDAB tabulation references

E10A13R, E10A13R, and E10A17R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-21

Enrollment Patterns of 4- and 5-Year-Old Children at Risk by Language

About one out of every four at-risk children 4 to 5 years old had a mother whose usual

language spoken at home was something other than English. Less than half of these mothers

spoke English “very well.”

Of Hispanic origin at-risk, 4- or 5-year-old children, 83 percent had mothers who spoke a

language other than English at home (figure 3-15).

Figure 3-15. Percent of 4- to 5-year-old at-risk children whose mothers spoke a language

other than English, by race and ethnicity: 1990

40.4

81.2

83.5

3.6

4.6

25.7

0 2 5 5 0 7 5 10 0

American Indian/ 

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

All

Percent

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation . SDAB tabulation references E08A15R and

E10A15R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-22 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk by Status of Mother

At-risk students were only slightly less likely than those not at-risk to be enrolled (figure 3-

16). (As shown in figure 3-1, overall 91 percent of the 5- to 19-year-old population was

enrolled.) Of the at-risk children who were between 6 and 19 years old and had not yet

graduated from high school, 89 percent were enrolled in school. Only 11 percent of at-risk

students from 6 to 19 years old (about 250,000) were not enrolled. However, less than half of

the at-risk children aged four to five were enrolled in school.

Figure 3-16. Enrolled at-risk children: 1990

89.1

45.4

86.6

38.7

0 20 40 60 80 100

6- to 19-year-olds

4- to 5-year-olds

Children at-risk

Percent enrolled

Born to a mother under 20

All children at-risk

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation references E10A15R

and E10A17R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-23

Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk by Race and Ethnicity

The enrollment rates among at-risk 6- to 19-year-olds were strikingly similar regardless of the

race or ethnicity of the child. In this group, enrollments ranged from 88 percent for Hispanic

at-risk children to 91 percent of Asian/Pacific Islanders’ at-risk children (figure 3-17). The

percent enrolled when looking at all children was 89 percent (tabulation E10A17R).

Figure 3-17. Enrolled at-risk 6- to 19-year-olds, by race and ethnicity: 1990

89

91

88

90

89

0 20 40 60 80 100

American Indian/

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation . SDAB tabulation reference E10A17R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-24 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Although differences among ethnic groups were relatively small in the 6- to 19-year-old

population, they were noticeable when examining the enrollment of young, at-risk children.

Among at-risk 4- to 5-year-olds, 45 percent were enrolled in school (tabulation E10A15R).

White and Asian/Pacific Islander children were least likely to be enrolled (39 percent and 38

percent respectively). The highest enrollment rates were among the black and American

Indian groups (49 percent and 51 percent respectively).

Figure 3-18. Enrolled at-risk 4- to 5-year-olds, by race and ethnicity: 1990

51

38

43

49

39

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

American Indian/

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference E10A15R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-25

Enrollment Patterns of Children at Risk in Public Prekindergarten

About half (52 percent) of the at-risk 4- and 5-year-olds lived in school districts that did not

offer public prekindergarten programs (tabulation E10A15R).

The enrollment of at-risk 4- and 5-year-old children was slightly higher in school districts that

offered public prekindergarten than in districts where no public prekindergarten was offered.

The enrollment rate was 48 percent of at-risk 4- and 5-year-olds in school districts offering

public prekindergarten, compared with only 43 percent of those in school districts with no

public prekindergarten. (See table 3-4.)

Kindergarten availability was almost universal; only one percent of the at-risk 4- to 5-yearolds lived where it was not available. (Generally, of the 3.7 million 5-year-olds, 1.6 million

were enrolled in prekindergarten school and 900,000 were enrolled in grades 1-5, but figures

for the at-risk group are not available separately.)

Table 3-4. Preschool enrollment of at-risk 4- and 5-year-olds,

by availability of public prekindergarten: 1990

Enrollment

Public prekindergarten

available

Public prekindergarten

not available

 Enrolled 47.6 42.6

 Not enrolled 52.4 57.4

Total 100.0 100.0

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference E10A15R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-26 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment Patterns of School-Age Children 3 and 4 Years Old (i.e.,

Prekindergarten-Age)

Of the 7.3 million prekindergarten children ages 3 or 4 years old in the United States, about

one-third were enrolled in public or private prekindergarten programs. Twice as many 4-yearolds were enrolled as 3-year-olds. (This section does not discuss enrollment in public versus

private prekindergarten programs because of data quality limitations, see appendix B.)

However, participation in prekindergarten was not uniform across the population; the

proportion varied by degree of urbanicity, race, parental background, income, availability of

public prekindergarten, and other factors.

Figure 3-19 shows how prekindergarten enrollment of 3- and 4-year-olds varied from state to

state. Categories reflect enrollment populations from less than 20 percent to more than 35

percent. Specifically, from the extremes of the range, in North and South Dakota 16 percent

of children were enrolled in prekindergarten, while in Connecticut, New Jersey, and the

District of Columbia 40 percent or more were enrolled.

Figure 3-19. Percentages of 3- to 4-year-olds enrolled in prekindergarten: 1990

Less than 20.0%

20.0% to 24.9%

25.0% to 34.9%

35.0 to 46.0%

Not Available

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01G01.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-27

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Race and Ethnicity

As mentioned in the previous section, almost one-in-three 3- and 4-year-old children were

enrolled in prekindergarten. However, participation in prekindergarten was not uniform across

the population; the proportion varied by race. For example, only one-in-five Hispanic children

attended prekindergarten; white, black, and Asian/Pacific Islander children participated near

the one-in-three average.

Figure 3-20. Variations in prekindergarten enrollment rates,

by race and ethnicity: 1990

26

31

21

31

30

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

American Indian/

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific

Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C05G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-28 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Mother’s Current Age

When the mother in the household was very young, children in that household were much less

likely to participate in prekindergarten than the 3- to 4-year-old population overall. For

example, as figure 3-21 shows, the children in households with 15- to 19-year-old mothers

were about three times less likely to be enrolled in prekindergarten than the children in

households with 40- to 44-year-old mothers (16 percent enrolled versus 44 percent).

Participation by children of 30- to 44-year-old mothers was above the national average while

participation by children of mothers younger than 30 or older than 45 was lower. However,

with regards to the extreme ends of the range, the children of younger mothers had lower

participation rates than those of older mothers.

Figure 3-21. Enrolled prekindergarten children, by current age of mother in household:

1990

30.5

44.1

43.3

15.9

36.4

26.6

18.7

0 10 20 30 40 50

15-19

20-24

25-29

30-34

35-39

40-44

45+

Age of mother 

(years)

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01P01G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-29

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Parents’ Education

The relationship between the educational background of the parents in the household and

children’s prekindergarten participation was very strong. For any given family structurefor

example, two-parents or mother-onlythe greater the educational attainment of the parent(s)

in the household, the higher was the prekindergarten enrollment. Children living with parents

who had college degrees were about twice as likely to be enrolled in prekindergarten as those

living with parents who did not have college degrees. See table 3-5.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01P25G.

Enrollment in Prekindergarten for Children of Single Parents

One-fourth of 3- and 4-year-old children lived in single parent families. Children from

female-headed families participated in prekindergarten programs at a slightly lower rate than

children living in married couple families (27 percent versus 30 percent). Among 3- and 4-

year-olds in male-headed families, only 22 percent attended prekindergarten. (See tabulation

X01H01G.)

Table 3-5. Percent of 3- to 4-year-olds enrolled in prekindergarten, by parents’

education: 1990

Family structure

No high school

diploma

High school

diploma College degree

Two-parents 16 20 50

Mother-only 19 24 45
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-30 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Race and Ethnicity and Relationship to Household

Head

Prekindergarten participation rates varied by race and relationship to guardian. For example,

the overall participation rate for Asian children was 33 percent, above the national average of

32 percent (tabulation R02C06R); however, as shown in figure 3-22, the rate was about 12

percentage points lower for Asian children whose guardian was not a natural, adopted, or

step-parent. Although the enrollment rates were lower for Hispanics, the same pattern

occurred.

The participation rates of black and American Indian children were relatively similar

regardless of the child’s relationship to the guardian (figure 3-22).

Figure 3-22. Prekindergarten enrollment,

by relation to household head and race and ethnicity: 1990

33.8

2 1.3

3 1.7

34.8

24.5

35.3

23.2

32.3

3 1.0

27.3

24.1

17.9

26.3

23.4

29.1

20.2

13.4

28.8

24.8

28.8

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

American Indian/

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Percent enrolled

Other

Grandchild

Stepch ild

Natura l born or adopted

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference R02C06R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-31

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Family Mobility

Children not enrolled in prekindergarten were more likely to live in families that had recently

moved. For example, the participation rate of children whose families moved into their

housing in the prior 15 months was only 23 percentsignificantly lower than the enrolled 34

percent whose families had lived in the same home for 5 to 10 years (figure 3-23).

Figure 3-23. Prekindergarten enrollment, by length of residence in home: 1990

25.9

31.3

33.8

29.8

23.4

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

More than 20 1/4 years

From 10 1/4 to 20 1/4 years

From 5 1/4 to 10 1/4 years

From 1 1/4 to 5 1/4 years

Less than 1 1/4 years

Length of residence 

in

present home...

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H29G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-32 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Family Income

Children from low income families were much less likely than children from high income

families to be enrolled in prekindergarten. As can be seen in figure 3-24, the enrollment rate

for children from families with low annual incomes was about 23 percent compared to about

50 percent or greater for high income families. (Low annual incomes were less than $25,000;

high annual incomes were $75,000 or more. In 1989 the median family income was $34,213.)

Figure 3-24. Prekindergarten enrollment, by family income: 1990

22.2

23.5

22.7

23.7

28.1

35.1

43.4

49.8

58.7

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

 Less than $5,000

 $5,000 to $9,999

 $10,000 to $14,999

 $15,000 to $24,999

 $25,000 to $34,999

 $35,000 to $49,999

 $50,000 to $74,999

 $75,000 to $99,999

 $100,000 or more

Family income

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference P01H12G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-33

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Family Income and Race

Fifty percent or more of all children in families with incomes of $100,000 or more were

enrolled in prekindergarten, with the exception of Hispanic children. Hispanic children were

less likely to be enrolled in prekindergarten, regardless of family income. Only at the higher

income levels ($50,000 and above) did Hispanic prekindergarten enrollment approximate the

national one-in-three participation rate. At the lower income levels (below $25,000), black

and American Indian children were somewhat more likely to be enrolled in prekindergarten

than children of other racial and ethnic groups. See table 3-6.

Table 3-6. Prekindergarten participation rates of 3- to 4-year-olds

by family income and race and ethnicity: 1990

White Black Hispanic

Asian/

Pacific Indian

American

Indian/

Alaskan

native

Family income

$100,000 or

more

59.7 49.7 43.6 53.0 51.2

$75,000-$99,999 50.9 45.9 34.9 44.8 37.2

$50,000-$74,999 44.5 42.5 28.6 40.2 35.8

$35,000-$49,999 35.8 36.2 23.8 33.5 29.5

$25,000-$34,999 28.5 32.6 19.5 26.6 29.0

$15,000-$24,999 23.4 29.0 17.0 22.5 26.5

$10,000-$14,999 22.3 27.8 16.7 22.1 28.9

$5,000-$9,999 23.4 26.8 17.5 22.1 28.3

Less than $5,000 22.6 24.1 16.9 21.8 25.0

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference R02H10R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-34 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Poverty Status and Race and Ethnicity

Nearly 1.5 million, almost 20 percent, of the nation’s 3- and 4-year-old children lived in

families with incomes below the poverty level. For black and American Indian children, the

proportion was much higher (43 percent). One-third of Hispanic 3- and 4-year-olds lived in

poverty, while only about 12 percent of white children had families with poverty-level

incomes. (See tabulation R02H18R.)

Overall about one-third of 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in prekindergarten. But among

those living in poverty, only 20 percent were enrolled. Figure 3-25 shows that the lower level

of participation in prekindergarten programs by children living in poverty was consistent

across all races with the exception of American Indian children. Regardless of race, there was

a fairly substantial difference in prekindergarten enrollment between children living in

poverty and those who were not.

There was almost no discernible difference in the prekindergarten participation rates of white,

black, and Asian children not living in poverty: the prekindergarten enrollment rate was 35 to

36 percent. Among white, black, and Asian children who were living in poverty, black

children were a little more likely to attend prekindergarten. Hispanic children had the lowest

prekindergarten enrollment rate among groups in poverty. With the exception of American

Figure 3-25. Prekindergarten enrollment rates, by race and poverty: 1990

27.7

20.0

16.6

25.3

22.3

29.4

35.9

22.6

35.2

36.0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

American Indian/

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Percent enrolled

Not in poverty

In poverty

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference R02H18R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-35

Indians, all groups’ prekindergarten participation rates were 5 to 16 percentage points lower

for those living in families with incomes below the poverty level than for those living in

families with incomes above the poverty level.

Enrollment in Prekindergarten by Mother’s Language Status

Participation in prekindergarten may be affected by language barriers, such as the Englishspeaking ability of the parents in the household or the household’s linguistic isolation. The

children of mothers who spoke “little or no” English were less likely to be enrolled in

prekindergarten than those whose mothers spoke English “very well.” See figure 3-26. (The

prekindergarten enrollment rate for children whose mothers spoke only English was 30.2

percent.)

Figure 3-26. Prekindergarten enrollment rate for children of mothers

whose primary language is not English: 1990

English-speaking

ability:

21.3

22.1

17.0

28.8

29.3

22.0

35.5

31.4

24.7

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Mother's primary language is

other than Spanish or Asian

Mother's primary language is

an Asian language

Mother's primary language is

Spanish

Percent enrolled

Very well

Well

Little or none

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01P06G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-36 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Private School Enrollment Patterns

At the 1990 Census in the United States, there were about 4.6 million children enrolled in

private school for grades kindergarten through 12. Since 38.6 million children were enrolled

in public schools for those grades, enrollment in private schools accounts for about 12 percent

of total school enrollment. (There were approximately 4.3 million children not enrolled.) (See

tabulation X05C03G.)

Data collected by the 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) counted almost 25,000

private schools in nine typology categories. Table 3-7 shows the number of schools and total

number of children enrolled by private school type. The same year, there were almost 80,000

public schools. Based on these data, the average size of private schools was much smaller

(fewer than 200 children) than public schools (about 500 children). (SASS data were

collected a year later than the Census data so the number of children is naturally different.)

Figure 3-27 illustrates the 1990 Census data for private school enrollments mapped to school

geographical variations. (Private school enrollment data were collected where the student

lived, not where the student attended school.) Overall 10 percent of children from 5 to 17

years old attended private schools. Three states had private school enrollment rates less than

five percent; no state had a private school enrollment rate less than three percent. The three

states with low private school enrollment rates have very low densities of population:

Wyoming, Utah, and West Virginia.

Table 3-7. Private schools by type and enrollments: 1990-91

School type Number of schools Number of children

(in thousands)

Catholic

 Parochial

 Diocesan

 Private

5,437

2,400

 894

1,364

833

359

Other religious

 Conservative Christian

 Affiliated

 Unaffiliated

4,045

4,262

3,169

547

632

290

Nonsectarian

 Regular

 Special emphasis

 Special education

1,950

1,700

833

432

158

60

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey, 1990-91 .
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-36 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Private School Enrollment Patterns

At the 1990 Census in the United States, there were about 4.6 million children enrolled in

private school for grades kindergarten through 12. Since 38.6 million children were enrolled

in public schools for those grades, enrollment in private schools accounts for about 12 percent

of total school enrollment. (There were approximately 4.3 million children not enrolled.) (See

tabulation X05C03G.)

