As of 1991, the mean number per public school was 6.3, or one for every 1.9 televisions. As with televisions themselves, elementary, middle, and high schools have about the same number per capita. The typical school has one VCR for every five teachers. The NEA reported in their Communications Survey that about one-fourth of all surveyed teachers had a VCR in their own classroom. However, that figure seems high as an estimate for all U.S. teachers, given the total number of VCRs in schools, including those shared among the teaching staff.
Most schools maintain a library of prerecorded cassettes.
But a majority of teachers record shows from public broadcast or cable programs at their home, and many others request school personnel to make those recordings for them. Increasingly, teachers are adding to the sources of video programming they have access to beyond receiving local broadcasting, recording from their home, and pre-recorded cassettes. The NEA teacher survey found that roughly one-third of all teachers in their sample reported having cable TV service in their own classroom. Thus, most teachers who have a TV in their classroom can receive cable channels as well as local VHF and UHF stations. The particular cable programming that a given school or classroom receives, though, varies substantially from place to place.