Primary and Secondary Education
See Also: List of school districts in Pennsylvania or List of high schools in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s public schools are operated and funded under the authority of the General Assembly and local school boards, whose members are locally elected (serve 4 year terms). There are many types of public schools, including elementary, intermediate, middle school, junior high, high, junior-senior high, vocational-technical, and charter schools. Each public school is headed by a school principal, who reports to the superintendent of schools appointed by the board of the school district.
There are 500 public school districts in Pennsylvania, consisting of 3,287 schools and 120 charter schools. Two school districts do not operate high schools Duquesne City School District and Saint Clair Area School District due to low enrollment coupled with financial constraints. As of the 2005-2006 school year, there were 1,871,060 students enrolled in public schools in Pennsylvania, of whom 74.6% were Caucasian, 15.9% were African-American, 6.8% were Hispanic, 2.6% were Asian/Pacific Islander, and 0.2% were Native Americans. The average per pupil expenditure was $10,738, and the pupil/teacher ratio was 15.2:1.
As of the 2007-2008 school year, there were 265,545 students enrolled in private K-12 schools in Pennsylvania.
State students consistently do well in standardized testing. In 2007, Pennsylvania ranked 14th in mathematics, 12th in reading, and 10th in writing for 8th grade students.
In 2004-2005, Pennsylvania elementary and secondary schools ranked 8th in revenue and 11th in spending out of 50 states and the federal district. In 2009 Pennsylvania spends $25 billion dollars in public education when federal, state and local taxation dollars are combined.
Read more about this topic: Education In Pennsylvania
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