Data collected by the 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) counted almost 25,000

private schools in nine typology categories. Table 3-7 shows the number of schools and total

number of children enrolled by private school type. The same year, there were almost 80,000

public schools. Based on these data, the average size of private schools was much smaller

(fewer than 200 children) than public schools (about 500 children). (SASS data were

collected a year later than the Census data so the number of children is naturally different.)

Figure 3-27 illustrates the 1990 Census data for private school enrollments mapped to school

geographical variations. (Private school enrollment data were collected where the student

lived, not where the student attended school.) Overall 10 percent of children from 5 to 17

years old attended private schools. Three states had private school enrollment rates less than

five percent; no state had a private school enrollment rate less than three percent. The three

states with low private school enrollment rates have very low densities of population:

Wyoming, Utah, and West Virginia.

Table 3-7. Private schools by type and enrollments: 1990-91

School type Number of schools Number of children

(in thousands)

Catholic

 Parochial

 Diocesan

 Private

5,437

2,400

 894

1,364

833

359

Other religious

 Conservative Christian

 Affiliated

 Unaffiliated

4,045

4,262

3,169

547

632

290

Nonsectarian

 Regular

 Special emphasis

 Special education

1,950

1,700

833

432

158

60

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey, 1990-91 .
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-37

Six states and the District of Columbia had rates of 15 percent or higher; four of those states

are in the Northeast—Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Nine

statesDelaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey, New York,

Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin had private school enrollment rates greater than 20 percent in

50 percent or more of their school districts.

Figure 3-27. Private school enrollment of 5- to 17-year-olds: 1990

Less than 5.0%

5.0% to 9.9%

10.0% to 14.9%

15.0% to 16.8%

Not Available

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01G01.

The following sections examine the background variablessuch as race and ethnicity,

educational attainment of parents, family structures, and family incomerelated to children

who were enrolled in private school. Unless otherwise stated, these privately-educated school

children were from 5 to 17 years old (the main ages of compulsory school attendance) during

the decennial census.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-38 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Private School Enrollment by Grade Level and Sex

Figure 3-28 compares the grade distribution of children in grades 1 to 12 in private and public

schools. The lower the grade level, the higher the percentage of children who were enrolled in

private school. Seventy-five percent of the 4.0 million 5- to 17-year-old students in private

schools were in grades 1-8, compared to 70 percent of the 37.2 million enrolled in the same

grades in public schools.

There were almost equal proportions of male and female children enrolled in private schools

as in public schools.

Figure 3-28. Enrollment of 5- to 17-year-olds in grades 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12

 in public and private schools: 1990

Public schools

43.1

32.2

24.7

37.5

32.6

29.9

0 10 20 30 40 50

Grades 1-4

Grades 5-8

Grades 9-12

Grades 1-4

Grades 5-8

Grades 9-12

Private schools

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C01G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-39

Private School Enrollment by Race and Ethnicity

Private school participation rates showed marked variations by race. Among 5- to 17-yearolds, white and Asian children enrolled in private schools at about the same rate12 to 13

percent. This level of participation was over twice that of black children. Hispanic children (8

percent) enrolled in private schools at a higher rate than black children (6 percent) or

American Indian children (5 percent) (figure 3-29).

Eighty percent of the children who were enrolled in private schools were white, compared to

about 68 percent in public schools. Black and American Indian children were the most underrepresented groups in private schools. Black children comprised under 8 percent of privately

enrolled children, compared to over 15 percent of publicly enrolled children (tabulation

X01C05G).

Figure 3-29. Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by race and ethnicity: 1990

4.9

12.9

7.6

5.9

12.6

0 4 8 12 16

American Indian/

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Percent enrolled in private school

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C05G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-40 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Private School Enrollment by Relationship to Household Head and Race and Ethnicity

Stepchildren or children whose guardian was an “other relative” were enrolled in private

school half as frequently as birth or adopted children about (6 percent versus 12 percent)

(figure 3-30).

Figure 3-30. Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds in families,

by relationship to guardian: 1990

5.0

6.9

5.5

10.9

0 3 6 9 12

Other relative

Grandchild

Stepchild

Natural born or

adopted

Relationship

to guardian

Percent enrolled in private school

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01C06G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-41

Figure 3-31 examines private school enrollment rates on the basis of household relationship and

race and ethnicity. White or Asian children living with relatives were more likely than all other

children to be enrolled in private school.

Figure 3-31. Percent enrolled in private school of all children in grades 1-4,

by race and ethnicity and relationship to guardian: 1990

3.2

4.8

3.4

7.6

10

7.6

5.4

7.5

4.5

6.7

5.4

5.9

5.2

13.4

6.3

9.6

9

4.9

13.6

13.4

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Natural born or adopted

Stepchild

Grandchild

Other relative

Relationship to 

guardian

Percent enrolled in private school

American Indian/Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference R04C06R. Data are

for children “assigned grades 1-4” (see appendix A).
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-42 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Private School Enrollment by Child’s Place of Birth

Eighty percent of private school children lived in the same state in which they were born,

compared to about 75 percent of public school children. Four percent of the children enrolled

in public schools were foreign-born, compared to only two percent in private schools

(tabulation X01C07G).

Private School Enrollment by Home-ownership Status of Parents

Children from home-owning families were twice as likely to be enrolled in private schools as

children from nonhome-owning families (tabulation X01H28G).

Private School Enrollment by Mother’s Current Age

The children in households with older mothers were more likely to attend private school than

those with younger mothers. Children with mothers in the 40- to 54-year-old age group had

an enrollment rate of 13 percent, twice as high as the rate for children whose mothers were

from 20 to 24 years old (6 percent) (figure 3-32).

Figure 3-32. Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by age of mother: 1990

4.5

4.7

6.9

10.0

11.8

12.4

12.8

25.0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

15-19

20-24

25-29

30-34

35-39

40-44

45-49

50-59

Age of mother

Percent enrolled in private school

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01P01G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-43

Private School Enrollment by Mother’s Ability to Speak English

Among children living in households where the mother spoke a language other than English

at home, private school enrollment rates varied depending on the level of English-speaking

ability and the primary language.

In both private and public schools, almost 84 percent of children in households with mothers

had mothers who spoke only English. Ten percent of children in private schools lived in

households with mothers who spoke English “very well” (and spoke another language as

well), compared to eight percent in public schools. Those children whose mothers spoke

“little or no” English accounted for two percent of those in private schools versus about five

percent for public schools (tabulation X01P06G).

Figure 3-33 illustrates the variability in private school enrollment rates by the mother’s

English speaking ability and by the primary language spoken. The children of Spanishspeaking mothers were somewhat less likely to be enrolled in private schools, regardless of

how well their mothers spoke English. (For comparison, the private school enrollment rate for

children whose mothers spoke only English was 11.4 percent.)

Figure 3-33. Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by English-speaking ability of their mothers: 1990

English-speaking

ability:

11.1

4.8

3.9

18.8

11.0

8.3

19.0

16.8

9.5

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Mother's primary language is

other than Spanish or Asian

Mother's primary language is

Asian

Mother's primary language is

Spanish

Percent enrolled in private school

Very well

Well

Little or none

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01P06G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-44 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Private School Enrollment by Parents’ Education and Race and Ethnicity

Private school enrollment rates were greater for children living in households where the

parents had higher levels of educational attainment. Children living with a mother or father

who had a college degree were four times more likely to be enrolled in private school than

children living with a mother or father who did not have a high school diploma (roughly 20

percent versus 5 percent). Regardless of their age, children living with college graduate

mothers were more than twice as likely to be enrolled in private schools as those living with

mothers who had no college education (figure 3-34).

In addition, higher private school enrollment rates were associated with higher combined

educational attainment of the parents (tabulation X01P25G). For example, children in

households where one parent had a college degree and the other had no high school diploma

enrolled in private schools at a rate of about 12 percent. This figure was about 16 percent if

one parent had a college degree and the other a high school diplomaand about 23 percent if

both parents in the household were college graduates.

Considering family structure in addition to the educational attainment of parents, differences

in private school enrollment rates were greater. For example, a child living with a mother only

who had no high school diploma was eight times less likely to be enrolled in private school

Figure 3-34. Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by educational attainment of mother in the household: 1990

15.7

9.5

7.1

4.1

22.0

14.3

10.0

4.9

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

College degree

Some college

High school diploma

Less than high school

diploma

Educational 

attainment of mother

Percent enrolled in private school

5- to 13-year-olds

14- to 19-year-olds

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01P25G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-45

than a child living in a two-parent household where both parents had college degrees (3

percent versus 23 percent).

Table 3-8 presents private school enrollment information for grades 1-4. White, black,

Hispanic, and Asian children in these grades whose fathers or mothers were college graduates

were almost equally likely to attend private school. With the exception of American Indian

children, about one-in-five of those who had either a mother or father with a college degree

attended private school. Among children whose parents’ educational attainment was less than

a college degree, blacks and American Indians were somewhat less likely to be enrolled in

private school.

Table 3-8. Percent of children in grades 1 through 4 enrolled in private school,

by education of parents with whom the child lives and by race: 1990

Educational

attainment of parents White Black Hispanic

Asian/

Pacific

Islander

Amer.

Indian/

Alaskan

native

Father

 High school,

no diploma

 High school diploma

 Some college,

no degree

 College degree

7

9

13

19

 4

 6

11

17

 4

 8

 12

 21

 5

 8

13

19

4

4

6

10

Mother

 High school,

no diploma

 High school diploma

 Some college,

no degree

 College degree

6

10

13

19

 2

 4

 9

18

 3

 8

 14

 21

 4

 9

14

 21

3

4

6

11

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference R04P17R.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-46 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Private School Enrollment by Family Income

Figure 3-35 illustrates the relationship of enrollment to family income. The higher the family

income category, the higher percentage of children in that category enrolled in private school.

Children from high income families ($50,000 or more) were more than three times as likely to

be enrolled in private schools as children from low income families (under $25,000).

However, although children from low income families were less likely to be enrolled in

private schools, there was some participation in private schools at all family income levels.

Of the 5- to 17-year-olds who attended private school, some 17 percent had family incomes

under $25,000 and over 20 percent had family incomes of $75,000 or more. In contrast, of the

5- to 17-year-olds who attended public school, over 35 percent had family incomes under

$25,000 and less than 10 percent had family incomes of $75,000 or more (tabulation

X01H12G).

Figure 3-35. Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by family income: 1990

3.7

3.8

4.7

6.4

8.7

11.1

13.9

17.1

25.8

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Less than $5,000

$5,000-9,999

$10,000-14,499

$15,000-24,999

$25,000-34,999

$35,000-49,999

$50,000-74,999

$75,000-99,999

$100,000 or more

Family income

Percent enrolled in private school

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H12G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 3-47

Private School Enrollment by Family Mobility

Recent moversdefined as those who had moved in the 15 months prior to April 1,

1990had lower private school enrollment rates than families who had lived in their homes

for longer periods. Generally, the longer a family had lived in its current home, the more

likely the children in the home would attend private schools.

Figure 3-36. Percent enrolled in private school of all enrolled 5- to 17-year-olds,

by year family moved into present home: 1990

25.9

31.3

33.8

29.8

23.4

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

More than 20 1/4 years

From 10 1/4 to 20 1/4 years

From 5 1/4 to 10 1/4 years

From 1 1/4 to 5 1/4 years

Less than 1 1/4 years

Length of residence 

in

present home...

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H29G.
Enrollment Patterns by Status of Children

Page 3-48 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Private School Enrollment by Household Location

About 62 percent of children in private schools lived in large Metropolitan Statistical Areas

(one million population or more). This compared to about 47 percent of public school

children. By contrast, only 13 percent of private school children were from nonmetropolitan

areas, compared with 26 percent of public school children (figure 3-37).

Figure 3-37. Distribution of 5- to 17-year-olds enrolled in public and private school,

by area of residence: 1990

Public school

Central city, 

small MSA

7%

MSA under 

250,000

9%

Non MSA

26%

Central city, 

large MSA

17%

Balance,

large MSA

30%

Balance,

small MSA

12%

Private school

Central city, 

large MSA

26%

MSA under 

250,000

7%

Non MSA

13%

Balance,

small MSA

10%

Central city, 

small MSA

8%

Balance,

large MSA

36%

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H25G.
Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-1

Chapter 4. School District Profile

This chapter provides a profile of this country’s nearly 15,000 school districts. To build the

profile, this chapter examines the SDAB data set from five different perspectives to learn

what the data can tell us about:

• School Districts,

• Prekindergarten Enrollment by School District Characteristics,

• Public Prekindergarten Enrollment by School District Characteristics,

• Private School Enrollment by School District Characteristics, and

• Comparison of Enrollment in Private and Public Schools by School District

Characteristics.

The populations comprising the school districts varied by the same kind of social,

demographic, and economic conditions considered in the last chapter. Some of these factors

have been linked in topical educational research to schools, districts, and states with higher

dropout rates.

This chapter differs from the preceding in that its focus is on the school district and not on the

population of school children overall. In the last chapter, the statistics showed numbers of

children. In this chapter, the focus is primarily on numbers of school districts and of children

in those school districts. Whether counting school districts or school-age children, many of

the characteristics considered are the same. For example, the last chapter looked at children

by income of the child’s family. This chapter looks at school districts by the median family

income of the district. The last chapter showed data on children of minority race and ethnicity.

This chapter shows school districts by the districts’ percentages of ethnic and racial

minorities.

Therefore, this chapter provides a basis for school administrators, educators, and others who

are interested in comparing their local experience with national patterns. As indicated

previously, state and school district data are summarized in the SDAB, which is available to

the public.
School District Profile

Page 4-2 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

General Characteristics of School Districts

In the United States, there are about 15,000 public school districts of three different types:

elementary, secondary, and consolidated (both elementary and secondary). The trend has been

toward consolidated and away from separate elementary and secondary school district systems. By

1990 three-fourths of all school districts were consolidated districts, educating more than 90

percent of all children enrolled in public school (table 4-1). Twenty-three states had only

consolidated school districts.

Table 4-1. Type of school district and enrollment: 1990

Type of school

districts

Number of

districts Percent

Number of children

enrolled (public)

(in thousands)

Percent

Total Districts 14,897 100 39,876 100

Elementary 3,091 21 2,201 6

Secondary 561 4 827 2

Consolidated 11,245 75 36,848 92

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation references T02D01 and T01C02G.

Most school districts (about three-fourths) were small, having fewer than 2,500 students (figure 4-

1). More than half served fewer than 1,000 students. Only 10 percent had 5,000 or more students.

However, reflecting the urban concentrations of our population, most students were enrolled in

larger districts. Almost half (46 percent) were enrolled in districts with 10,000 or more

students (figure 4-1).

Similarly, although most school districts are rural, most children were educated in urban school

districts. Twenty-five percent of school districts were located in urban areas, and they enrolled 80

percent of all students. In contrast, nearly 60 percent of school districts were located in rural areas,

and they enrolled only 17 percent of school-age children (figure 4-2). (The category “mixed”

accounted for 15 percent of school districts but only 3 percent of children.)
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-3

Figure 4-1. Distribution of school districts by size of district

and distribution of children by size of district: 1990

Distribution of children by size of school district

5,000-9,999

16%

2,500-4,999

16%

1,000-2,499

13%

Less than 1,000

9%

10,000 or more

46%

Distribution of school districts by size of district

1,000-2,499

23%

2,500-4,999

12%

Less than 1,000

55%

10,000 or more

4%

5,000-9,999

6%

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation references T04G01 and T03G01.
School District Profile

Page 4-4 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Figure 4-2. Distribution of school districts and of children,

by type of community: 1990

Distribution of school districts:

Schools districts in rural areas (country + town) = 60%

Country

46%

Town

13%

Central City

4%

Mixed

15%

Suburban

14%

Urban Outside 

Urbanized Area

7%

Distribution of school-age children:

School-age children in rural areas (country + town) = 17%

Central City

38%

Suburban

36%

Country

15% Mixed

3%

Town

2%

Urban Outside 

Urbanized Area

6%

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation references G28D04 and G27C02G.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-5

Characteristics of Minority-Predominant School Districts

There were 1,279 minority-predominant school districts (9 percent)—those in which white

children constituted less than half of the total school population. One-fourth of children enrolled in

public schools lived in minority-predominant school districts.

