Every public school, district, and the headline NCES measures for Alaska - 54 districts, drawn straight from federal records.
Compiled by PlainSchools, Education-data publisher
Scored 0-100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores - the same index shown on every school page, averaged across 495 scored Alaska schools. Full methodology →
The state in one line
Alaska runs 496 public schools across 54 districts, with a 15.2:1 average classroom and 61.5% of students on subsidized lunch.
496
public schools
54
school districts
15.2:1
avg student–teacher
61.5%
free/reduced lunch
How Alaska ranks nationally
Per-pupil spending
$33,705
#1of 51 · highest-spending
Average student-teacher ratio
15.2:1
#32of 51 · lowest ratios
Public schools
496
#45of 51 · most schools
On subsidized lunch
61.5%
#8of 43 · highest share
Alaska ranks #1 of 51 nationally on per-pupil spending and #32 of 51 on average student-teacher ratio, derived live by comparing it against every other state. Ranked among all 50 states + DC from NCES enrollment/staffing and the F-33 finance survey. Lunch share is an indicator of student need, not of quality.
What the NCES Data Says About Alaska Schools
Alaska operates 496 public K-12 schools organised into 54 independent school districts serving 130,718 students, per the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data 2024-25. The largest district, Anchorage School District, enrolls 43,727 pupils across 96 schools at $16,636 per student, while smaller rural districts can run fewer than a dozen campuses. This fragmentation, inherited from century-old township governance patterns in many states, is why per-pupil spending, class sizes, and programme availability vary dramatically inside a single state boundary.
Statewide, the average student-teacher ratio is 15.2:1, a useful benchmark for comparing any individual district or school on PlainSchools. Free-lunch eligibility averages 61.5% across Alaska public schools, a federal indicator of economic need that drives Title I funding allocations. The district table below is sortable by enrollment, school count, and per-pupil expenditure, the three fields that best predict a district's financial and demographic profile. For schools specifically, use the rankings links above to view per-category leaderboards covering spending, student-teacher ratio, best schools by composite quality score, chronic absenteeism, and funding-equity distribution within the state.
Every district figure here pulls from two distinct federal surveys: enrollment and demographic data come from the NCES Common Core of Data 2024-25 (school membership and directory), while per-pupil spending, teacher salaries, and federal/state/local revenue shares originate in the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey (FY 2022-23). Civil-rights indicators, gifted enrollment, AP course counts, counselor staffing, chronic absenteeism, in- and out-of-school suspensions, come from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Cross-referencing these three sources is what lets PlainSchools produce composite scores and equity rankings that single-source tools cannot.
Alaska's average student-teacher ratio vs. every US state
Average students per teacher, state by state (lower means more staffing per student)
15lower student-teacher ratio than 35% of 51 US states
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Department of Education, NCES Common Core of Data · 2024-25
Federal data, transparent formula.
PlainSchools publishes the actual federal survey data - enrollment, staffing, finance, and demographics from NCES. The diversity index and composite quality scores referenced on this page are PlainSchools' own transparent derived indices (not an official NCES rating), computed directly from those datasets with the exact formula disclosed on our methodology page; every input number traces to a cited source. These figures describe reported resource allocation across a large, varied state - a starting point for comparing districts and schools, not a substitute for reviewing a specific school's own record.
Anchorage School District accounts for 33.5% of all Alaska K-12 enrollment
That concentration, well above the 8.4% national median for largest-district share, means state-level averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant district. Anchorage School District operates 96 schools serving 43,727 students, spending $16,636 per pupil. When one district dominates a state's K-12 footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the state's students.
Alaska per-pupil spending varies 11.8× across districts
Per-pupil spending in Alaska ranges from $6,532 (lowest district) to $76,782 (highest), a spread of $70,250. That ratio is among the widest in the country and predicts large gaps in class size, programme availability, and counselor:student ratios that compound across a 12-year K-12 career. High-spending districts typically draw on higher property tax bases, a structural feature of state education finance under the federal Title I framework that sets the floor but not the ceiling.
Alaska has higher-than-average Title I eligibility - 61.5% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch
Free-lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), which replaced No Child Left Behind in defining how the federal government distributes K-12 supplemental funding. Districts above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. States with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local property tax base, which can either offset spending gaps or reinforce them depending on state allocation policy.
