U.S. Public School Locations and Demographics 2020-21

2020-21 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) provides point locations and administrative attributes for all public elementary and secondary schools in the United States. The dataset includes school characteristics such as student demographics, number of teachers, and school grade span, collected annually through the Common Core of Data (CCD) program.

Use Cases

• Map school locations using latitude and longitude coordinates to analyze geographic access and distribution.
• Analyze student demographics and teacher counts to model resource allocation and equity across districts.
• Segment schools by grade span and administrative conditions for targeted policy or program analysis.
• Identify data quality issues by flagging records with missing values indicated by codes like -1, M, -2, N, or -9.

Strengths

• Nationwide coverage of all public elementary and secondary schools in the United States.
• Annual collection by the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) program, an authoritative federal source.
• Includes geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude) enabling spatial analysis and mapping.
• Multiple accessible file formats including CSV, GEOJSON, and API endpoints.

Limitations

• Specific row and column counts are unknown, limiting precise assessment of dataset scale.
• Contains missing and not-applicable data values coded as -1/M, -2/N, and -9, which require handling.
• Data is from the 2020-21 school year and may not reflect current conditions.

Provenance

Source

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Education Demographic and Geographic Estimate (EDGE) program.

Collection Method

Administrative data collected annually from state education agency officials for the Common Core of Data (CCD). School point locations are derived from reported physical addresses.

Time Range

2020-2021 school year.

Freshness

Last updated on the platform in May 2024, but the underlying data covers the 2020-21 academic year.

Geography

United States (all public elementary and secondary schools).