The latest report on the demographics of the nation’s100 largest school districts shows that well over half of students—about 63 percent—are black or Hispanic.
The percentage of black students in the largest districts was 26 percent, compared to 17 percent in school districts of all sizes. Hispanic students made up 37 percent of the population of the largest school districts, compared to 22 percent of students in districts of all sizes.
The report from the National Center for Education Statistics, is full of interesting nuggets of information, which are all based on data collected during the 2007-08 school year.
For example, the 100 largest school districts (out of a total of 17,953 districts) were responsible for educating almost a fifth of all of the nation’s public school students. Three states, California, Florida and Texas, accounted for 45 of the 100 largest districts. The graduation rate for these large districts was 65 percent, compared to 75 percent for school districts overall.
And, in case this ever comes up in a game of Trivial Pursuit: we all know that New York City is the nation’s largest school district, but what district is 500 on the list? Amphitheater Unified District in Tuscon, Ariz., with 15,923 students.
The full report can be found here.