A Majority of Grade 9-12 Public Schools Rate Themselves Favorably on Preparing Students for College

NCES data also explore availability of advanced coursework, security officers in public schools

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A majority of public schools offering any of grades 9 or above (9-12 schools) say they do a “good,” “very good,” or “excellent” job preparing students for college (77 percent) and the workforce (86 percent), according to new data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the statistical center within the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES). For college preparation, 47 percent of schools overall rated themselves as doing a “very good” or “excellent” job, whereas the percentage was lower for schools in high-poverty neighborhoods and schools with fewer than 300 students (30 percent each), and higher for schools that enroll 1,000 or more students (74 percent).

“This latest report provides valuable insights on how schools rate their own work preparing students for college and the workforce,” said NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr. “One noteworthy finding is that a lower percentage of schools in high-poverty neighborhoods give themselves the highest marks, ‘excellent’ or ‘very good,’ in preparing students for college, when compared with the national population of schools. I hope these data will spark important conversations that lead to improved opportunities for all students.”

The new NCES data also provide insights into the availability of advanced coursework in public schools. Among 9-12 schools, 73 percent offer at least one of the following types of advanced coursework: Advanced Placement (AP), pre-Advanced Placement (Pre-AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), or dual enrollment courses. Among these schools, 78 percent offer dual enrollment courses, 76 percent offer AP courses, 22 percent offer pre-AP courses, and 5 percent offer IB courses.

In addition to data on advanced coursework offerings, this month’s collection explored the availability of independent world language courses taught in K-12 public schools. Independent courses are taught in 43 percent of public schools, with the world languages taught in the highest percentages of schools being Spanish (40 percent), French (12 percent), American Sign Language (4 percent), and German (4 percent). Among schools teaching one or more independent world language courses, the majority do so in a traditional classroom setting (76 percent), while 19 percent do so online and 5 percent do so in hybrid settings.

The new survey data also address the use of security officers in K-12 public schools. Forty-eight percent of public schools have a school resource officer (SRO) present at school at least once a week this school year, the data show. Eleven percent of public schools have a sworn law enforcement officer (SLEO) and 22 percent have a security officer present at school at least once per week during the 2023-24 school year. Among schools with an SRO or SLEO present at least once per week, 92 percent reported that these officers routinely carry a firearm and 60 percent routinely wear body cameras. The latter represents an increase from the 53 percent of schools that said their SRO or SLEOs routinely wore a body camera last school year. For more data on this topic, NCES recently released the School Survey on Crime and Safety, based on data for the 2021-22 academic year. That report addressed school security officers and a variety of other topics.

Among public schools that have security personnel, school leaders’ view of these personnel on campus is generally favorable. About two-thirds say they “strongly agree” that such security officers have a positive impact on the school community, and 10 percent or fewer say they “strongly disagree.” (See chart in Key Findings section for details.

The findings released today are part of an experimental data product from the School Pulse Panel, NCES’s innovative approach to delivering timely information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on public K-12 schools in the U.S. The data, collected between January 9 and 23 of 2024, came from 1,625 participating public K-12 schools from every state and the District of Columbia.

Additional data collected from 98 public K-12 schools in the U.S. Outlying Areas – American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands – are also available. Results from this collection include the finding that 21 percent of OA public schools have an SRO present at school at least once a week this school year.

Experimental data products are innovative statistical tools created using new data sources or methodologies. Experimental data may not meet all of NCES’s quality standards but are of sufficient benefit to data users in the absence of other relevant products to justify release. NCES clearly identifies experimental data products upon their release.

All data released today can be found on the School Pulse Panel dashboard at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/spp/results.asp.

The full press release is available https://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/press_releases/3_19_2024.asp.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, is the statistical center of the U.S. Department of Education and the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition and progress of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.

Follow NCES on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube and subscribe to the NCES Newsflash to receive email notifications when new data are released.

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is the independent and nonpartisan statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Its mission is to provide scientific evidence on which to ground education practice and policy and to share this information in formats that are useful and accessible to educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the public.

Contact:
Josh De La Rosa, National Center for Education Statistics, Aris.nces@ed.gov
Erik Robelen, Hager Sharp, erobelen@hagersharp.com

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SOURCE National Center for Education Statistics