IES Blog

Across the country, students are preparing to head back to school—whether in person, online, or through some combination of the two—for the 2021–22 academic year. Each year, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) compiles a Back-to-School Fast Fact that provides a snapshot of schools and colleges in the United States. Here are a few “by-the-numbers” highlights from this year’s edition.

Note: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, projected data were not available for this year’s Fast Fact. Therefore, some of the data presented below were collected in 2020 or 2021, but most of the data were collected before the pandemic began. Data collected in 2020 or 2021 are preliminary and subject to change.

48.1 million

The number of students who attended public elementary and secondary schools in fall 2020. 

The racial and ethnic profile of public school students includes 22.0 million White students, 13.4 million Hispanic students, 7.2 million Black students, 2.6 million Asian students, 2.2 million students of Two or more races, 0.4 million American Indian/Alaska Native students, and 0.2 million Pacific Islander students.

Additionally, in fall 2017, about 5.7 million students attended private schools.

3.7 million

The number of students projected to have graduated from high school in the 2018–19 school year, including 3.3 million students from public schools and 0.4 million students from private schools.

43 percent

The percentage of fourth- and eighth-grade students who were enrolled in remote instruction in February 2021.

In comparison, in May 2021, 26 percent of fourth- and eighth-grade students were enrolled in remote instruction.

2.3 million

The number of teachers in public schools in fall 2019.

Additionally, in fall 2017, there were 0.5 million teachers in private schools.

$13,187

The current expenditure per student in public elementary and secondary schools in the 2018–19 school year.

Total current expenditures in public elementary and secondary schools were $667 billion for the 2018–19 school year.

19.6 million

The number of students that attended colleges and universities in fall 2019—lower than the peak of 21.0 million in 2010.

About 5.6 million attended 2-year institutions and 14.0 million students attended 4-year institutions in fall 2019.

11.3 million

The number of female postsecondary students in fall 2019.

In comparison, there were 8.4 million male postsecondary students in fall 2019.

7.3 million

The number of postsecondary students who were enrolled in any distance education course in fall 2019.

In comparison, there were 12.3 million students who were not enrolled in distance education in fall 2019.

Be sure to check out the full Fast Fact to learn more about these and other back-to-school data.

The staff of NCES and of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) hopes our nation’s students, teachers, administrators, school staffs, and families have an outstanding school year!

By Megan Barnett and Sarah Hein, AIR

NCES recently released revised Common Core of Data (CCD) Preliminary Files, which are the product of the school year (SY) 2020–21 CCD data collection. CCD, the Department of Education’s primary database on public elementary and secondary education in the United States, provides comprehensive annual data on enrollment, school finances, and student graduation rates.

Here are a few key takeaways from the newly released data files:

Public school enrollment in SY 2020–21 was lower than it was in SY 2019–20.

Overall, the number of students enrolled in public schools decreased by 3 percent from SY 2019–20 to SY 2020–21. Note that Illinois did not submit data in time to be included in this preliminary report. The SY 2019–20 and SY 2020–21 total enrollment counts for California, Oregon, American Samoa, and the Bureau of Indian Education do not include prekindergarten counts.

The rate of decline in public school enrollment in SY 2020–21 was not consistent across all states.

Within states, the largest decreases were in Mississippi and Vermont (5 percent each), followed by Washington, New Mexico, Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Maine (each between 4 and 5 percent) (figure 1). Eighteen states had decreases of 3 percent or more; 29 states had decreases between 1 and 3 percent; and the District of Columbia, South Dakota, and Utah had changes of less than 1 percent.

Lower grade levels experienced a greater rate of decline in public school enrollment than did higher grade levels in SY 2020–21.

Public school enrollment decreased by 13 percent for prekindergarten and kindergarten and by 3 percent for grades 1–8. Public school enrollment increased by 0.4 percent for grades 9–12.

Most other jurisdictions experienced declines in public school enrollment in SY 2020–21.

Public school enrollment decreased in Puerto Rico (6 percent), Guam (5 percent), and American Samoa (2 percent). The Virgin Islands, however, experienced an increase of less than 1 percent.

