Understanding NCES school data

Nearly every figure about a U.S. public school traces to a handful of federal files. The Common Core of Data is the yearly census: 94,177 schools reporting students in 2024-25, 51,398 of them elementary, 15,784 middle and 21,727 high. The civil-rights, absenteeism and finance files add depth, each for its own year, which is why PlainSchools names the year beside every figure.

Written from NCES CCD 2024-25 · published · reviewed · editorial process

The files and their years

FilePublished byWhat it coversLatest year here
Common Core of Data (CCD)NCESEvery public school and district, every year: enrollment by grade and group, teachers, free-meal counts, grades, charter and online status, address2024-25
CCD school characteristicsNCESTitle I status (and the free-meal program); NCES stopped publishing Title I after 2021-222021-22 (Title I)
Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)Office for Civil RightsCounselors, AP and gifted programs, discipline, restraint, by student group; every two years2021-22
EDFactsU.S. Department of EducationChronic absenteeism and other data states report under federal law2022-23
F-33 School District Finance SurveyNCES with the Census BureauDistrict revenue by source and spending by purposefiscal year 2022-23
NAEPNCESTest results for the nation and states (not schools)2024

Source: NCES, Office for Civil Rights and U.S. Department of Education program pages; years are those loaded into PlainSchools.

Terms that trip readers up

  • Membership is enrollment on October 1 (fall), not attendance.
  • FTE teachers counts full-time equivalents: two half-time teachers are one FTE. Students per teacher divides membership by FTE, so it counts specialists and is not class size.
  • School level comes from the grades a school offers; a K-8 or K-12 school is "other".
  • LEA (local education agency) is a school district or a similar agency, such as a charter operator or a state school for the deaf.
  • NCES ID: a 12-digit school ID whose first 7 digits are the district's ID; use it to look a school up on the NCES site.

Why figures carry different years

The files are collected on different schedules: the school census every year, finance a year or more behind, civil rights every other year, Title I status last in 2021-22. A school record can therefore show 2024-25 enrollment beside 2021-22 counselors. PlainSchools never relabels an older figure as current: each carries its own year, and ratios divide counts from the same year and file.

Questions

  1. What is the NCES and what data do they collect?
    The National Center for Education Statistics is the federal statistics agency for education. Its Common Core of Data covers every public school and district each year: 94,177 schools reported students in 2024-25, run by 17,648 districts and agencies. It also runs the F-33 finance survey and the NAEP tests.
  2. How current is NCES data?
    A school year's Common Core of Data is published the following summer or later; 2024-25 is the latest loaded here. Finance data lags further (fiscal year 2022-23), and the civil-rights collection runs every two years (2021-22). State report cards are usually more current.
  3. What does Title I status mean in NCES data?
    Whether a school ran a Title I program (schoolwide or targeted), was eligible but had none, or was not eligible. NCES published it in the CCD school characteristics file up to 2021-22, so PlainSchools shows the 2021-22 status with its year.
  4. What is the difference between CCD and CRDC?
    The CCD, from NCES, is the yearly census of schools: who they are, how many students and teachers. The CRDC, from the Office for Civil Rights, comes every two years and goes deeper on equity: course access, counselors and discipline by student group.

Related

Sources

Source: NCES Common Core of Data School and district universe · 2024-25

Compiled from official source data by .