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The AS&U 100

Sep 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Mike Kennedy

In 1986, the Indianapolis and Gwinnett County (Ga.) school districts sat side by side on the list of the 100 largest school districts, each with slightly less than 51,000 students. But the districts were headed in opposite directions. By 2005, enrollment in Indianapolis declined by about 25 percent to 38,142, falling from the 63^rd-largest to the 135th-largest district. Over the same years, Gwinnett County's enrollment grew by 184 percent to 144,598, rising from the 62^nd-largest to the 15^th-largest district in the nation.

That's an extreme example of the enrollment trends reflected in this year's AS&U 100 — a compilation of the nation's 100 largest school systems. Suburban districts, especially in growing states such as Florida, Texas, California and Georgia, have experienced growth over the last two decades, while many urban districts have seen enrollments decline as the baby boom echo subsides and families seek alternatives to traditional public schools.

Online databases compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics enable number crunchers to see how public school enrollments have evolved each year from 1986 to 2005.

The nation now has a greater number of larger districts. In 1986, the 100^th-largest district (Kansas City, Mo.) had 36,200 students. In 2005, 147 districts were at least that large. The 100 largest districts in 1986 accounted for 8,650,212 students; in 2005, the top 100 accounted for 10,786,169 students. Twenty-four of the districts that were in the top 100 in 1986 do not appear on the current list, including urban districts such as Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Newark, Minneapolis, Tulsa, Portland and Seattle.

As a group, the 100 largest districts in 2005 saw enrollment increase 32 percent over 19 years, while the enrollment of all public school districts grew 23.2 percent over the same time period.

From year to year, changes in the list typically are less dramatic. In 2005, five districts dropped out of the top 100: Omaha, Seattle, Portland, and most notably, Orleans Parish and Jefferson Parish in Louisiana. Those school systems were decimated as thousands of families fled the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Orleans Parish, which includes New Orleans, reported only 5,874 students, compared with 64,920 the year before. It was the 55^th-largest district in 2004; in 2005, it ranked 1,620^th. Jefferson Parish, a suburban area adjacent to New Orleans, saw its school enrollment drop from 51,403 in 2004 to 41,625 in 2005. Its rank fell from 83^rd to 120^th.

Conversely, one of the districts that rejoined the top 100 was the East Baton Rouge (La.) district, which accepted many of the students who traveled the 80 miles from the New Orleans area. East Baton Rouge reported an enrollment spike of 7.6 percent in 2005, from 46,408 students to 49,945 students, and jumped from 101^st to 85^th on the AS&U 100.

The other districts that joined the top 100 in 2005 were the Katy and Alief districts in Texas, the Corona-Norco district in California and the Douglas County district in Colorado.

The large and fast-growing states of Florida, Texas and California continue to dominate the list. The three states claim 46 of the slots and account for 45 percent of the students in the top 100 districts.

With two additional districts, Texas now has 18 school systems among the 100 largest. Florida, with countywide school systems, has 14 districts in the top 100 — seven of those have more than 100,000 students. California also has 14 districts on the list.

Among the districts on the 2005 list, the sharpest one-year enrollment drops came in urban institutions — Cleveland's numbers fell 9.1 percent, from 64,670 in 2004 to 58,788 in 2005. Detroit dropped 5.8 percent, and Washington, D.C., dropped 4.3 percent. Those three districts also posted the sharpest declines over 10 years. Each of them lost more than 20 percent of their enrollment from 1995 to 2005. In 2005, the Detroit district had 56,000 fewer students than it did in 1986.

The district that gained the most students from 1986 to 2005 is Clark County, Nev. It added 198,986 students, more than tripling its size. The district on the list with the highest-percentage increase over those years is Douglas County, Colo., where enrollment in 2005 was nearly five times greater than in 1986 (see sidebar, p. 26). The highest-percentage increase from 2004 to 2005 was in the Katy (Texas) district, which grew 8.1 percent to 48,247 students.

Kennedy, AS&U staff writer, can be reached at mkennedy@asumag.com.

View the American School & University 100 PDF

Growth slows, needs don't

Enrollment climbed steadily during the 1990s in the Dallas Independent School District. The district grew 30 percent — from 125,897 students in 1989 to 163,334 in 2001.

In the 2000s, that growth has leveled off, and enrollment has dropped slightly. The district had 161,244 in 2005-06 and anticipates having 158,500 students this fall.

But the decline in student numbers does not mean Dallas, the nation's 14^th-largest district, has caught up with its facility needs. As the district nears completion of the projects in a $1.37 billion construction program that voters approved in 2002, another $2.58 billion in facility needs are looming in the future, according to a report last month from the district's Future Facilities Task Force.

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