Current U.S. Public School District Boundaries and Administrative Characteristics

NCES's Education Demographic and Geographic Estimate program provides annually updated boundaries and administrative data for all U.S. public elementary, secondary, and unified school districts. The dataset includes characteristics reported by state education officials, such as directory information, student and teacher counts, and grade spans. It is developed from the Common Core of Data collection and maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between school district boundaries and reported student counts to study resource distribution.
• Map administrative characteristics like teacher counts across unified school district boundaries for regional planning.
• Study grade span data within public elementary and secondary districts to understand educational service structures.

Strengths

• Data is updated annually, ensuring current boundaries and administrative characteristics.
• Developed by the authoritative NCES EDGE program in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Covers all public school districts in the United States, providing national scope.

Limitations

• Missing data is indicated with '-1' or 'M', which may require handling for analysis.
• The specific number of rows (districts) and columns (attributes) is not provided in the input.
• Administrative data is self-reported by state officials, potentially introducing reporting inconsistencies.

Provenance

Source

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Education Demographic and Geographic Estimate (EDGE) program and Common Core of Data (CCD).

Collection Method

Boundaries are developed by the U.S. Census Bureau for NCES; administrative characteristics are collected annually from state education officials.

Time Range

Current (most recent annual collection).

Freshness

Last updated on 2024-05-23.

Geography

United States, covering all public elementary, secondary, and unified school districts.