The percentage of children in minority-predominant school districts varied widely by state (figure

4-3). More than half of school-age children in Hawaii, New Mexico, and the District of Columbia

lived in minority-predominant school districts. Other states with high percentages (25 to 49.9

percent) of children living in minority-predominant school districts are Mississippi, New York,

Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Illinois, Arizona, Alabama, and New Jersey. Fewer

than one percent lived in minority-predominant school districts in Utah, Oregon, Nebraska,

Minnesota, Idaho, Maine, West Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Nevada, Kentucky, Iowa,

and Delaware.

Figure 4-3. Percentage of children living in

minority-predominant school districts: 1990

Less than 1.0%

1.0% to 24.9%

25.0% to 49.9%

50.0% or more

Not Available

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference R07G01.
School District Profile

Page 4-6 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Sixty percent of all minority children in public schools were enrolled in minority-predominant

districts. These districts educated 9.9 million children in 199026 percent of all children in the

United States. This includes 3.2 million Hispanic children, 3.5 million black children, 590,000

Asian and Pacific Islanders, 169,000 American Indians, and 2.4 million white children.

More than half of enrolled black children (56 percent) were enrolled in minority-predominant

school districts (figure 4-4); over one-fourth (29 percent) were enrolled in school districts where

black students were in the majority (tabulation R10C03R). Similarly, two-thirds of Hispanic

children were enrolled in minority-predominant districts (figure 4-4); nearly one-third (31 percent)

were enrolled in districts where Hispanic students were the majority (tabulation R12C03R).

Almost half of Hispanic children compared to one-third of black children attended public schools

in districts with more than 70 percent minority populations.

There were other notable features of minority-predominant school districts. For example, these

districts were much more likely to be located in urban areas. Almost two-thirds were central city

districts, reflecting the general geographic distribution of the minority population. Almost 30

percent of children in minority-predominant districts lived in families with incomes below the

poverty level and about twenty percent lived in a family receiving public assistance. However,

despite low family incomes, 29 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in minority-predominant districts

were enrolled in prekindergarten; this was about the same as the national average.

Figure 4-4. Percentage of each race/ethnicity enrolled in public schools in minoritypredominant school districts: 1990

.

39.8

47.5

66.3

56.2

9.0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

American Indian/

Alaskan native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference R07P02G.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-7

Other Characteristics of School Districts

Table 4-2 summarizes other key census demographic and economic data for school districts which

illustrate information in the SDAB. Such data provide a national picture of how many children live

in districts with selected characteristics of interest to school administrators, such as high dropout

rates or extreme levels of poverty.

For example, there were almost ten million children living in school districts with high school

dropout rates of 20 percent or more. (Dropouts in this section refers to children 16 to 19 years old

who were not high school graduates and not enrolled in school according to the 1990 Census.)

There were more than 5 million children living with parents who had no high school diploma.

There were more than 1,400 districts (inclusive of more than 4.1 million children) where more

than one-third of families had incomes below the poverty level.

Almost all school districts (elementary and consolidated) offered kindergarten classes, but only 24

percent of those districts had public prekindergarten programs. About 3.3 million children

assigned grade “PK” lived in districts with such programs. (See “Grade in School,” appendix A.)

Table 4-2. School district profiles: 1990

Characteristics of school district population

Number of

districts

Number of

children

(in thousands)

Dropout rate of 20% or more of 16- to 19-yearolds3,285 9,889

With prekindergarten 3,435 3,335

Median family income:

 $50,000 or more 1,263 5,818

 Less than $20,000 1,165 1,499

Districts with 35% or more children:

 With family income below poverty level 1,454 4,180

 Foreign born 345 5,525

 Both parents in household with college degree 1,349 5,628

 Neither parent in household has high school

 diploma

1,051 5,388

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation references: dropout P11G01,

prekindergarten P01G01, family income E02G01, poverty level E04G01, foreign born D14G01, college degree D10G01, high school diploma D12G01.
School District Profile

Page 4-8 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Prekindergarten Enrollment by School District Characteristics

Overall, about 32 percent of the approximately 7 million 3- and 4-year-old children were

enrolled in prekindergarten. About 46 percent of school districts had prekindergarten

enrollment rates less than 20 percent; only 13 percent of school districts enrolled over 40

percent of this age group.

In this section, the characteristics of school districts with low prekindergarten enrollment rates

are compared to those with higher enrollment rates on variables such as size of school district,

affluence, and parents’ education. For the purposes of this section, given the national

prekindergarten enrollment rate of 32 percent, low enrollment is defined as less than 20

percent, middle enrollment is defined as 20 percent to 40 percent, and higher enrollment is

defined as more than 40 percent.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-9

Prekindergarten Enrollment by Size of School District

Prekindergarten enrollment rates did not vary significantly among school districts with 2,500

or more students. In the smaller school districts (fewer than 2,500 school-age children), rates

were somewhat lower than the overall rate of 32 percent. Enrollments ranged from 26 percent

to 30 percent in these districts, with the exception of the smallest districts where enrollment

was somewhat greater than the national percentage (34.6 percent).

Figure 4-5. Enrollment of 3- and 4-year-olds in prekindergarten

by size of school districts: 1990

34.6

26.1

27.1

28.2

30.3

32.8

33.1

32.2

32.2

33.7

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Less than 150

150-299

300-599

600-999

1,000-2,499

2,500-4,999

5,000-9,999

10,000-24,999

25,000-49,999

50,000 or more

Size of school 

district

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference T03C02G.
School District Profile

Page 4-10 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Prekindergarten Enrollment by Community Type

Suburban school districts had higher prekindergarten enrollment rates than those in town and

country areas. Only 9 percent of suburban districts had prekindergarten enrollment rates lower

than 20 percent. However, of the school districts classified as “town” or “country” (i.e., rural),

about 60 and 55 percent respectively had low prekindergarten enrollment rates (less than 20

percent). Correspondingly, 43 percent of suburban school districts had high enrollment rates,

enrolling more than 40 percent of the 3- and 4-year-olds in the district, compared to 18

percent of country school districts and 12 percent of town school districts. Approximately 70

percent of central city districts had “medium” prekindergarten enrollment rates (from 20 to 40

percent).

Table 4-3. Prekindergarten enrollment, by type of community: 1990

Distribution of percent of school districts in...

Central

city Suburban Town Country

Low enrollment (less than 20%) 13.1 8.7 59.8 54.8

Medium enrollment (20 to 40%) 73.4 48.7 28.7 27.1

Higher enrollment (more than 40%) 15.5 42.6 11.5 18.1

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference G28D24.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-11

Prekindergarten Enrollment by District Family Income

The higher the median family income in the school district’s community, the more likely it

was to have a higher prekindergarten enrollment. Of school districts with median family

incomes of $50,000 or more, less than four percent had low enrollments, while nearly threefourths had higher prekindergarten enrollment rates (over 40 percent). In contrast, among

school districts with median family incomes lower than $25,000, two-thirds had low

prekindergarten enrollment rates (less than 20 percent). Fewer than 10 percent of districts

with median family incomes under $50,000 had higher prekindergarten enrollments.

Table 4-4. Prekindergarten enrollment, by districts’ median household income: 1990

Distribution of percent of school districts

in districts with median incomes of...

Less than

$25,000

$25,000 -

$50,000

$50,000

or more

Low enrollment (less than 20%) 65.5 43.4 3.6

Medium enrollment (20 to 40%) 28.1 47.8 26.5

Higher enrollment (40% or more) 6.4 8.8 69.8

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference E04D24.
School District Profile

Page 4-12 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Prekindergarten Enrollment by District Incidence of Poverty

Lower prekindergarten enrollment rates are associated with poverty. Among school districts

where the incidence of children in poverty was high (more than 25 percent), 41 percent had

low enrollment rates and only 7 percent had high enrollment rates. In contrast, where the

incidence of poverty was low (five percent or lower), less than 25 percent of school districts

had low enrollment rates and 58 percent had high enrollment rates.

Table 4-5. Prekindergarten enrollment,

by districts’ percent living below poverty threshold: 1990

Children in Poverty Low Enrollment

(Less than 20%)

Higher Enrollment

(More than 40%)

Less than 5% 25 58

25% or more 41 7

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference F01D02.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-13

Prekindergarten Enrollment by Family Structure

Districts with a higher percentage of children in two-parent families tend to have higher

prekindergarten enrollment rates. Among districts where most children were in two-parent

families, about 40 percent of the children were in districts with higher prekindergarten

enrollment. On the other hand, in districts where less than 50 percent of the children were in

two-parent families, roughly 13 percent of the children were in districts with higher

prekindergarten rates (figure 4-6).

Figure 4-6. Higher prekindergarten enrollment rates in districts,

with higher rates of two-parent families: 1990

13.7

2.8

7.2

6.1

19.7

41.4

0 10 20 30 40 50

Less than 50

50-59

60-69

70-79

80-89

90 or more

Whe re the 

district percent 

of children in 

two-parent 

families is ...

Percent of all children who reside in districts with 40% or 

more preschool enrollment

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference D01D24.
School District Profile

Page 4-14 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Public Prekindergarten Availability and School District Characteristics

Nationally, only 3,400—about one-fourth of the nearly 15,000 school districts—provided

public prekindergarten programs.1 In 20 states and the District of Columbia, more than 25

percent of school districts offered prekindergarten. Seven states did not provide public

prekindergarten programs in any of their school districts: Alabama, Missouri, Nevada, New

Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, and Wyoming (figure 4-7).

This section analyzes the availability of public prekindergarten based on school district

characteristics.

 

1

 Of the almost 7.8 million children the SDAB has assigned grade “PK” (prekindergarten), about 3.3 million

(roughly 43 percent) live in school districts that provide public prekindergarten.

Figure 4-7. Percentage of school districts in each state offering public prekindergarten:

1990

Less than 10.0%

10.0% to 49.9%

50.0% to 89.9%

90.0% or more

No Public Pre-K

Not Available

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference P02G01.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-15

Public Prekindergarten Availability by Size and Community Type

Large school districts were about two-and-a-half times more likely to provide public

prekindergarten programs than small school districts (figure 4-8).

Forty-nine percent of the largest school districts (all those with more than 10,000 students)

offered prekindergarten programs, compared to only 18 percent of the smallest school

districts (all with fewer than 1,000) (tabulation P02D02).

Figure 4-8. School districts with public prekindergarten,

by size of school district: 1990

13

20

27

28

29

34

44

58

66

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Less than 300

300-599

600-999

1,000-2,499

2,500-4,999

5,000-9,999

10,000-24,999

25,000-49,999

50,000 or more

Size of school 

district

Percent of school districts

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference P02D02.
School District Profile

Page 4-16 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Public Prekindergarten Availability by District Family Income

In general, the higher the median income of the community, the more likely that the school

district offered prekindergarten (figure 4-9). For example, in districts with median family

incomes of $40,000 or more, the proportion of school districts providing public

prekindergarten was higher than the national average of 24 percent. In contrast, among of

school districts with median family incomes under $15,000, only 16 percent provided public

prekindergarten programs.

Figure 4-9. School districts with public prekindergarten programs,

by districts’ median family income: 1990

16.2

19.0

19.5

23.9

24.7

25.1

27.6

33.6

28.9

0 10 20 30 40

Less than $15,000

$15,000-19,999

$20,000-24,999

$25,000-29,999

$30,000-34,999

$35,000-39,999

$40,000-44,999

$45,000-49,999

$50,000 or more

Median income of 

school district

Percent of school districts

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference P02D17.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-17

Public Prekindergarten Availability by Unemployment and Poverty

Both in school districts with low unemployment (less than 6 percent) and high unemployment

(more than 10 percent), about 20 percent provided public prekindergarten (tabulation

P02D15).

Seventeen percent of school districts with half or more families of school-age children living

in poverty provided prekindergarten programs (figure 4-10). This compared to a national

average of 24 percent and about 30 percent in districts with median incomes greater than

$45,000.

Figure 4-10. School districts with public prekindergarten,

 by poverty levels: 1990

21.3

27.0

24.7

23.0

25.6

22.9

25.1

17.4

0 10 20 30

Less than 5.0

5.0-9.9

10.0-14.9

15.0-19.9

20.0-24.9

25.0-34.9

35.0-49.9

50.0 or more

Percent poverty 

rate

Percent of school districts

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference P02D15.
School District Profile

Page 4-18 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Public Prekindergarten Availability by District Minority Populations

School districts with larger minority populations were more likely to provide prekindergarten

programs (figure 4-11).

Thirty-nine percent of school districts where minorities comprised 90 percent or more of the

school-age population offered prekindergarten programs. On the other hand, only 20 percent

provided prekindergarten opportunities when minorities comprised 10 percent or less of the

school-age population (tabulation P02D14).

Figure 4-11. School districts with public prekindergarten programs,

by minority school-age population: 1990

13.6

24.2

28.0

32.8

26.3

34.0

39.0

0 10 20 30 40

Less than 0.9

1.0-9.9

10.0-29.9

30.0-49.9

50.0-69.9

70.0-89.9

90.0 or more

Percent 

minority

Percent of school districts

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference P02D14.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-19

Private School Enrollment Rates by School District Characteristics:

Using the SDAB

This section provides a detailed example of how the SDAB can be used to address a specific

interest. Specifically, it examines private school enrollment rates to determine how they

varied according to the characteristics of school districts. Seventeen such characteristics are

displayed in table 4-6 (on pages 4-24 and 4-25), with enrollment data for children in grades 1

through 12. For this population of children, the overall private school enrollment rate was 9.8

percent. Each school district characteristic has three categories corresponding to low,

medium, and high values of the characteristic. For example, “size of school district” has three

size categories: small (fewer than 1,000), medium (1,000 to 10,000) and large (more than

10,000).

For each characteristic, the data in the table show the private school enrollment rate of

children residing in school districts with this characteristic. For example, children in grades 1

through 12 residing in rural school districts with a population density of more than 50 persons

per square mile had a private school enrollment rate of six percent. Rural school districts in

which the population density was less than one person per square mile had an enrollment rate

of 3 percent in private schools.

Private school enrollment rates appeared to be associated with the following school district

characteristics, detailed in table 4-6 on pages 4-24 and 4-25.

• Size of the school district,

• Population density (for rural school districts),

• Size of the urban area (for urban school districts),

• Percent minority,

• College educated parents of school-age children,

• Median family income, and

• Foreign born parents of school-age children.

In districts that were almost entirely urban, private school enrollment was about three times

higher than the rate in districts where less than 10 percent of the population was in urban

areas (figure 4-12). Among districts in larger urban areas, private school enrollment was

higher (figure 4-13). In areas with populations greater than 2.5 million, the percentage of

children enrolled in private school (13.7 percent) was about twice as high as the percentage in

urban areas of less than 100,000.
School District Profile

Page 4-20 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Figure 4-12. Enrollment of 5- to 19-year-olds in private school,

by percent of urban population in school district: 1990

5.0

5.0

5.7

6.1

7.1

8.3

10.4

15.3

0 5 10 15 20

0

1-10

11-30

31-50

51-70

71-90

91-99

100

Percent urban 

population

Percent enrolled

Note: The percentage of 5- to 19-year-olds enrolled in private school over all districts was 9.8 percent.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference G01C02G.

