Guides
How to find your school district
Practical steps to find out which public school district serves your address, why ZIP codes are not enough, and where to get the official answer.
Student-teacher ratio explained
What the student-teacher ratio measures, how NCES calculates it, why it differs from class size, and how to compare schools and districts fairly.
School spending per pupil
How per-pupil spending is calculated from the F-33 finance survey, what is included, why our figures are from 2020, and how to compare districts.
Free and reduced lunch, and the Community Eligibility Provision
What free and reduced-price lunch counts mean, how direct certification and the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) work, and why shares are not comparable.
Charter schools
What charter schools are, how they differ from traditional public schools, and how many there are in each state: 8,068 nationally in 2024-25.
Magnet schools
A general explainer on magnet schools: what they are, how admission works, and how they differ from charter schools.
Understanding NCES Common Core of Data
What the NCES Common Core of Data is, which years we use, how blanks and suppression work, and the limits of the numbers on this site.