Alaska operates only 54 school districts, among the most consolidated K-12 governance structures in the country
Most Alaska districts are countywide or multi-county systems. Consolidation produces narrower per-pupil spending variance because resources pool across larger student populations, but it can also mask intra-district inequities, school-by-school differences within a single district are not visible at the state-aggregation level. Consolidated states typically rely more heavily on state-level funding formulas than on local property tax variability.
Average Alaska student-teacher ratio is 15.2:1 - near the U.S. average of approximately 16:1
Student-teacher ratio is the simplest staffing metric reported on NCES Common Core of Data, but it does not capture push-in specialists, intervention staff, English Language Learner aides, special education co-teachers, or counseling and support staff. Variation between districts within the state is wider than the state-average figure suggests, large urban districts may run 20:1 while small rural districts run 10:1, both inside the same average. Class-load comparisons are most meaningful at the district or school level, not the state aggregate.
Alaska's public schools average a Simpson diversity index of 43.0/100, about the same as the national average of 43.5. The index runs 0-100 from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality. See where Alaska ranks in our national school-diversity analysis.
Data sourced from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25, NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22.
Using the Alaska data
Alaska's 496 schools sit inside 54 districts - compare at the district level first.
District boundaries decide enrollment: shortlist 2-3 districts on spending, ratio, and size before comparing individual schools. Compare districts →
Check how Alaska distributes money across its districts, funding equity varies more within states than between them. Funding equity →
Verify any school's federal record (enrollment, staffing, CRDC flags) before a visit or enrollment decision. Look up a school →
Figures are the federal record (CCD 2024-25, F-33 FY 2022-23, CRDC 2021-22) - they lag the current school year. PlainSchools assigns no subjective rating; the composite quality score used in our rankings is a transparent, reproducible index computed from this cited federal data.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many public schools are in Alaska?
Alaska has 496 public schools across 54 school districts, serving 130,718 students.
What is the average student-teacher ratio in Alaska?
The average student-teacher ratio in Alaska public schools is 15.2:1. This varies by district, use the district table below to compare.
What percentage of Alaska students qualify for free lunch?
61.5% of students in Alaska qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, an indicator of economic need used for Title I funding.
What is the largest school district in Alaska?
The largest school district in Alaska is Anchorage School District with 43,727 students across 96 schools.
Why does per-pupil spending vary so much across Alaska districts?
Alaska districts spend between $6,532 and $76,782 per pupil, a 11.8× range. This is a wide spread, well above the typical U.S. state range. Most U.S. states fund schools through a mix of state aid (typically 40-60%), local property tax (30-50%), and federal Title I (5-15%); districts in higher property-value areas raise more per pupil from local taxes, while state aid rarely closes the full gap. The federal F-33 finance survey reports actual current expenditures including instructional and support services.
Largest K-12 public schools by total students enrolled
students
Interior Distance Educ…
7,876
Interior Distance Education of Alaska (Idea)
7,876 students
100.0% of the leader · rank #1 · Fairbanks, AK
Raven School
3,687
Raven School
3,687 students
46.8% of the leader · rank #2 · Fairbanks, AK
Mat-Su Central School
2,780
Mat-Su Central School
2,780 students
35.3% of the leader · rank #3 · Wasilla, AK
Cyberlynx Corresponden…
2,085
Cyberlynx Correspondence Program
2,085 students
26.5% of the leader · rank #4 · Nenana, AK
West High School
1,702
West High School
1,702 students
21.6% of the leader · rank #5 · Anchorage, AK
Bettye Davis East Anch…
1,636
Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School
1,636 students
20.8% of the leader · rank #6 · Anchorage, AK
Service High School
1,518
Service High School
1,518 students
19.3% of the leader · rank #7 · Anchorage, AK
Bartlett High School
1,431
Bartlett High School
1,431 students
18.2% of the leader · rank #8 · Anchorage, AK
What this shows The largest public schools in Alaska by enrollment, often statewide virtual academies or large consolidated campuses, so size here reflects reach, not quality.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) - Public school universe · 2023-2024 Public K-12 school enrollment, demographics, and operational data; collected annually by NCES from state education agencies.