School Categories
The U.S. public school system is layered — schools are classified by grade span, by governance type (traditional, charter, magnet), and by funding program (Title I). Start with any category below to understand how the federal dataset groups U.S. schools.
Elementary Schools
Public schools serving K–5 or K–6, the largest share of the U.S. public school system.
Middle Schools
Schools serving roughly grades 6–8, also called junior high in some districts.
High Schools
Schools serving grades 9–12, where AP offerings and graduation rates diverge most sharply.
Charter Schools
Publicly funded schools run by independent operators under a state-issued charter.
Magnet Schools
Traditional public schools with specialized curricula (STEM, arts, IB) and voluntary enrollment.
Title I Schools
Schools receiving federal Title I funding due to high shares of low-income students.
Districts by Spending
School districts ranked by per-pupil expenditure from the NCES F-33 survey.
Districts by Size
Largest school districts in the country by total enrollment.
Chronic Absenteeism
Schools with the highest and lowest rates of chronic absenteeism from CRDC.
Featured large public schools by grade level
Highest-enrollment public schools currently in the PlainSchools dataset, by NCES-assigned school level. Click any school to open its full profile.
- Epic Charter School High School — high • Oklahoma City • 14,517 students
- LONE STAR ONLINE ACADEMY — elementary • ROSCOE • 11,686 students
- GOAL Academy — high • PUEBLO • 6,693 students
- BROOKLYN TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL — high • BROOKLYN • 5,848 students
- CONROE H S — high • CONROE • 5,252 students
- Carmel High School — high • Carmel • 5,239 students
- ALLEN H S — high • ALLEN • 5,206 students
- Reading SHS — high • Reading • 4,879 students
- BRENTWOOD HIGH SCHOOL — high • BRENTWOOD • 4,816 students
- BROKEN ARROW HS — high • Broken Arrow • 4,802 students
- Adlai E Stevenson High School — high • Lincolnshire • 4,758 students
- Alexandria City High School — high • Alexandria • 4,655 students
Largest charter schools
Publicly funded schools operating under state-issued charters, ranked by enrollment.
- Commonwealth Charter Academy CS — Harrisburg • 29,320 students
- Ohio Virtual Academy — Maumee • 15,339 students
- Epic Charter School High School — Oklahoma City • 14,517 students
- Epic Charter School Elementary — Oklahoma City • 14,019 students
- Highlands Community Charter — Sacramento • 11,713 students
- Pennsylvania Cyber CS — Midland • 10,178 students
- Georgia Cyber Academy — Atlanta • 9,952 students
- TEXAS CONNECTIONS ACADEMY AT HOUSTON — HOUSTON • 8,641 students
How Categories Are Defined
Category assignments use the exact taxonomy published in NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25. School level (elementary, middle, high, other) comes from the NCES derived `school_level` field, which is computed from the grade span a school reports. School type (regular, special education, vocational, alternative) and governance flags (`charter`, `magnet`) are reported directly by each state education agency.
Title I eligibility is sourced from the same CCD universe file and reflects whether a school is currently receiving funding under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Funding rankings use the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey per-pupil expenditure figure. Discipline and absenteeism rankings use the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22, the most recent release available at the school level.
Schools that report a partial grade span (for example K–8 or 7–12) are placed in the NCES-assigned level; we do not re-classify. For ranking pages, we exclude schools with suppressed or zero-enrollment figures to avoid misleading top/bottom entries. Full details: PlainSchools methodology.