A plain-language school data glossary

What the terms on a school profile mean, how this site uses them, and which questions still need an answer from the school.

NCES identifier: The identifier used to connect an institution across federal data files. School names can change or repeat; a school ID is more reliable for matching records. A school ID and its district’s agency ID identify different records.
Enrollment: The number of students reported in a particular collection and school year. It is a dated measure of scale, not a live headcount or a quality score. This site’s current comparisons use matched 2024–25 NCES membership.
Full-time equivalent (FTE): A staffing measure expressed in units of full-time work. A reported 0.5 FTE does not necessarily identify one particular person or a half-day schedule. Staff can be part-time, shared, or assigned across responsibilities. Ask the school about actual availability.
Student–teacher ratio: Reported enrollment divided by classroom-teacher FTE from the same reporting year. Our ratios use matched 2024–25 NCES counts and are rounded to one decimal. A ratio of 15:1 does not mean every class has 15 students.
Class size: The number of students in a particular class. It can vary by grade, subject, time of day, and program. This directory does not provide a verified current class-size measure; ask the school for the grades or subjects that matter to you.
Grade span: The lowest and highest grades an institution reports serving. PK means prekindergarten and KG means kindergarten. A broad school-level label such as Elementary or Other is less precise than the actual grade span. Verify next year’s grades and transitions with the school.
District and education agency: Our directory includes regular public school districts as well as charter agencies, service agencies, supervisory systems, and other NCES agency types. National district comparisons include regular districts; an agency with a different role may not be a useful peer.
Median: The middle reported value after records are ordered. With an even number of values, it is the mean of the two central values. A school enrollment median describes the typical school in the selected group; it does not weight larger schools by how many children attend.
Percentile: A description of position within a defined peer group. Our school percentiles compare schools at the same broad level in the same state, using reported current-year values. A high enrollment or staffing-ratio percentile does not indicate higher academic quality.
Spending per pupil: A district finance measure calculated using expenditure and enrollment from the same F-33 reporting period. Our finance figures use FY 2023. Local costs, services, and district responsibilities differ, and district spending is not a school-specific classroom budget.
Reported program access: An indication that a school reported a program area in the source collection. Our AP, gifted, and computer-science fields are from CRDC 2021–22. They do not establish current availability, eligibility, course quality, or participation.
Not reported: No usable matched value was available. It is not a zero, a negative judgment, or proof that a service does not exist. We keep a reported zero separate from a missing value. Older enrollment and teacher figures appear in a separate historical section.
Source year and access date: The source year tells you when the measurement applies. The access date tells you when the source file was obtained. Downloading an older file today does not make its observations current. A current directory can legitimately link to clearly labeled older measures.
Location and attendance boundary: A school or office coordinate marks a location. A ZIP code or nearby school search does not determine enrollment eligibility. A district’s attendance boundary and admission policies answer a different question; confirm a specific address with the district.