Figure 4-13. Enrollment of 5- to 19-year-olds in private school,

by size of urban area: 1990

6.2

8.1

9.7

10.8

11.1

12.4

13.7

11.2

0 5 10 15

Outside urbanized area

(not rural)

Less than 100K

100-250K

250-500K

500K-1M

1-2.5M

2.5M or more

All urban districts

Size of urban 

area

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference X01H24G.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-21

Private school enrollment rates were higher in school districts with higher proportions of

minority children (figure 4-14) and linguistically isolated children (table 4-6). These

characteristics are associated with urbanicity, and the enrollment data probably reflected this

association. In school districts where the proportion of female-headed households was high,

the private school enrollment rate was almost twice as high as that found in school districts

where the proportion of such families was low. Clearly there were a large number of factors

that affected private school enrollment rates. See, for example, chapter 3, Private School

Enrollment Patterns, pages 36-48.

Figure 4-14. Private school enrollment,

by districts’ minority percentage: 1990

6.7

9.8

10.5

10.7

11.4

12.6

0 5 10 15

Less than 1

1-10

11-30

31-50

51-70

71 or more

Percent

minority

children

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference R07C02G.
School District Profile

Page 4-22 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Comparing districts with median family incomes of $40,000 or more to those with median

incomes of less than $25,000, the more affluent districts had private school enrollment rates

about twice as high (figure 4-15).

Other school district characteristics with an economic dimension did not appear to have an

association with private school enrollment rates:

• Percentage of school-age children living with parents who are not high school graduates,

• Percent of children in poverty,

• Percentage of children with one or more parents unemployed,

• Student-teacher ratios,

• Instructional expenditure per pupil, and

• Federal transfers per pupil.

Figure 4-15. Enrollment of 5- to 19-year-olds in private school,

by school district median family income: 1990

4.1

4.8

6.0

7.3

11.3

9.7

11.1

11.9

13.1

0 5 10 15

Less than $15,000

$15,000-19,999

$20,000-24,999

$25,000-29,999

$30,000-34,999

$35,000-39,999

$40,000-44,999

$45,000-49,999

$50,000 or more

Median family 

income of school 

district

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference E02C02G.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-23

School District Characteristics and Higher Private School Enrollment

The profile of a school district in which there are relatively larger percentages of students

enrolled in private schools would probably have the following features: the district would be a

large, consolidated school district in a large urban area. These same conditions are associated

with higher concentrations of female-headed households and minority and linguistically

isolated children. It would also likely be a school district that is marginally more affluent

(figure 4-15) and has more college educated parents (figure 4-16) than districts in which

relatively fewer students are enrolled in private school.

Private school enrollment does not appear to be related to school district levels of resource

provision. For instance, three indicators of resource provisionstudent-teacher ratios,

instructional expense per pupil, and federal transfers per pupilshow few differences

between the private and public sectors in the distribution of children.

Figure 4-16. Enrollment of 5- to 19-year-olds in private school,

by percent of college educated parents in school district: 1990

5.2

6.8

8.8

10.9

10.5

10.4

11.7

13.7

0 5 10 15

Less than 5

6-10

11-15

16-20

21-25

26-35

36-50

51 or more

Percent of college 

educated parents

Percent enrolled

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation reference D10C02G.
School District Profile

Page 4-24 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Table 4-6. Percent of students in grades 1-12 enrolled in private school,

by school district characteristic: 1990

Characteristics of school districts (SDs)

Percent enrolled

in private school

All students 9.8

Size of school district

 Less than 1,000

 Between 1,000 and 10,000

 More than 10,000

7.2

8.5

11.5

Population per square mile—rural SDs

 Less than 1

 Between 1 and 10

 50 or more

3.0

4.7

6.0

Urban population as a percent of total

 Non-urban

 Up to 50 percent

 50 percent or more

5.2

7.4

12.6

Size of urban population

 Less than 100,000

 100,000 to 1 million

 More than 1 million

7.9

10.4

13.8

Children in two-parent families

 Less than 70 percent

 70-90 percent

 More than 90 percent

13.1

8.3

10.9

Children in female-headed families

 Less than 10 percent

 10-35 percent

 More than 35 percent

9.4

8.8

16.6

Minority children

 Less than 1 percent

 1-30 percent

 More than 30 percent

6.4

8.7

11.5

Linguistically isolated children

 Less than 1 percent

 1-10 percent

 More than 10 percent

8.2

10.8

13.0

College-educated parents as percent of total

 Less than 10 percent

 10-35 percent

 More than 35 percent

6.6

10.1

12.4

Table is continued on the next page.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-25

Table 4-6. Percent of students in grades 1-12 enrolled in private school,

by school district characteristic: 1990--Continued

Characteristics of school districts

Percent enrolled

in private school

Parents not high school graduates

 Less than 10 percent

 10-35 percent

 More than 35 percent

10.3

9.7

9.5

Median family income

 Less than $25,000

 $25,000-$40,000

 More than $40,000

5.9

9.8

11.5

Children living in poverty

 Less than 10 percent

 10-35 percent

 More than 35 percent

10.7

9.5

8.7

Children with one or more parent

unemployed

 Less than 4 percent

 4 to 10 percent

 More than 10 percent

10.8

9.7

9.2

Foreign born parents as percent of total

 Less than 2 percent

 2-25 percent

 More than 25 percent

6.6

8.8

13.8

Student-teacher ratios

 15 or less

 15-21

 More than 21

9.4

9.5

8.5

Instructional expense per pupil

 Less than $2,500

 $2,500-$4,000

 More than $4,000

9.4

10.1

10.9

Federal transfer per pupil

 Less than $100

 $100 to $1,000

 More than $1,000

10.5

8.2

7.2

Note: The school districts in tabulation X01D06G, for the student-teacher ratios, were classified on the basis of administrative data from the 1990 CCD.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation. SDAB tabulation references: size X01D02G, population

X01D12G, urban population X01D09G, size of urban population X01D10G, two-parent family X01H01G, female-headed family X01H02G, minority

children X01C04G, linguistically-isolated X01H09G, college-educated parents X01P25G, not high school graduates X01P25G, median family X01H12G,

living in poverty X01H18G, parent unemployed X01P26G, foreign-born parents X01P28G, student-teacher X01D06G, instructional expense X01D04G,

federal transfer X01D20G.
School District Profile

Page 4-26 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Instructional Expenditure Profile

This section examines average per pupil instructional expenditure to determine how these

rates varied by states and school districts. (See “Instructional Expenditure per Pupil” in appendix

A for details on how instructional expenditure rates were calculated.2) Average instructional

expenditure includes all direct instructional expenses, including salaries and wages, retirement,

and other personnel benefits, as well as direct expenditures for supplies and materials. The total

national expenditure for instruction was approximately $100 billion.

In the comparisons that follow, it is important to keep in mind that these are average figures that

may reflect a variety of differences among these groups—for example, differences in proportions

living in urban areas, proportions living in high cost or high income areas, or proportions living in

particular states or regions of the United States. There is the possibility that racial and ethnic

differences in the expenditures data and other characteristics may reflect differences in the

geographical distribution of various groups.

This section examines whether differences in mean instructional expenditures existed for different

classes of children nationally and across states. More detailed state and school district data are

included in the SDAB, so that comparisons with national norms and among different population

groups can be analyzed.

 

2

 The per pupil instructional expenditure for each district does not appear in the SDAB. Instead, the SDAB

tabulations classify the school district per pupil expenditure by the following ranges: less than $2,000; $2,000

to $2,499 (i.e., less than $2,500); $2,500 to $2,999; $3,000 to $3,499; $3,500 to $,3999; $4,000 to $4,499;

$4,500 to $4,999; $5,000 to $5,999; and more than $6,000. Tabulations show either the counts of districts or

counts of children per these ranges. The per pupil instructional expenditure amounts that appear in the

following pages are based on computations using the midpoints of these ranges: $1,770 (special calculation);

$2,250; $2,750; $3,250; $3,750; $4,250; $4,750; $5,500; and $7,731 (special calculation). Averages were

calculated by multiplying the midpoint of an expenditure category by the frequency reported for that category

(number of children or number of school districts, as the case may be), summing the products over all

categories, and dividing the resulting total expenditure figure by the number of districts (or the number of

children).

Before per pupil instructional expenditure was calculated for a school district, the district needed to be matched

across all three data sources: the 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulations, the 1990 NCES

Common Core of Data (CCD), and the 1990 Census of Governments School District Finances. (The SDAB

used the CCD codes from the Census data; the number of pupils, the number of FTE teachers, and the

population/square mile from the CCD data; and dollar amounts from the Finance data.) The districts that could

not be matched were counted in the N/A column in the tabulations.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-27

Distribution of School-Age Children by Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure of

the School District

About 42 percent of children lived in school districts which spent less than $2,500 dollars per

pupil in instructional expenses; about 11 percent of the children lived in school districts

spending $4,000 or more (figure 4-17).

Figure 4-17. Distribution of school-age children,

by districts’ average per pupil instructional expenditure: 1990

Distribution of school-age children

$2,500-2,999

28%

$4,000 or more

11%

$3,000-3,999

19%

Less than $2,000

11%

$2,000-2,499

31%

Note: School districts were classified on the basis of administrative data from the 1990 CCD and financial data from the 1990 F-33.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, U.S.

Total, Tabulation F01C02G.
School District Profile

Page 4-28 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Estimated Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure Rate by State

Where a child lived had a substantial effect on the amount of instructional dollars spent on his or

her education (figure 4-18). For example, Connecticut led the nation in the amount of instructional

dollars spent per pupil ($4,924), while Utah spent the fewest dollars per pupil ($1,782).3 The

national estimated average instructional expenditure across nearly 15,000 school districts was

$2,893 per pupil in public schools in FY 1990.

 

3

The calculation of the average per pupil instructional expenditure (ppe) for a particular state is calculated by

using the referenced SDAB tabulation, the range midpoints—$1,770; $2,250; $2,750; $3,250; $3,750; $4,250;

$4,750; $5,500; and $7,731—, and the following formula:

X Y

N M

i i

i

*

−

∑

where

Xi = number of students in range i

Yi = midpoint of range i

N = total number of students

M = total number of N/A cases

For example, the average per pupil instructional expenditure figure of $4,924 for the State of Connecticut was

calculated in two steps from tabulation F01G01as follows:

Step 1

ppe range

(F01G01)

Number of children

(F01G01) x

ppe

range

midpoint

= Estimated

ppe

<$2k 2,180 $1,770 $3,858,600

$2k-2,499 0 $2,250 0

$2.5k-2,999 0 $2,750 0

$3k-3,499 3,460 $3,250 $11,245,000

$3.5k-3,999 30,952 $3,750 $116,070,000

$4k-4,499 153,905 $4,250 $654,096,250

$4.5k-4,999 206,369 $4,750 $980,252,750

$5k-5,999 222,923 $5,500 $1,226,076,500

$6k+ 21,529 $7,731 $166,440,699

Total children = 641,318 Total expenditure =

$3,158,039,799

Step 2

The average per pupil expenditure was calculated by dividing the total expenditure by the total number of

children (in the case of Connecticut, no children were listed in the N/A column):

$3,158,039,799/641,318 = $4924.30
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-29

Expenditure rates varied with regions of the country, with the highest instructional expense per

pupil in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic coastal states. Nine of the ten states with the highest

estimated average per pupil instructional expenditures were in the New England or the Middle

Atlantic regions:

Connecticut $ 4,924

New York $ 4,804

Figure 4-18. Estimated average per pupil instructional expenditure rate by state: 1990

Less than $2,000

$2,000 - $2,900

$3,000 - $3,900

$4,000 or more

Not Available

Note: Due to an error, the fiscal data for Nevada is missing from the SDAB CD-ROM. The Nevada line in tabulation F01G01 should read:

Total <$2k $2k2,499$2.5k2,999$3k3,499$3.5k3,999$4k4,499$4.5k4,999$5k5,999$6k

Plus

N/A

186,834 0 167,636 17,460 0 1,314 0 152 272 0 0

Note: School districts were classified on the basis of administrative data from the 1990 CCD and financial data from the 1990 F-33.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, U.S.

Total, Tabulation F01G01; averages are derived from information in the SDAB using the midpoint assumptions described in the footnote on page

4-26.
School District Profile

Page 4-30 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

New Jersey $ 4,357

Rhode Island $ 4,164

Alaska $ 4,123

Maryland $ 3,484

Delaware $ 3,477

Maine $ 3,466

Massachusetts $ 3,419

Vermont $ 3,303

The ten states with the lowest estimated average per pupil instructional expenditures were in the

South, Rocky Mountain, or upper Great Plains regions:

Utah $ 1,782

Mississippi $ 1,826

Alabama $ 1,883

Idaho $ 1,934

South Dakota $ 1,976

Oklahoma $ 2,016

New Mexico $ 2,082

Arkansas $ 2,118

Louisiana $ 2,121

North Dakota $ 2,231

The preceding figures are statewide averages derived by aggregating instructional expenditures

across all school districts and dividing that sum by the number of children in the state. Although

the state in which a district is located had a substantial effect on instructional spending, there was

significant variation in expenditures per pupil at the individual school district level.

School districts’ allocations of instructional resources were affected by the community

characteristics and social and educational conditions examined in the following sections.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-31

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Size

Instructional spending per pupil varied with the size of the district. Smaller districts spent

more per pupil and larger ones spent less, except for the very largest districts—those with

50,000 or more students (figure 4-19). For example, districts with fewer than 600 students

spent about 10 percent above the national district average of $2,893, and districts with more

than 599 students, but less than 50,000 students, spent slightly less than average. The greatest

difference occurred between districts with fewer than 150 students ($3,383) and districts with

between 10,000 and 25,000 students ($2,643).

Figure 4-19. Average per pupil instructional expenditure, by school district size: 1990

3,383

3,172

3,165

2,896

2,809

2,891

2,837

2,643

2,703

3,161

$0 $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000

Less than 150

150-299

300-599

600-999

1,000-2,499

2,500-4,999

5,000-9,999

10,000-24,999

25,000-49,999

50,000 or more

S chool 

district size

Instructional expenditure

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, U.S.

Total, Tabulation F01D02; averages are derived from information in the SDAB using the midpoint assumptions described in the footnote on page

4-26.
School District Profile

Page 4-32 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by Community Type

The SDAB classifies school districts by six types of communities: central city, suburban, outside

urbanized area, mixed (urban/rural), town, and country. The highest average expenditures were

among suburban and central city districts ($3,110 and $3,050, respectively). The lowest average

expenditure was $2,531, among districts categorized as urban areas outside “urbanized” areas.

Districts located in the country spent close to the national average on educational instruction

(figure 4-20).

Figure 4-20. Average per pupil instructional expenditure, by community type: 1990

3,050

3,110

2,531

2,602

2,686

2,892

$0 $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000

Central city

Suburban

Outside urbanized

area

Mixed area

Town

Country

Type of 

community

Instructional expenditure

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, U.S.

Total, Tabulations F01D27, D28, and D29; averages are derived from information in the SDAB using the midpoint assumptions described in the

footnote on page 4-26.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-33

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Dropout Rate

Districts with lower dropout rates (less than 12 percent) tended to spend substantially more than

the national average per pupil on instruction (figure 4-21). Districts with higher dropout rates spent

less per pupil on instruction, with the lowest rates in districts with dropout rates of 25 to 30

percent. The average instructional expenditure in districts with the highest dropout rates (30

percent or more) was about five percent lower ($157) than the national average.

