National Center for Education Statistics
2002
One of the more useful data series produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is its periodic "schools and staffing survey" (SASS), of which this 245-pager is the latest. (It is just the first of a shelf of NCES reports to be based on this data set; others are listed on page 245.) Though the data are usually, as now, a couple of years old, they include a ton of information about primary and secondary schools in America: how many of them, how they're staffed, how old their teachers are, how many have various programs and facilities, etc. This year, for the first time, the report comes in four parts. The most familiar has to do with regular public schools. Then there's a 24-page section on private schools, subdivided into about 15 genres of private schooling. (You learn, for example, that while 100% of "Hebrew Day" school principals are former teachers, 58% of Missouri Synod Lutheran School heads have experience as coaches and athletic directors.) Then there's a brand-new section on public charter schools (from which we learn, for example, that about half require full state certification in the field to be taught while 45 percent require an academic major or minor in the field) and can also glimpse some important differences between newly-started charters and those that converted from conventional public-school status. Finally, there's a section-again for the first time-covering the country's 177 Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded schools (from which we learn, for example, that their average class size is 18 or smaller-fewer than in public, private OR charter schools). Though the data categories are not always comparable from sector to sector, and though there is lots more one wants to know about these schools and their staffs, the separate inclusion of charter schools is a major breakthrough for NCES and the data for all four sectors are valuable to have. Be aware that more than half of this report's considerable bulk consists of standard-error tables and technical notes. If you just want the statistics, download only the first 98 pages. You can find it on the web at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/SASS/.