To access the CCD preliminary data files and learn more about public school enrollment in SY 2020–21, visit the CCD data files webpage.

Several NCES experts presented at the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Annual Conference, a 4-day virtual event held this past May that focused on “Data Collection, Measurement, and Public Opinion During a Pandemic.” Access their presentations below to learn more about their research.

• In an Era of Enhanced Cybersecurity: The Effect of Confidentiality Pledges and Penalty Language on Survey Response

• Sample Retention During COVID – Lessons Learned from the Middle Grades Longitudinal Study of 2017–18

• Blood From a Stone? Using Qualitative Techniques to Understand Why Households Don’t Participate in Surveys

• What Is the Average Daily Attendance at Your (Virtual) School? Understanding Data From Schools, Principals, and Teachers During a Pandemic

Be sure to also check out this blog post to access other NCES-led presentations from the 2021 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting. 

By Megan Barnett, AIR

This past April, several NCES experts presented at the AERA 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting, a 4-day event focused on the theme of “Accepting Educational Responsibility.” Check out their session summaries below and access their presentations from the event.

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Peggy Carr—NCES Associate Commissioner for Assessments—led a session called “Update on NAEP 2021.” Carr explained the rationale for postponing data collection for the Nation’s Report Card during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, introduced the 2021 Monthly School Survey that provides insight into learning opportunities offered by schools during the pandemic (including an overview of results thus far), and discussed next steps for NAEP.

Common Education Data Standards (CEDS)

Nancy Sharkey—the CEDS Program Lead at NCES—along with her colleagues from AEM and several other research organizations, provided an introduction to the CEDS program and an overview of how states can use CEDS in their policy making and research. Explore their session “Common Education Data Standards: How States Use This Common Vocabulary for Policy and Research” to learn more.

Sharkey also copresented a session called “Developing Informed Data Requests: How to Use Common Education Data Standards and Tools.” Learn about the background of CEDS and explore two of the program’s resources: CEDS Elements and the Align tool.

Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) Grant Program

Kristen King—the SLDS Grant Program Officer at NCES—along with her colleagues from AEM, led a session called “SLDS Capacity Survey: Prerelease Findings” that provided an overview of the SLDS program’s history, goals, and evolution over time. The session also discussed the background and methods of the SLDS State Data Capacity Survey and explored the survey’s prerelease findings.

More information on these topics can be found on the NAEP, CEDS, and SLDS pages of the NCES website. For more information about AERA’s 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting, visit the AERA website.

By Megan Barnett, AIR

NCES is excited to announce the release of more than 100 Digest of Education Statistics tables in a new format that makes them easier for researchers to read and use. These tables, known as machine-readable tables (MRT), have a uniform design that allows the data to be read in a standard format.

Each MRT file contains data from one Digest table. In addition to data values, each MRT file includes metadata information pertaining to that particular table. The MRT file, which is an Excel file, includes three tabs:

•  “MRT-README” tab: provides a brief introduction to MRT and lists all variable names and descriptions used in the table.
•  “meta” tab: includes all table-specific metadata information, such as the Digest table number and title, general note, data source note, and URL for the corresponding Digest table.
•  “data” tab: contains all the cell data in a format that is homogeneous across all Digest tables, such as row level headers, column level headers, data values, standard errors, data years, and special notes at the cell level.

The new MRT format facilitates access to and use of Digest table data by software programs. Those seeking to simply view the data or make a simple calculation can continue to access these data in the traditional table format on the Digest of Education Statistics webpage.

There are two ways to access the MRT files, either as a batch or as individual files. To download all available MRT files, visit the Digest MRT webpage. To download individual MRT files, click on the “Download machine readable table” link from the corresponding Digest table’s HTML page (see below).

User feedback is essential to the design of future MRTs (more MRT files will be released in the coming months). NCES welcomes any comments on or suggestions to improve the usability of these tables. For example, NCES is interested in hearing how MRT files are used for research or other applications and any changes that could improve their ease of use. Please contact us with your feedback or questions.  

By Jizhi Zhang and Paul Bailey, AIR