Figure 4-21. Average per pupil instructional expenditure,

by school district dropout rate: 1990

3,682

4,368

4,192

4,276

3,650

2,982

2,786

2,832

2,599

2,733

$0 $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 $5,000

Less than 1.0%

1.0-2.9%

3.0-5.9%

6.0-8.9%

9.0-11.9%

12.0-14.9%

15.0-19.9%

20.0-24.9%

25.0-29.9%

30.0% or more

Dropout rate

Instructional expenditure

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, U.S.

Total, Tabulation F01D22; averages are derived from information in the SDAB using the midpoint assumptions described in the footnote on page

4-26.
School District Profile

Page 4-34 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by Amount of Federal Transfer Payments

to Districts

Districts receiving less than $500 dollars in federal transfer payments per student spent

considerably less on instructional expense than those receiving in excess of $500 and especially

lower than those receiving $1,000 or more when per pupil expenditures exceeded $4,000 (figure

4-22). The highest expenditures per pupil (about $7,000) were spent by districts receiving $4,000

or more in such transfer payments, but fewer than 300,000 children were living in such districts.

Figure 4-22. Average per pupil instructional expenditure,

by amount of federal transfer payments: 1990

2,685

2,880

2,853

2,682

2,741

3,365

4,441

4,293

7,011

$0 $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 $5,000 $6,000 $7,000 $8,000

Less than $50

$50-99

$100-199

$200-299

$300-499

$500-999

$1,000-1,999

$2,000-3,999

$4,000 or more

Federal transfer 

payment

Instructional expenditure

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, U.S.

Total, Tabulation F01D20; averages are derived from information in the SDAB using the midpoint assumptions described in the footnote on page

4-26.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-35

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Minority

Population

Instructional expense per pupil varied somewhat by the relative size of a school district’s minority

population (figure 4-23). Districts with less than 50 percent minorities (accounting for threefourths of the nation’s children) spent $2,800 per pupil (close to the national school district

average) while high-minority districts (70 percent minority or higher) spent $3,304 per pupil15

percent more than the national average.

Figure 4-23. Average per pupil instructional expenditure,

by percent of district minority population: 1990

2,527

2,818

2,866

2,728

2,906

3,354

2,956

3,149

$0 $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000

Less than 1.0%

1.0-9.9%

10.0-29.9%

30.0-49.9%

50.0-69.9%

70.0-89.9%

90.0-98.9%

99.0% or more

Percent 

school 

district's 

minority 

population

Instructional expenditure

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, U.S.

Total, Tabulation F01D14; averages are derived from information in the SDAB using the midpoint assumptions described in the footnote on page

4-26.
School District Profile

Page 4-36 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Household Income

In general, the higher the median income per district, the higher the average instructional

expenditure (figure 4-24). Generally, districts with median household incomes below $30,000

spent less than the national average per child, while those with median household incomes above

$40,000 spent substantially more. (Districts between $30,000 and $40,000 spent, on average, at

about the national rate.) The wealthiest districts (median incomes of $50,000 or more) spent on

average 50 percent more than the poorest districts (median incomes below $25,000): $3,725

versus $2,427 per pupil.

Figure 4-24. Average per pupil instructional expenditure,

by districts’ median household income: 1990

2,560

2,370

2,411

2,605

2,932

2,796

2,914

3,047

3,775

$0 $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000

Less than $15,000

$15,000-19,999

$20,000-24,999

$25,000-29,999

$30,000-34,999

$35,000-39,999

$40,000-44,999

$45,000-49,999

$50,000 or more

School district 

median 

household 

income

Instructional expenditure

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, U.S.

Total, Tabulation F01D17; averages are derived from information in the SDAB using the midpoint assumptions described in the footnote on page

4-26.
School District Profile

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page 4-37

Average Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure by District Incidence of Poverty

In 1990, school districts with less than five percent of their households living at or below the

poverty level spent on average $3,514 per pupil in instructional expenditures. In contrast, districts

with at least 50 percent of their households living in poverty spent on average about $1000

(roughly 30 percent) less than that—$2,479 per pupil (figure 4-25). For these districts, the average

instructional expenditure per pupil was some 15 percent lower than the national average of $2,893.

Figure 4-25. Average per pupil instructional expenditure,

by districts’ percent in poverty: 1990

3,514

2,910

2,649

2,688

2,660

3,053

2,700

2,479

$0 $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000

Less than 5.0%

5.0-9.9%

10.0-14.9%

15.0-19.9%

20.0-24.9%

25.0-34.9%

35.0-49.9%

50.0% or more

School 

district 

poverty rate

Instructional expenditure

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, U.S.

Total, Tabulation F01D15; averages are derived from information in the SDAB using the midpoint assumptions described in the footnote on page

4-26.
Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page A-1

Appendix A. Concepts and Definitions

The concepts and definitions in this report are based on those used by the underlying data

sources. For example, data describing the resident populationsuch as household and family

income, poverty, parental education, race and ethnicity, and languageare derived from the

1990 Census and correspond to the definitions employed in the Census. Data describing the

administrative characteristics of school districtssuch as district type (elementary, secondary,

and consolidated) and number of children enrolled in district public schoolsare from the

1989-90 Common Core of Data (CCD) compiled by NCES from state reports. These data

follow the definitions employed by the CCD which are described in NCES publications.

Financial characteristics of school districts such as receipt of federal support and per pupil

school district expendituresare from the 1989-90 Survey of Local Government Finances

and conform to the definitions employed by the Census of Governments as explained in

Census Bureau publications. However, this appendix includes some terms unique to the 1990

Census school district special tabulations and also some concepts (such as “Relevant

Children”) unique to the School District Analysis Book. Topics defined are:

Age

At-risk children

Balance of county

Birthplace

Central city

Children 3 to19 years old, not high

school graduates

Community type

Dropout rate

Education of parents

Enrollment

Family and subfamily

Farm residence

Federal Transfer Payments

Grade in school

Hispanic origin

Households and group quarters

Household relationship

Income in 1989

Instructional Expenditure per Pupil

Labor force status

Language Minority

Language spoken at home,

linguistic isolation

Metropolitan area

Minority

Owner or renter occupied

Poverty status in 1989

Prekindergarten children

Public school

Public assistance

Race

Relevant children 3 to 19 years old

Regular school

School district

School-age children

Sex ratio

Universe

Urban and rural

Year moved into unit

AGE

The data on age were based on the age of the person in complete years as of April 1, 1990, as

reported to the 1990 Census. Some SDAB tabulations are shown by the age of the child’s

mother.
Concepts and Definitions

Page A-2 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

AT-RISK CHILDREN

Children living with mother who is not a high school graduate, is single, divorced, or

separated, and is below the 1989 poverty level, according to the 1990 Census. At-Risk

Preschool Children are those under 6 years old. At-risk school-age children are 6 to 19 years

old. Tabulations are available separately for all at-risk children and for at-risk children of

mothers under 20 years old at the time of the child’s birth.

BALANCE OF COUNTY

Territory in a county not recorded as served by public school districts in the county.

BIRTHPLACE

Data are based on responses to the 1990 Census question on state or country of birth. Foreignborn excludes persons born abroad of American parents.

CENTRAL CITY

In the Census, the largest place in each metropolitan area and urbanized area and, in some

cases, additional places, are designated as “central cities” or “central places.” The central city

normally has a population of 50,000 or more.

CHILDREN 3 TO 19 YEARS OLD, NOT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES

Generally, persons at least 3 years old and not yet 20 or older who have not graduated from

high school, as reported to the 1990 Census. However, the specifications for the Decennial

School District Data Project in fact include all 14- to 17-year-olds regardless of whether they

have graduated or not. This is the primary population of children shown in this report, except

for “at-risk” children, which includes children under three years old.

COMMUNITY TYPE

Some school district characteristics are derived by tabulating 1990 Census characteristics for

the district. Data on community type were generated in this way. School districts were first

classified into the broad categories of urban, rural, and mixed. Within these categories,

additional classifications were made, as noted.

Urban School District—A school district with 70 percent or greater population in

urban areas. Urban school districts are further classified as Central City School

Districts, Suburban School Districts (in urbanized area, outside central city), and

Urban Districts Outside Urbanized Areas, according to where the population is mainly

concentrated.

Mixed School District—A school district with between 30 percent and 70 percent of its

population residing in urban areas.

Rural School District—A school district with 30 percent or less urban population.

Rural school districts are further classified as in a place of 500-2,500 population

(“town”), and “not in a place” (“country”).
Concepts and Definitions

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page A-3

Number of districts

Number of children

(in thousands)

District type

All districts 14,897 55,324

 Urban central city 631 17,668

 Suburban 2,157 16,481

 Outside urbanized area 1,072 3,424

 Mixed 2,243 8,604

 Town 1,943 1,064

 Country 6,851 8,083

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Decennial Census School District Special Tabulation .

DROPOUT RATE

School districts are classified by the proportion of the household population 16 to 19 years of

age who are not enrolled in school and are not high school graduates, according to the 1990

Census.

EDUCATION OF PARENTS

Data on educational attainment are for persons 15 years old and older and measure the highest

level of school completed or the highest degree received as reported to the 1990 Census.

“High School Graduate or Higher” includes persons who reported to the Census that their

highest degree was a high school diploma or its equivalent, persons who attended college or

professional school, and persons who received a college, university, or professional degree.

Persons who reported completing the 12th grade but not receiving a diploma and all other

persons not completing high school are grouped as “no high school diploma.”

ENROLLMENT

Enrollment status for children is from the 1990 Census. Persons were classified as enrolled if

they reported attending a regular public or private school any time between February 1, 1990

and the time of the Census enumeration. The question included instructions to “include only

nursery school, kindergarten, elementary school, and schooling which would lead to a high

school diploma...” as a regular school. Enrollment in a trade or business school, company

training, or tutoring were not to be included in regular schooling unless the course would be

accepted for credit in a regular school.

FAMILY AND SUBFAMILY

A family consists of a householder and one or more other persons living in the same

household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. In the Census,

all persons in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his

or her family. A household can contain only one family for purposes of census tabulations.

Not all households contain families since a household may consist of a group of unrelated

persons or one person living alone.
Concepts and Definitions

Page A-4 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Husband-wife Family—A family with the householder and the householder’s spouse

both present in the home. The husband-wife family may include children and

additional relatives, or it may not.

Male Householder, No Wife Present—A family with a male householder and no

spouse of householder present. In this report a male householder with no wife present

may be referred to as a “single” male head or as a “solo” male head.

Female Householder, No Husband Present—A family with a female householder

and no spouse of householder present. In this report a female householder with no

husband present may be referred to as a “single” female head or as a “solo” female

head.

Subfamily—A subfamily is a married couple (husband and wife enumerated as members of

the same household) with or without never-married children under 18 years old, or one parent

with one or more never-married children under 18 years old, living in a household and related

to, but not including, either the householder or the householder’s spouse. Subfamily members

are counted as part of the householder’s family. Subfamilies are further classified by type:

married-couple subfamilies, mother-child subfamilies, and father-child subfamilies.

FARM RESIDENCE

The farm population consists of household members living in farm residences at the time of

the Census. Farm residence is reported only in rural areas. An occupied one-family house or

mobile home is classified as a farm residence if (1) the housing unit is located on a property

of 1 acre or more and (2) at least $1,000 worth of agricultural products were sold from the

property in 1989.

FEDERAL TRANSFER PAYMENTS

School districts are classified according to the dollar amount of federal aid received,

according to the Census of Governments data on school district revenues. Federal transfer

payments include federal aid administered through the states, such as the School Lunch

Program, as well as federal financial assistance administered directly to the school district.

GRADE IN SCHOOL

In the 1990 Census, people were asked to report the highest grade they completed in school.

Responses were grouped as nursery school, kindergarten, grades 1 to 4, grades 5 to 8, and

single grades 9-12. Single year data were not collected for most grade levels. However, the

SDAB uses imputation to break out the grouped data into single years. Some of the singleyear grade distributions consequently look strange at the margins of the grouped data (e.g.,

grade 5).

The single-year grade detail is used to establish whether the child is a “relevant” child for the

school district. First a grade is assigned. If a child is enrolled in school, then the Assigned

Grade is the grade the child is in. If a child is not in school, then the child’s Assigned Grade
Concepts and Definitions

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page A-5

is the next highest grade above the last grade the child completed. An example of the use of

this classification is as follows: a 19-year-old in a secondary or consolidated school district

who completed the 9th grade is “assigned” to the 10th grade and is “relevant” to the

secondary or consolidated district.

HISPANIC ORIGIN

Persons of Hispanic origin are those who classified themselves in one of the specific Hispanic

origin categories listed on the 1990 Census questionnaire—“Mexican,” “Puerto Rican,” or

“Cuban”—as well as those who indicated that they were of “Other Spanish/Hispanic” origin.

Persons of “Other Spanish/Hispanic” origin are those whose origins are Spain, the Spanishspeaking countries of Central or South America, or the Dominican Republic, or persons of

Hispanic origin identifying themselves generally as Spanish, Spanish-American, Hispanic,

Hispano, Latino, and so on. A Hispanic person may be of any race.

HOUSEHOLDS AND GROUP QUARTERS

Household—A household includes all the persons who occupy a housing unit. According to

the Census, a housing unit is a house, an apartment, a mobile home, a group of rooms, or a

single room that is occupied (or if vacant, is intended for occupancy) as separate living

quarters. Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live and eat separately

from any other persons in the building and which have direct access from the outside of the

building or through a common hall. The occupants may be a single family, one person living

alone, two or more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelated persons

who share living arrangements. A family household includes a family; a nonfamily household

consists of unrelated persons or one person living alone.

Group Quarters—If the living quarters contains nine or more persons unrelated to the

householder or person in charge (a total of at least 10 unrelated persons), it is classified as

group quarters. If the living quarters contains eight or fewer persons unrelated to the

householder or person in charge, it is classified as a housing unit. All persons not living in

households are classified by the Census Bureau as living in group quarters. Two general

categories of persons in group quarters are recognized: (1) institutionalized persons and (2)

other persons in group quarters (also referred to as “noninstitutional group quarters”).

Institutionalized children include children in homes for abused, dependent, and

neglected children, residential treatment centers (serving emotionally disturbed

children), training schools for juvenile delinquents, and detention centers. Institutions

also include the following: jails, prisons and other correctional institutions; mental

hospitals; hospitals for the chronically ill; schools, hospitals, or wards for the mentally

retarded; schools, hospitals, or wards for the physically handicapped; hospitals, and

wards for drug/alcohol abuse; wards in general and military hospitals, and facilities for

patients who have no usual home elsewhere (including boarder babies).

Other Persons in Group Quarters (also referred to as “noninstitutional group

quarters”)—Includes all persons who live in group quarters other than institutions.

Persons who live in the following living quarters are classified as “other persons in
Concepts and Definitions

Page A-6 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

group quarters” when there are 10 or more unrelated persons living in the unit;

otherwise, these living quarters are classified as housing units: dormitories, rooming

houses, group homes including such places as homes for the mentally ill, mentally

retarded, and physically handicapped; drug/alcohol halfway houses; communes; and

maternity homes for unwed mothers, and emergency shelters for homeless persons.

HOUSEHOLD RELATIONSHIP

One person in each household is designated as the householder. Other household members are

described in terms of their relationship to the householder.

Householder—In most cases, this is the person, or one of the persons, in whose name

the home is owned, being bought, or rented. In this report the householder may be

referred to as the “head of household.”

Spouse—Includes a person married to and living with a householder. This category

includes persons in formal marriages, as well as persons in common-law marriages.

