From Californians for Justice:
http://www.caljustice.org
An Overview of the California Educational System
This section presents an overview of the educational system in California. The data from this section was collected in the spring of 2001; it will be updated soon.
How many students are there in California? What grades?
In 1999-00 California had almost 6 million public school students(5,951,612)
nearly 4.2 million in elementary, middle school, and junior high(4,194,356 in K-8)
nearly 1.7 million in high schools(1,675,393 in grades 9-12)
81,863 students in ungraded programs (such as special county programs)
Public school students are 90% of all students in the state; there were 640,802 private school students in California – a little less than 10% of all students.
What are some demographics about California’s students?
Race/Ethnicity
Approximately 63% of California’s public school students are people of color and 37% are white.
Among all students, 42% are Latino (42.2%); 11% are Asian, Pacific Islander, or Filipino (exactly 8% Asian, 0.6% Pacific Islander, and 2.4% Filipino); nearly 9% are African-American (8.6%); and 1% are Native American (0.9%). Another 0.4% are "Multiple or No Response" according to the Department of Education.
Language
A quarter of California’s students — nearly 1.5 million — are English Learners (24.9%, or 1,480,527). Even more are bilingual — there is no number for the students who are fluent in English but also speak another language at home.
More than a third of Kindergarteners are English Learners (36.1%). One in 10 twelfth-graders (11.1%) are English Learners.The most common primary language is Spanish at 82.6% (1,222,810 students).The next 9 most common languages are Vietnamese (2.7%), Hmong (1.9%), Cantonese (1.7%), Tagalog (Filipino, 1.2%), Khmer (Cambodian, 1.1%), Korean (1.1%), Armenian (0.8%), Mandarin/Putonghua (0.7%), and Russian (0.5%). There are another 5.6% of English Learners with other languages.
Income
Nearly half of California’s students receive free or reduced price lunch (47.3%).About 15% of California’s students are children of CalWORKS recipients (14.3%).There are no other figures kept that directly relate to income. The figures for free or reduced price lunch do not represent all low-income students, particularly in higher grades – it has been found that as they get older, many students do not participate in the free lunch program even when they qualify, either because of stigma or because they dislike school lunch.
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Compiled From:California Department of Education (CDE)"Ed-Data" Statewide ReportFigures are for 1999-2000 school year, except for rates on graduation, UC-CSU eligibility, dropouts, and revenue, where the figures are for 1998-1999.
California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS)Figures on districts from the 1998-1999 school year.
CDE 1999-2000 Data for Private Schools in California
CDE "Ed-Data" SiteUnderstanding California's School Facilities Crisis. Published April 1998.
