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Join us on January 31st at 3pm ET for a live demonstration of the capabilities of this database.
Private schools in the United States generally have more white students and fewer black, Hispanic, and Latino students than public schools. This may not be a surprising statistic since private schools are often expensive and exclusive, but it’s not easy to pinpoint. There is no central list of private schools in the country, and the only demographic data on private schools comes from a little-known voluntary survey conducted by the federal government.
Last year, while reporting on a project on segregated academies in the South, we used that research to find private schools founded during desegregation and analyzed their demographics compared to local public school districts. . An analysis of that study revealed that, specifically, in Amite County, Mississippi, approximately 900 children attend local public schools. As of 2021, it was 16% white. By contrast, the county’s two private schools with more than 600 students were 96% white.
During our interviews, we found this data and analysis to be thought-provoking and useful, even for regions outside the South. We decided to create a database where anyone could search for a school and view several years’ worth of data.
Today, we are releasing the Private School Demographic Database. This is the first time we’ve taken a historical survey and made it so easy to do. Additionally, we matched these schools with surrounding public school districts, allowing parents, researchers, and journalists to directly compare the composition of private schools with the composition of local public schools.
Until now, much of this data has been difficult to analyze. The National Center for Education Statistics, which collects the data, offers a tool to view the most recent year of private school space survey data, but there was no easy way to examine past trends. No need to parse large, unwieldy text files.
As debates around school choice, vouchers, and the privatization of education intensify, providing access to this repository of private school data is more important than ever. Although the information is self-reported, we do our best to flag or correct obvious inaccuracies where possible.
How to use the app
Search: Search for a private school or public school district by name and drill down into the results using multiple filter options.
For schools, you can filter results by state, religion, school type, and enrollment range. For some schools, you can also filter by founding year. By default, you’ll only see results for schools that have completed the survey at least once in the past few years, but you can turn off this filter to include older data in your search results.
Private school demographics
For public school districts, users can filter and sort results by state, such as areas where the most students attend private schools or schools with the largest racial group in the district and the same students. You can check the difference between the percentage of Because private schools may draw students from different school districts, comparing their racial composition to single-district public schools is incomplete. Still, these comparisons can provide valuable insights into broader patterns of segregation and access.
Find a private school: Each private school page displays basic information about the school: name, location, school type and religious affiliation (if any), and grades taught. Also included are summaries and visualizations comparing school demographics to public school districts.
There is also a compilation of demographic data that schools provided to the survey. This can be downloaded for your own analysis.
Explore a school district or state: On our school district and state pages, you’ll find more general information about private schools in your area. (Search for your district here and see links for each state here.)
Find areas where private schools are not demographically separated from nearby public schools. In Osceola County, Florida, south of Orlando, both the local public school district and private schools are mostly Hispanic or Latino.
Both the state and district pages include a breakdown of private schools by religious orientation and school type, as well as a list of all private schools within the state or district. The state page also provides a list of all school districts within the state.
District pages include additional features such as:
Searchable map of private schools within school district boundaries. They are color-coded by the predominant race of each school’s student body. (Use the search tool next to the map to search for a school by name, or[現在地を使用]Click the button to zoom in on nearby schools. Clicking on a school’s address will take you to that location on a map, and clicking on the school name will take you to that school’s page. ) An interactive line chart showing how public and private school enrollment has changed over time by racial category. Change race categories using the dropdowns to see trends in different groups.
If you see anything noteworthy, please let us know. We’d also like to hear your ideas for improving the app, such as new features and data you’d like. Also, if you find something you think is an error, there is a button on each page that allows you to report it to us.