Child—Includes a son or daughter by birth, a stepchild, or adopted child of the

householder, regardless of the child's age or marital status. The category excludes

sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, and foster children.

Other Relatives—Anyone not listed in a reported category above who is related to the

householder by birth, marriage, or adoption (grandchild, brother-in-law, grandparent,

nephew, aunt, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, cousin, and so forth).

Nonrelative—Includes any household member, including foster children, not related

to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption.

INCOME IN 1989

Data on income in 1989 were requested from persons 15 years old and older in the 1990

Census. “Total income” is the algebraic sum of the amounts reported separately for wage or

salary income; net nonfarm self-employment income; net farm self-employment income;

interest, dividend, or net rental or royalty income; Social Security or railroad retirement

income; and public assistance or other income. “Earnings” are defined as the algebraic sum of

wage or salary income and net income from farm and nonfarm self-employment. “Earnings”

represent the amount of income received regularly before deductions for personal income

taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc.

Family Income—Includes the income of the household and all other household

members 15 years old and older related to the householder.

INSTRUCTIONAL EXPENDITURE PER PUPIL

School districts are classified by the level of instructional expenditure per pupil. Nationally,

instructional expenditures were around 58 percent of total school district current expenditures

in fiscal year 1990.
Concepts and Definitions

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page A-7

Instructional expenditures relate to the instruction function (series 1000) as defined in the

NCES publication Financial Accounting for Local and State School Systems, revised 1990

(commonly called Handbook II). The source of the data is the Census of Governments,

Survey of Local Government Finance, 1990. Expenditure per pupil is calculated by dividing

instructional expenditure by the number of pupils. The number of pupils is the CCD

Membership figure for the district reported in the Common Core of Data. Around October 1

of each year, school districts report the number of children enrolled; this is the “membership”

figure. It is generally higher than average daily attendance, which reflects absences.

The data on instructional expenditures include payments for salaries, employee benefits,

supplies, materials, and contractual services. They cover regular, special, and vocational

programs covered in the regular school year and in summer school. The data include amounts

that the state contributes to the school district retirement funds and instructional expenditures

made on behalf of the school district. The figures exclude amounts for support services, food

service, capital outlay, interest on debt, and other items not part of current instructional

expenditures. Not all states prescribe the use of the above financial accounting handbook and

its definition of instruction for their school systems. This results in some disparities in the

figures for states. The most significant is that some state accounting systems do not include

employee benefit payments or fixed charges in “instruction.”

This report presents figures on estimated average instructional expenditure per pupil. The

averages are derived from the expenditure distributions shown in the SDAB. Averages were

calculated by multiplying the midpoint of an expenditure category by the frequency reported

for that category (number of children or number of school districts, as the case may be),

summing the products over all categories, and dividing the resulting total expenditure figure

by the number of districts (or the number of children). For district expenditures under $2,000

per child, an average figure of $1,770 was obtained from tabulations of school district records

in the School District Data Book (SDDB). For district expenditures over $6,000, an average

value of $7,331 was used, based on the SDDB. Averages are calculated separately for the

distribution of school districts and the distribution of children according to the per-pupil

expenditures of the district they live in.

LABOR FORCE STATUS

Labor Force—All persons in the civilian labor force plus members of the U.S. Armed

Forces, according to the 1990 Census. The civilian labor force consists of the employed plus

the unemployed (lacking a job and looking for work).

Not In Labor Force—All persons 16 years old and over who are not classified as members

of the labor force. This category consists mainly of students, housewives, retired workers,

seasonal workers enumerated in an off season who were not looking for work,

institutionalized persons, and persons doing only incidental unpaid family work (less than 15

hours during the reference week).

LANGUAGE MINORITY

Families in which the principle language spoken in the home is a language other than English.
Concepts and Definitions

Page A-8 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

LANGUAGE SPOKEN AT HOME, LINGUISTIC ISOLATION

Language Spoken at Home—Data on language spoken at home were derived from the

answers to two census questionnaire items, which were asked of a sample of persons born

before April 1, 1985. Instructions mailed with the 1990 census questionnaire stated that a

respondent should mark “Yes” in the first question if the person sometimes or always spoke a

language other than English at home and should not mark “Yes” if a language was spoken

only at school or if speaking was limited to a few expressions or slang. For the second

question, respondents were instructed to print the name of the non-English language spoken at

home. If the person spoke more than one language other than English, the person was to

report the language spoken more often or the language learned first. In this report the term

“language minority” denotes a home where the primary language spoken is other than

English.

Ability to Speak English—Persons 5 years old and older who were reported to speak

a language other than English had their ability to speak English indicated based on one

of the following categories: “Very well,” “Well,” “Not well,” or “Not at all.”

The data on ability to speak English represent the person’s own perception about his or

her own ability or, because census questionnaires are usually completed by one

household member, the responses may represent the perception of another household

member. The instruction guides and questionnaires that were mailed to households did

not include any information on how to interpret the response categories listed above.

Linguistic Isolation—A household is classified as “linguistically isolated” if, in

households where the language spoken at home was other than English, no member 14

years old or older spoke English “very well.” All the members of a linguistically

isolated household are tabulated as linguistically isolated, including members under

age 14 years who may speak only English or speak English “very well.”

METROPOLITAN AREA

The metropolitan area classification is a statistical standard developed for data on

metropolitan areas. The general concept is of a large population nucleus, together with

adjacent communities that are integrated economically and socially with the nucleus. Each

metropolitan area must contain either a place with a minimum population of 50,000 or a

Census Bureau-defined urbanized area and a total metropolitan area population of at least

100,000 (75,000+ in New England). Data are from the 1990 Census.

MINORITY

School districts are classified by the percent of racial and ethnic minorities in the school-age

population. Districts in which non-Hispanic whites make up less than 50 percent of the

school-age population are classified as “minority” school districts or “minority-dominated”

school districts.
Concepts and Definitions

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page A-9

OWNER OR RENTER OCCUPIED

All occupied housing units are classified by the Census as either owner occupied or renter

occupied. A housing unit is owner occupied if the owner or co-owner lives in the unit, even if

it is mortgaged or not fully paid for. All occupied housing units which are not owner occupied

are classified as renter occupied, whether they are rented for cash rent or occupied without

payment of cash rent.

POVERTY STATUS IN 1989

Data on poverty status were derived from answers to the same 1990 Census questions as the

income data. The income cutoffs used by the Census Bureau to determine the poverty status

of families and unrelated individuals depend on family size and number of family members

under 18 years old. Unrelated individuals and two-person families were further differentiated

by age of the householder (under 65 years old and 65 years old and older). The poverty levels

are revised annually to allow for changes in the cost of living as reflected in the Consumer

Price Index. The average poverty level for a family of four persons was $12,674 in 1989. If

the total income was less than the corresponding cutoff, the family or unrelated individual was

classified as “below the poverty level.” The number of persons below the poverty level was

the sum of the number of persons in families with income below the poverty level and the

number of unrelated individuals with incomes below the poverty level.

PREKINDERGARTEN CHILDREN

Children who are attending a prekindergarten program or would be in such a program if they

were enrolled in school. Data are from the 1990 Census. Generally, all 3-year-olds and 4-

year-olds are included in this category.

PUBLIC ASSISTANCE

Children are classified according to whether their family reported cash income from public

assistance in the 1990 Census. Public assistance income includes (1) Supplemental Security

Income payments made by federal or state welfare agencies to low income persons who are

elderly, blind, or disabled; (2) Aid to Families with Dependent Children; and (3) general

assistance.

PUBLIC SCHOOL

Institution which provides educational services, has one or more grade groups (PK-12) or is

ungraded, has one or more teachers to give instruction, is located in one or more buildings,

has an assigned administrator, receives public funds as primary support, and is operated by an

education agency. Tabulations of public school districts use classifications in the CCD or the

Census of Governments, Survey of Local Government Finances. Tabulations of public school

children use 1990 Census classifications.

Enrolled in Public or Private School—Includes persons who were reported in the Census as

attending a regular school in the reference period and indicated they were enrolled by

marking one of the questionnaire categories for either “public school, public college” or

“private school, private college.” The instruction guide defines a public school as “any school

or college controlled and supported by a local, county, State, or Federal Government.”
Concepts and Definitions

Page A-10 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Schools supported and controlled primarily by religious organizations or other private groups

are defined as private. Public-private school enrollment tabulations in this report generally

exclude children 3 and 4 years old because of data quality problems in the reporting of publicprivate enrollment at this age.

RACE

The concept of race used in the 1990 Census reflects self-classification by people according to

the race with which they most clearly identify. Response categories reflect racial, national

origin, and socio-cultural groups in the population. The racial classification used by the

Census Bureau generally adheres to the guidelines in Federal Statistical Directive No. 15,

issued by the Office of Management and Budget, which provides standards on ethnic and

racial categories for statistical reporting to be used by all Federal agencies. The racial

categories used in the 1990 census data in this report are provided below. This list does not

include “Hispanic,” which is an independent classification defined above; a Hispanic person

may be of any race. In all tabulations (except as noted) the data for each race group exclude

Hispanics, who are grouped separately. See also “Hispanic” and “minority,” above.

White—Includes persons who indicated their race as “White” or reported entries such

as Canadian, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near-Easterner, Arab, or Polish.

Black—Includes persons who indicated their race as “Black or Negro” or reported

entries such as African American, Afro-American, Black Puerto Rican, Jamaican,

Nigerian, West Indian, or Haitian.

Asian or Pacific Islander—Includes persons who reported in one of the Asian or

Pacific Islander groups listed on the questionnaire or who provided write-in responses

such as Thai, Nepali, or Tongan. In some data products, information is presented

separately for the Asian population and the Pacific Islander population. Asian includes

“Chinese,” “Filipino,” “Japanese,” “Asian Indian,” “Korean,” “Vietnamese,” and

“Other Asian.”

American Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut—Includes persons who classified themselves as

such.

Other Race—Includes all other persons not reported in the “White,” “Black,”

“American Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut,” and the “Asian or Pacific Islander” race

categories. Persons reporting in the “Other race” category and providing write-in

entries such as multiracial, multiethnic, mixed, interracial, or a Spanish/Hispanic origin

group are included here.

RELEVANT CHILDREN 3 TO 19 YEARS OLD

This report usually presents data on children 3 to 19 years of age who are not high school

graduates. (Note: 14- to 17-year-olds who had graduated from high school are part of the

data base.) In tables for states, counties and consolidated districts, this entire group is

assigned as the relevant population. For elementary and secondary districts, which co-exist in
Concepts and Definitions

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page A-11

the same area, the total group is divided based on assigned grade. The concept of relevant

children is unique to SDAB statistics and is used to relate school children to the appropriate

school district.

The relevant children for a school district are those who reside in the school district and are of

an appropriate grade for the school district. Children whose grade is equal to or less than the

highest grade taught in the elementary district are assigned as relevant for the district. The

remainder are assigned as relevant for the secondary district. For example, children relevant

to an elementary district are children enrolled in or assigned to grades PK-8 or whatever the

standards are for that state. Children relevant to a secondary district may be, for example,

enrolled in or assigned to grades 9-12. Children relevant to a consolidated school district may

be enrolled in or assigned to grades PK-12. Children of preschool age are all classified as

relevant for the elementary school district.

The concept of relevant children applies only to school district tabulations. Since two or more

school districts can cover the same territory, the concept of relevant children is used to

designate the subset of the population for which an elementary or secondary school district is

responsible.

REGULAR SCHOOL

A public elementary or secondary school that does not focus primarily on vocational, special,

or alternative education.

SCHOOL DISTRICT

A school district is a geographic area within a state in which a public school system operates

as a governmental entity with responsibility for operating public schools in that geographic

area. School districts may be wholly contained in one county or may include parts of many

counties. School districts may include either Indian reservations or military school districts,

depending upon whether or not the state government identifies them as agencies for carrying

out the state’s public school program.

This report includes regular school districts identified in the Common Core of Data (CCD)

operated by the National Center for Education Statistics based on reports from state education

agencies and mapped in the Census Mapping Project. In this report, a school district is an

education agency or administrative unit that operates under a public board of education and is

recognized by state education authorities. This report excludes about 1,300 nonregular school

districts (supervisory units and regional, state, and federal administrative units); it also

excludes a few regular school districts for which maps were not available. (See appendix B,

SDAB: Data Sources and Data Quality Limitations for information about maps.)

The Census Mapping Project (see appendix B) was coordinated by the National Center for

Education Statistics and individual participating states through the Council of Chief State

School Officers. Boundaries of the school districts were defined as of the 1989-1990 school

year. Data from the 1990 Census were tabulated for these districts. This report includes data
Concepts and Definitions

Page A-12 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

for approximately 15,000 school districts. The total number of districts varies somewhat from

subject to subject. This report recognizes several types of school districts:

Consolidated School District—A public school district which provides education for

persons in grades which may range from prekindergarten (or kindergarten) through

grade 12, as shown in the CCD. The range always includes grades below 9 and above

8.

Elementary School District—A public school district which provides education for

persons in any range of grades from pre-kindergarten (or kindergarten) through but not

exceeding 8.

Secondary School District—A public school district which provides education for

persons in grades ranging from no less than 9 to no more than 12.

SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN

Generally, persons at least 3 years old and not yet 20 or older who have not graduated from

high school, as reported to the 1990 Census. However, the specifications for the Decennial

School District Data Project in fact include all 14- to 17-year-olds regardless of whether they

have graduated or not. This is the primary population of children shown in this report, except

for “at-risk” children, which includes children under three years old.

SEX RATIO

A measure calculated by dividing the total number of males by the total number of females, as

reported in the 1990 Census, and multiplying by 100.

UNIVERSE

There are two kinds of universes: children and school districts. In the child tabulations, all

counts are counts of children. These may be shown by the child’s own characteristics, their

parents’ characteristics, or the characteristics of the school district where they live. School

district tabulations tally school districts. These are frequency distributions of school districts

classified by school district characteristics.

Other units never appear as populations in this report or in the source of data, the School

District Analysis Book. For example, children are shown by characteristics of their

households and their parents, such as household income and parents’ education. But counts of

the number of households, parents and families never appear in the SDAB.

URBAN AND RURAL

“Urban” denotes all territory and population in urbanized areas and in places of 2,500 or more

persons outside urbanized areas. Rural territory is territory not classified as urban. Rural

territory is further classified into nonfarm and farm.

Urbanized Area—The Census Bureau delineates urbanized areas to provide separation of

urban and rural territory in the vicinity of large cities. An urbanized area consists of one or

more places (“central place”) and the adjacent densely settled surrounding territory (“urban
Concepts and Definitions

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page A-13

fringe”) that together have a minimum of 50,000 persons and an overall population density of

1,000 or more persons per square mile. One or more central places function as the dominant

center(s) of each urbanized area.

YEAR MOVED INTO UNIT

The data on year moved into unit refers to the year of the latest move by the householder.
Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page B-1

Appendix B. SDAB: Data Sources and Data Quality Limitations

Sources of Data. This report is based on the data in the School District Analysis Book

(SDAB). The SDAB is an interactive facility to support research into District of Columbia,

state, or national demographic statistics of school districts and children. Tables resembling

spreadsheets interrelate characteristics of school districts, children, parents, and households in

two or three dimensions. One of the dimensions may be selected from a set of 47 different

classifications of school districts into ranges of characteristics such as size, percent minority,

median income, etc. The second dimension is typically one of approximately 140 census

tables, but it may also be a set of class intervals of school district characteristics. For those

spreadsheets reporting children, a third dimension may iterate on enrollment, race, or age

groups. By choosing the appropriate dimensions, a researcher can study enrollment patterns

by various demographic, social, and economic categories, such as urbanization, language

spoken, income, race, and so forth. Any of the approximately 7,000 possible studies for a

state may be viewed, printed, or exported.

The effort to develop the SDAB began in 1988 with the 1990 Census Mapping Project. Under

this project, sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics and coordinated by the

Council of Chief State School Officers, all states participated in a program to develop school

district maps. A public school district is an area whose public schools are administratively

affiliated with a local education agency recognized by the state education agency as

responsible for implementing the state’s elementary and secondary public education program.

Through the Census Mapping Project, 15,304 areas were mapped: 14,985 school districts and

319 “pseudo” school districts.1 The Census Mapping Project districts were assigned names

and codes from the 1989-90 Common Core of Data where possible.

The paper maps, the first complete set ever to be developed for the nation, were sent to the

U.S. Bureau of the Census. The Census Bureau digitized the maps and transferred the

resulting data into the TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and

Referencing) System, which it uses as a way of tabulating address-oriented data. Once the

school district maps were a part of the TIGER system, each of the nation’s 6.5 million census

blocks could be uniquely associated with its respective school district. The 1990 Decennial

Census information could then be assembled for all school districts. This material was

developed into the 1990 Census School District Special Tabulation. For some tabulations in

the SDAB, additional data from the NCES Common Core of Data2 and the 1990 Census of

 

1

 See the discussion of pseudo districts under Data Quality Limitations, p. B-3.

2

 For this project, only CCD administrative data was used—school district ID, total population (100 percent) of

district, area of district (square kilometers), FIPS code-State, full-time equivalent (FTE) classroom teachers, and

the sum of students reported in school. The administrative data were derived from the 1989-90 Common Core

of Data-School Level File. However, the CCD file used in this project was custom developed by the Census

Bureau. It presents similar subject matter data as the conventional annual$file that is released publicly, but the

data were organized differently. See p. 10 of the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education

Statistics, Census Mapping Project / School District Data Book, Working Paper Series No. 96-04, February

1996.
SDAB: Data Sources and Data Quality Limitations

Page B-2 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Governments School District Finances (i.e., the F-33) 3 were used to classify the districts.4

The SDAB was not the only product of the data project; NCES also coordinated development

of the School District Data Book (SDDB). The SDDB is a massive database of approximately

20 gigabytes of statistical data (11 billion numbers) entered on 43 CD-ROMs. The SDDB

consists of detailed information about individual school districts and their populations of

schoolchildren whereas the SDAB (on which this report is directly based) contains statistical

summaries that describe school district and population information nationally and by state.

Figure B-1. Relationship of data

1990 Decennial

Census

1990 Census

Mapping Project

School District

 Analysis Book (SDAB)

(state and national level

crosstabulations)

1 CD-ROM

School District

 Data Book (SDDB)

43 CD-ROMs

CCD F-33

+

School districts

were classified by some

additional CCD administrative

and F-33 financial data.

1990 Census School District

Special Tabulation

Data Quality Limitations. This section describes limitations of the SDAB data related

to (1) “pseudo” districts from the Census Mapping Project, (2) public versus private

 

3

 The F-33 variables used in the SDAB were the (1) FIPS code, (2) revenue direct from the Federal government,

(3) Federal aid through the State—school lunch, (4) Federal aid through the State—all other, (5) instruction

expenditures, (6) expenditures on behalf of school system—instruction (often imputed), and (7) retirement fund

transfer to own system. The F-33 data used to develop tables in the SDAB correspond to the F-33 file as of

2/10/93.

4

See the discussion of instructional expenditures under Data Quality Limitations, p. B-4.
SDAB: Sources of Data and Data Quality Limitations

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page B-3

enrollment of prekindergarten-age children and (3) average per pupil instructional

expenditures.

1) “Pseudo” districts from the Census Mapping Project. The Census Mapping Project

mapped 14,985 school districts; however, maps were not available for some school districts,

and some districts could not be matched to the source data bases (1990 Census School District

Special Tabulation, 1990 Common Core of Data, and 1990 Survey of Local Governments).

Census created 319 pseudo districts to cover the areas for which maps were unavailable: 30

balance-of-county pseudo districts, 268 sub-district pseudo districts, and 21 county-equivalent

pseudo districts for California, the only state not to fully participate in the Census Mapping

Project. At the national level, we use data for all districts, including pseudo-districts, but

where data are presented state-by-state in this report, California data are not shown since it did

not fully participate in the project. (See below for details.) Secondly, totals in the SDAB

tables may differ somewhat. Some of the 55.3 million children in the SDDB and SDAB could

not be identified with a particular school district and so are not included in the population of

relevant children for the school district tabulations. (Data for such children are included in

SDAB source tabulations in a “balance-of-county” category.) However, because of the small

size of numbers involved, these differences do not affect this analysis.

Balance-of-County Pseudo Districts. Most areas of the United States are covered by

one or more school districts. However, there are parts of some states that are not

covered by any school district. These 30 areas are referred to as “balance-of-county”

areas and treated as “pseudo” school districts in the SDAB and SDDB. Balance-ofcounty areas, as the name suggests, are the residual part(s) of a county not assigned to

any school district. Although these areas are treated as one area within a county for

data tabulation purposes, in most cases a balance-of-county area is actually composed

of several non-contiguous parts.

While balance-of-county areas are not recognized by the State or Federal Government

as true school districts, data were tabulated for these areas in the 1990 Census School

District Special Tabulation. Due to the inclusion of these balance-of-county areas, all

areas of the United States are accounted for through the Census Mapping Project and

1990 census school district tabulations. Balance-of-county pseudo districts have

district codes that begin with the two characters 81 (no other district codes in the

United States have 81 as the starting digits). The SDAB includes a separate collection

of spreadsheets for these balance-of-county areas.

Sub-District Pseudo Districts. In Hawaii, which is collectively one school district, the

Census Mapping Project mapped 231 sub-districts. In New York, 37 sub-districts

within the New York City Public School District were mapped (32 community school

districts and 5 borough secondary school districts).

California Pseudo Districts. The State of California was the only state not to fully

participate in the Census Mapping Project. As a result, some school districts in

California were not mapped, nor were census data tabulated for these areas as true

school districts. Twelve California counties, which are composed of two or more true
SDAB: Data Sources and Data Quality Limitations

Page B-4 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

districts, were not mapped at the district level (Butte, El Dorado, Humboldt, Kings,

Madera, Mariposa, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, Tehama,

and Trinity). In these cases, the county itself was used as a pseudo district for census

data tabulation purposes. Since data were tabulated for these county-wide pseudo

district areas, the demographic data are available for California on a statewide basis

even though data are not separately provided for many true districts. The number of

true districts in California as conveyed by the Census Mapping Project is

approximately 20 percent fewer than the true number of districts in the State. Because

of that, at the national level, we use data for all districts, including pseudo-districts, as

described above. However, since California did not fully participate in the project,

California data are not shown in this report in those cases where state-by-state data are

cited.

2) Public versus private enrollment for prekindergarten-age children. This report does

not present information on public/private enrollment for preschool children. That is,

public/private enrollment data are shown for children 5 to 19 years old, not for children 3 and

4 years old; and, data that include preschool ages do not show detail on public/private

enrollment.

The decision to exclude these data from the report is based on the large differences between

the 1990 Census figures on private school enrollment of these children and the figures from

the Current Population Survey (CPS) as reported in U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current

Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 452, “School Enrollment: October 1989.”

Enrollment of

3- to 4-year-olds

SDAB

(1990 Census data)

Current Population Survey,

October 1989

Percent enrolled of 3-4 28.9 39.0

 Public 13.3 13.6

 Private 15.6 25.4

Percent private of enrolled 54.0 65.1

About 29 percent of children 3 and 4 years old are reported in the SDAB as enrolled,

compared with 39 percent in the CPS. All of this difference in total enrollment is in the

private school enrollment figures: the SDAB reports 16 percent of children are enrolled,

compared with the CPS figure of 25 percent. The distribution of enrolled children is

correspondingly affected. The SDAB shows that 54 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds are enrolled

in private school, compared with the CPS estimate of 65 percent.

3) Average per pupil instructional expenditure. As defined in Public Education Finances:

1989-90 (p. 3), instructional expenditure

relates to the instruction function (series 1000) defined in the National Center

for Education Statistics (NCES) publication Financial Accounting for Local

and State School Systems, commonly called Handbook II, Revised (1990). It

covers expenditures for regular, special, and vocational programs offered in
SDAB: Sources of Data and Data Quality Limitations

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page B-5

both the regular school year and summer school. It excludes instructional,

student, and other support activities as well as adult education, community

services, and student enterprise activities.

Since not all States prescribe the use of the above financial accounting

handbook and its definition of instruction for their school systems, some

interstate disparities exist. The most significant is that some State accounting

systems do not include employee benefit payments or fixed charges in

‘instruction.’

Estimates of average per pupil instructional expenditures (ppe) for states in this report are

based on numbers in tabulations from the School District Analysis Book (SDAB). Before

explaining how state-level average ppes were calculated in this report, we need to look at how

SDAB classified each school district within a state. First, each district in the 1990 Census

School District Special Tabulation had to be matched to a district in both the CCD and F-33

files. This sometimes resulted in a lower number of districts being included in the SDAB than

were included among the Special Tabulation, CCD, or F-33;5 see table B-1 for differences in

the number of inscope districts across these sources. Second, for every matched district, the

average ppe figure was calculated as the ratio of the total instructional expenditure figure for

that district (identified in the SDAB F-33 source file) and the corresponding number of

enrolled children (identified from the SDAB CCD source file). Districts that did not include

children could not be used in the ppe calculations because the denominator—number of

enrolled children—could not be zero. However, the per pupil instructional expenditure for

each district does not appear in the SDAB. Instead, the third step in developing SDAB

tabulations is to classify the school district or the children by the following ppe ranges: less

than $2,000; $2,000 to $2,499 (i.e., less than $2,500); $2,500 to $2,999; $3,000 to $3,499;

$3,500 to $,3999; $4,000 to $4,499; $4,500 to $4,999; $5,000 to $5,999; and more than

$6,000. The per pupil instructional expenditure amounts that appear in this report are based

on computations using the midpoints of these ranges: $1,770 (special calculation); $2,250;

$2,750; $3,250; $3,750; $4,250; $4,750; $5,500; and $7,731 (special calculation).

Estimated state-level ppe averages were calculated by multiplying the midpoint of an

expenditure category by the frequency reported for that category (number of children or

number of school districts, as the case may be), summing the products over all categories, and

dividing the resulting total expenditure figure by the number of districts (or the number of

children). These estimated averages will differ from actual per pupil expenditure figures

developed from the F-33 data because of the above estimation process. (See table B-2 and

figure B-2.) The SDAB averages may differ because of another reason as well. The F-33 data

included in the SDAB corresponds to the FY 1990 F-33 file as of 2/10/93. The F-33 data files

are continually updated, so there have been modifications of the F-33 since that date which

are not reflected in the SDAB.

 

5

 District Ids that did not match may be the result of coding errors. “The source of the coding errors lie with

incomplete processing on the part of Census” (p. 45). Census provided both the CCD and F-33 source files

used to develop the SDAB. See National Center for Education Statistics. Census Mapping Project School

District Data Book. NCES Working Paper Series No. 96-04. February 1996.
SDAB: Data Sources and Data Quality Limitations

Page B-6 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

For further information, please refer to the following publications:

Parrish, T.B., Matsumoto, C.S. and Fowler, Jr., W.J. 1995. Disparities in Public School

District Spending 1989-90: A Multivariate, student-weighted analysis, adjusted for

differences in geographic cost of living and student need. NCES 95-300. Washington, DC:

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Education Research and Improvement, National

Center for Education Statistics.

Synectics for Management Decisions, Inc. 1996. Assessing Quality of CCD Data Using a

School-Based Survey. Final Report. Contract No. RN910600.01.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1992. Public Education Finances: 1989-90. Series GF/90-10.

Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Table B-1. Number of regular school districts in original source files versus the number of

matched school districts used in SDAB calculations of average ppe, by state

Number of school districts before matching SDAB

1990 Census

School District

Special Tabulation

CCD

source

file

F-33

source

file

Number of matched

districts used

in ppe calculations

U.S. Total 14,897214,198 15,276 13,791

Alabama 132 132 129 127

Alaska 54 54 57 54

Arizona 219 222 233 208

Arkansas 329 329 347 326

California1- - - -

Colorado 176 176 203 174

Connecticut 166 166 166 166

Delaware 16 16 19 16

District of Columbia 1 1 1 1

Florida 67 67 67 67

Georgia 189 189 202 185

Hawaii 1 1 1 1

Idaho 111 112 115 108

Illinois 958 958 1,016 949

Indiana 303 303 321 300

Iowa 430 430 446 429

Kansas 304 304 338 302

Kentucky 178 177 178 176

Louisiana 67 67 66 66

Maine 289 282 293 225

Maryland 24 24 24 24

Massachusetts 326 329 437 321

Michigan 561 561 620 561

Minnesota 436 436 566 433

Mississippi 151 151 159 151

Missouri 541 541 545 541

Montana 516 540 567 499

Nebraska 788 836 862 754

Nevada 17 17 17 17

New Hampshire 170 170 212 153

New Jersey 575 576 616 554

New Mexico 88 88 88 88

New York 708 741 759 686

North Carolina 136 136 139 132

North Dakota 277 281 318 272

Ohio 611 613 662 610

Oklahoma 603 603 635 601

Oregon 299 301 331 296

Pennsylvania 501 501 617 500

Rhode Island 37 37 37 37

South Carolina 92 92 91 91

South Dakota 184 180 189 172

Tennessee 139 138 141 137

Texas 1,053 1,054 1,057 1,049

Utah 40 40 40 40

Vermont 257 259 334 238

Virginia 138 138 138 132

Washington 293 296 304 290

West Virginia 55 55 55 55

Wisconsin 429 429 466 428

Wyoming 49 49 52 49

1 Since California did not fully participate in the Census Mapping Project, specific data for the State are not shown.

2This total includes the 813 districts that did participate in California.

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census School District Special Tabulation ; 1990 F-33 (see 90 SCH-FILE C for record counts for 1990 

Education Finance Record). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1989-90 Common Core of Data;School District 

Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, Tabulation F02G01.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page B-7
Table B-2. Average per pupil instructional expenditure,

(ppe), by state, for SDAB (estimated) and the 1990 F-33

SDAB estimated

average ppe

F-33

average ppe1

U.S. Total 2,893 2,794

Alabama 1,883 1,696

Alaska 4,123 4,175

Arizona 2,277 2,282

Arkansas 2,118 2,047

California2 - 2,887

Colorado 2,496 2,532

Connecticut 4,924 4,660

Delaware 3,477 3,523

District of Columbia 3,250 3,312

Florida 2,611 2,534

Georgia 2,457 2,466

Hawaii3 - 2,477

Idaho 1,934 1,806

Illinois 2,549 2,499

Indiana 2,480 2,541

Iowa 2,472 2,435

Kansas 2,540 2,458

Kentucky 2,272 2,103

Louisiana 2,121 2,024

Maine 3,466 3,214

Maryland 3,484 3,365

Massachusetts 3,419 3,438

Michigan 2,922 2,779

Minnesota 3,038 3,022

Mississippi 1,826 1,820

Missouri 2,321 2,332

Montana 2,581 2,565

Nebraska 2,690 2,646

Nevada 2,314 2,306

New Hampshire 2,956 2,954

New Jersey 4,357 4,053

New Mexico 2,082 2,059

New York 4,804 4,660

North Carolina 2,543 2,550

North Dakota 2,231 2,264

Ohio 2,440 2,470

Oklahoma 2,016 2,002

Oregon 2,804 2,688

Pennsylvania 3,256 3,439

Rhode Island 4,164 3,937

South Carolina 2,312 2,250

South Dakota 1,976 1,972

Tennessee 2,497 2,389

Texas 2,434 2,340

Utah 1,782 1,653

Vermont 3,303 3,501

Virginia 2,881 2,833

Washington 2,575 2,552

West Virginia 2,590 2,328

Wisconsin 3,134 3,155

Wyoming 3,087 3,086

1The F-33 ppe figures cited here are based on a later version of the F-33 file than was available 

during SDAB development.

2

Since California did not fully participate in the Census Mapping Project, its state-level SDAB 

data are not shown.

3The instructional expenditure data for Hawaii are missing from the SDAB.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School 

District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CD-ROM, (see tabulation F01G01). U.S. Bureau of the 

Census, Public Education Finances: 1989-90, GF/90-10 (see Table 12).
Figure B-2. Percent difference between average ppe in the SDAB (estimated) and the F-33

-6.0

-5.6

-2.5

-1.9

-1.5

-1.4

-1.3

-1.3

-1.2

-0.7

-0.6

-0.5

-0.4

-0.3

-0.2

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.3

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.9

1.1

1.5

1.6

1.7

2.0

2.7

2.9

3.0

3.2

3.4

3.4

3.4

3.9

4.1

4.3

4.6

4.9

5.4

5.5

6.6

7.0

7.2

7.3

7.4

9.9

10.1

-24.0 -18.0 -12.0 -6.0 0.0 6.0 12.0 18.0 24.0 30.0 36.0

Wyoming

New Hampshire

South Dakota

Mississippi

Nevada

Minnesota

Montana

Oklahoma

Washington

New Mexico

Iowa

Nebraska

Virginia

Illinois

South Carolina

Florida

New York

Kansas

Arkansas

Maryland

U.S. TOTAL

Texas

Oregon

Tennessee

Louisiana

Michigan

Connecticut

Rhode Island

Idaho

New Jersey

Utah

Maine

Kentucky

Alabama

West Virginia

Vermont

Massachusetts

Wisconsin

Alaska

Ohio

Delaware

Colorado

North Dakota

District of Columbia

Indiana

Pennsylvania

Arizona

North Carolina

Georgia

Missouri

Source of numbers used in the comparison: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School District Analysis Book (SDAB), 1990, CDROM. U.S. Bureau of Census, Public Education Finances: 1989-1990, GF/90-10, 1992.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page B-9
Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page C-1

Appendix C. SDAB: Accuracy of Data

As noted above, the data sources used in the SDAB are the 1990 Census, the NCES Common

Core of Data, and the 1990 Census of Governments.

• 1990 CensusThe data items included in this report, as well as in the SDAB, are based on

the 1990 census sample. Approximately one household in six completed the long-form

questionnaire which included the more detailed questions about such items as enrollment

and income. The basic demographic information, such as race, age, Hispanic origin, and

family composition, was asked of every person in the United States.

Data based on samples differ somewhat from that which would have been obtained had the

entire population responded to the inquiry because of sampling error. This error is a measure

of the variation among the estimates from all the possible samples, and thus is a measure of

the precision with which an estimate from a particular sample approximates the average result

of all possible samples. The tables in this report have been constructed with data obtained

primarily from two sources: school district-level reported data and census long-form data.

School district-level reported data was collected (directly or indirectly) from all the school

districts and did not involve any sampling. Census long-form data, on the other hand, was

collected from approximately 16 percent of all the households in the country. Thus any

estimate built from this data will have sampling error.

In some of these tables, the Census data has been used to classify districts into

nonoverlapping categories: it is not possible to calculate the sampling error for data from

these tables without going to the data in the original form. In such cases, we ignore the

sampling error involved in the classification. However, whenever the census data was used to

develop any estimate, the estimate will have a sampling error which can be calculated

conditional on the categories already formed.

In addition to the variability which arises from the sampling procedures, the data are subject

to nonsampling error, which may be introduced during any of the various complex operations

used to collect and process the census data. Such biases are not reflected in the standard error.

Nonsampling error may affect data in two ways. Errors that are introduced randomly will

increase the variability of the data and, therefore, should be reflected in the standard error.

Errors that tend to be consistent in one direction will result in data biased in that direction.

Such biases are not reflected in the standard error. Examples of sources of nonsampling error

include undercoverage of persons and housing units, respondent error in providing

information, enumerator error or misinterpretation in recording answers, in contacting wrong

households or inappropriate respondents, errors in processing the data at any one of the many

stages involved from collection to tabulation, and adjustment for nonresponse, either to

particular questions or to the full questionnaire. It should be noted that the Census instituted a

wide variety of programs to control these possible sources of error. The 1990 Census
SDAB: Accuracy of Data

Page C-2 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Evaluation Program provides a measure of the effects of these programs and the amount of

error remaining after their application.

The sample estimate and its standard error enable one to construct a confidence interval; that

is, a range that includes the average result of all possible samples with a known probability.

For example, if all possible samples were surveyed under essentially the same general

conditions and using the same sample design, and if an estimate and its standard error were

calculated from each sample, then approximately 68 percent of the intervals from one

standard error below the estimate to one standard error above the estimates would include the

average result of all possible samples. Using 1.645 standard errors below and above the

estimate would place approximately 90 percent of the results of all possible samples in the

interval.

The examples and tables on the following pages contain information necessary to calculate

standard errors for estimates derived from the 1990 Census:

• Use table C-1 to obtain the design factor appropriate to the characteristic and the percent

in sample, multiply the basic standard error by this factor. The product is the standard

error for the estimate.

Table C-1. Standard error design factors

Characteristic Design factor

Age 1.2

Sex 1.2

Race 1.2

Hispanic origin 1.2

Ancestry 2.1

Place of birth 2.2

Language spoken at home and ability to speak English 1.7

Educational attainment 1.3

School enrollment 1.8

Family type 1.2

Household income in 1989 1.2

Family income in 1989 1.2

Poverty status in 1989 (persons) 1.6

Poverty status in 1989 (families) 1.2

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Summary, Social, Economic, and Housing Characteristics , Appendix C. Series 1990 CPH-5-1.

• Obtain the standard error by following the procedure demonstrated in the examples below

(exact cases) or use table C-2 for the estimated total or C-3 for the estimated percentage to

calculate unadjusted standard errors (these will be approximations).
SDAB: Accuracy of Data

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page C-3

To estimate the standard error of a sum of or a difference between two sample estimates, the

appropriate standard error is approximately the square root of the sum of the two individual

standard errors squared.

Estimated standard errors, as noted earlier, do not include all portions of the variability due to

nonsampling error that may be present in the data. They reflect the effect of simple response

variance, but not the effect of correlated errors introduced by enumerators, coders, or other

field or processing personnel. Thus, the standard errors as calculated represent a lower bound

of the total error. As a result, confidence intervals formed using these estimated standard

errors may not meet the stated levels of confidence (i.e., 68, 90, or 95 percent). Thus, some

care must be exercised in the interpretation of the data based on the estimated standard errors.

Similarly, caution should be exercised in using data based on very small samples or in

interpreting very small differences between estimates.

The following are some illustrations of how to compute a standard error and the

corresponding confidence interval of a proportion, a percentage, and a total, and to test

hypotheses for the equality of two percentages.

Let us consider the variable “3- to 4-year-olds enrolled in prekindergarten.” This variable can

be expressed both as a proportion (p) and also as a percentage (100p). We will use the data

for the State of Hawaii to demonstrate the construction of confidence intervals.1

Example 1Proportion: The proportion of 3- or 4-year-old children who are enrolled in

prekindergarten is 0.3573. Since the Census long-form used only 16 percent of the

households on an average, we can assume that the sample size is approximately 32,729 (N)

divided by 6, which equals 5,455 (n).

The standard error is given by the following formula:

( )( ( ))

N n

N

p p

n

DF − −

−













1

1

where DF equals the design factor. On table C-1, we see that the design factor corresponding

to school enrollment is 1.8. This factor is multiplied by the standard error calculated below.

Thus, the expression equals

(

,

,

)(( . )( . )) .

32 729 5454

32 729

0 36 0 64

5453

18

 −











The standard error is (0.0059)(1.8) = 0.0106.

 

1

 There may be some discrepancies due to rounding.
SDAB: Accuracy of Data

Page C-4 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Accordingly, the 68 percent confidence interval is 0.36 - 0.0106, 0.36 + 0.0106

= 0.3494 to 0.3706

Example 2Percentage: The percentage is obtained by multiplying the proportion by 100.

In the same way, the standard error for the percentage is obtained by multiplying the

corresponding standard error for the proportion by 100. Thus, the percentage is 100(0.36)

equals 36, the standard error of 36 percent is 100(0.0106) equals 1.06, and the 68 percent

confidence interval for the case when neither the finite population correction nor the design

factor is ignored is 36 - 1.06, 36 + 1.06

= 34.94 percent to 37.06 percent

Example 3Totals: The total number (T) of 3- or 4-year-olds enrolled in prekindergarten in

Hawaii is estimated to be 11,694. This number equals the product of 32,729 (the total number

of 3- or 4-year-olds in Hawaii) and the estimated proportion, 0.3573. Thus the estimate of the

total number of 3- or 4-year-olds enrolled in prekindergarten is 32,795(0.3573) equals 11,694.

To estimate the standard error of the total number, we multiply the standard error of the

proportion by 32,729 to get 347. Therefore, the 68 percent confidence interval is 11,694 -

347, 11,694 + 347

= 11,347 to 12,041

Example 4Differences: When comparing two percentages, 100p1 and 100p2, the usual t test

employs the following procedure.

t = 100 100

100 100

1 2

1

2

2

2

p p

SE p SE p

−

[ ( )] + [ ( )]

For our example, suppose we compare the percentage of Hawaii35.73with the

corresponding percentage of New Jersey, which is 39.76.

SE(100p2) = 

100 208148 34 691

208148

03976 06024

34 690

( 18

, ,

,

)(( . )( . )

,

) .

 −











= 0.43

The standard error in New Jersey is much smaller compared to Hawaii, since New Jersey is a

much larger state and consequently has a larger sample size. Thus,

t = 3573 39 76

106 0 43 2 2

. .

( . ) ( . )

−

+

= -3.52,
SDAB: Accuracy of Data

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page C-5

which is statistically significant at the 5 percent level of significance. Thus we reject the null

hypothesis that the two proportions are identically equal to each other.

Additional detail on calculating standard errors for sample estimates derived from the 1990

Census can be found in Appendix C, US Summary, Social, Economic, and Housing

Characteristics, Series 1990 CPH-5-1. Tables C-2 and C-3, mentioned earlier and appearing

on the following page, were taken from that volume.
SDAB: Accuracy of Data

Page C-6 Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts

Table C-2. Unadjusted standard error for estimated totals

(Based on a 1-in-6 simple random sample)

Estimated

Total1

Size of publication area2

500 1,000 2,500 5,000 10,000 25,000 50,000 100,000 250,000 500,000 1,000,000 5,000,000 10,000,000 25,000,000

50

100

250

500

1,000

2,500

5,000

10,000

15,000

25,000

75,000

100,000

250,000

500,000

1,00,000

5,000,000

10,000,000

16

20

25

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

16

21

30

35

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

16

22

35

45

55

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

16

22

35

45

65

80

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

16

22

35

50

65

95

110

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

16

22

35

50

70

110

140

170

170

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

16

22

35

50

70

110

150

200

230

250

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

16

22

35

50

70

110

150

210

250

310

310

-

-

-

-

-

-

16

22

35

50

70

110

160

220

270

340

510

550

-

-

-

-

-

16

22

35

50

70

110

160

220

270

350

570

630

790

-

-

-

-

16

22

35

50

70

110

160

220

270

350

590

670

970

1 120

-

-

-

16

22

35

50

70

110

160

220

270

350

610

700

1 090

1 500

2 000

-

-

16

22

35

50

70

110

160

220

270

350

610

700

1 100

1 540

2 120

3 540

-

16

22

35

50

70

110

160

220

270

350

610

710

1 100

1 570

2 190

4 470

5 480

1

For estimated totals larger than 10,000,000, the standard error is somewhat larger than the table values. The formula given below should be used to

calculate the standard error.

SE y y

y

N

( ) = 5 (1− )

N = Size of Area

Y = Estimate of characteristic total

2The total count of persons in the area if the estimated total is a person characteristic, or the total count of housing units in the area if the estimated total is a

housing unit characteristic.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Summary, Social, Economic, and Housing Characteristics , Appendix C. Series 1990 CPH-5-1.

Table C-3. Unadjusted standard error in percentage points for estimated percentage

 (Based on a 1-in-6 simple random sample)

Estimated

Percentage

Base of percentage1

500 750 1,000 1,500 2,500 5,000 7,500 10,000 25,000 50,000 100,000 250,000 500,000

2 or 98

5 or 95

10 or 90

15 or 85

20 or 80

25 or 75

30 or 70

35 or 65

50

1.4

2.2

3.0

3.6

4.0

4.3

4.6

4.8

5.0

1.1

1.8

2.4

2.9

3.3

3.5

3.7

3.9

4.1

1.0

1.5

2.1

2.5

2.8

3.1

3.2

3.4

3.5

0.8

1.3

1.7

2.1

2.3

2.5

2.6

2.8

2.9

0.6

1.0

1.3

1.6

1.8

1.9

2.0

2.1

2.2

0.4

0.7

0.9

1.1

1.3

1.4

1.4

1.5

1.6

0.4

0.6

0.8

0.9

1.0

1.1

1.2

1.2

1.3

0.3

0.5

0.7

0.8

0.9

1.0

1.0

1.1

1.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.6

0.6

0.7

0.7

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.4

0.4

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.1

0.2

0.2

0.3

0.3

0.3

0.3

0.3

0.4

0.1

0.1

0.1

0.2

0.2

0.2

0.2

0.2

0.2

0.1

0.1

0.1

0.1

0.1

0.1

0.1

0.2

0.2

1

For a percentage and/or base of percentage not shown in the table, the formula given below may be used to calculate the standard error. This

table should only be used for proportions, that is, where the numerator is a subset of the denominator.

SE p

B

( ) = p( − p)

5

100

B = Base of estimated percentage

p = Estimated percentage

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. U.S. Summary, Social, Economic, and Housing Characteristics , Appendix C. Series 1990 CPH-5-1.
SDAB: Accuracy of Data

Profile of Children in U.S. School Districts Page C-7

• Common Core of DataThe Common Core of Data (CCD) survey is conducted annually

by NCES to acquire data about staff and students at the school, LEA (local education

agency or school district), and state levels. Information about revenues and expenditures

also is collected for a particular school year (July through June 30) via survey instruments

sent to the states by October 15 of the subsequent school year. Since CCD is a universe

survey, the data are not subject to sampling error. However, results are subject to

nonsampling error from two sourcesnonresponse and inaccurate reporting. Although

virtually all of the states complete and return the CCD survey instruments, there are many

delays in submitting data and submissions are sometimes incomplete. Further,

misreporting can and does occur, reflecting varying interpretations of NCES definitions

and differing recordkeeping systems.

Additional information on the Common Core of Data can be found in the appendix to The

Condition of Education 1995, issued by NCES.

• 1990 Census of Governments Finance DataData on public school systems are obtained

through a survey of all governmental units in the nation, conducted every five years (years

ending in 3 and 8). Since all governmental units are included, the data are not subject to

sampling error; some component of nonsampling error may be reflected, however, due to

possible inaccuracies in classification, response, and processing.

Additional information on the collection of school finance data through the 1990 Census of

Governments can be found in Public Education Finances: 1989-90, GF/90-10.