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Not-so Trivial School Q & A, circa 2003
- What's 6.5 million?
Roughly the number of practicing teachers in the United States — from
prekindergarten to college.
- What's $53,300?
Average annual salary paid to public school teachers in New Jersey, the best-paid
state for teachers in the nation. Teachers in South Dakota received the
lowest: $30,300. The national average was $43,300.
- What's 13.6 million?
Number of computers available for classroom use in the nation's 111,000
elementary and secondary schools; that comes down to 1 computer for every
4 students.
- What's 98%?
Percentage of public schools with Internet access. As recently as 1995, the
proportion was 50 percent. For every teaching computer connected to the
Internet, there were seven students.
- What's 4-in-5 children?
The ratio of children aged 6 to 17 who actually use a computer at
school; 2-in-3 have access to a computer at home. Schools provide computer
access to many children who do not have one at home.
- What's $9,326?
The average tuition, room and board (for in-state students) at the nation's
four-year public colleges and universities for an entire academic year.
That's an increase of up 75 percent from 1990.
- What's $27,711?
Average tuition, room and board at the nation's four-year private colleges
and universities for an entire academic year; that is up 84 percent from
1990.
- What's $4.4 million?
The estimated lifetime earnings of professional (i.e., medical, law,
dentistry and veterinary medicine) degree-holders. This compared with $3.4
million for those with Ph.D.s, $2.5 million for master's degree-holders,
$2.1 million for those with bachelor's degrees, $1.2 million for high
school graduates and $1.0 million for high school dropouts.
- What's $54,761?
Average starting salary offer to bachelor's degree candidates in petroleum
engineering, among the highest of any field of study. At the other end of
the spectrum were those majoring in the humanities; they were offered an
average of $30,653.You know, that's a real pity. Literature and History are valuable knowledge sets. Those who can't read can't defend themselves against tyrants, and those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it! Would you want re-live the Inquisition or the Holocaust? — Do you know what those are?
- What's 84?
The percentage of the nation's adults 25 and over with at least a high school
diploma.
- What's 27%?
The percentage of adults in the US, aged 25 and over, who have at least a
bachelor's degree. US Census Bureau figures 11-03
More Back-to-School Trivia
This from August 11, 2003
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73.2 million U.S. residents are enrolled in schools in 2002 — from nursery schools to colleges. About 1-in-4 residents age 3 and over is a student.
- 53.4 million students are expected to be enrolled in the nation's schools from grades Kindergarten through 12. That number exceeds the total in
1969 (51.6 million) when the last of the "baby boom" children expanded
school enrollments. WOW!
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10% of all students are enrolled in private elementary or
private high schools.
- A whopping 52% of 3- and 4-year-olds are enrolling in preschool or
kindergarten. That's way up from the 21% who were in preschool in 1970.
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6-in-10 kindergarten-age children are enrolled in an all-day kindergarten. That's up
from 1-in-10 in 1970.
- 20% of all elementary and high school students have at least one
foreign-born parent.
- 26% ot the high school students between 15 and 17 years old are holding down a
full- or part-time job. (You might want to read our trivially-archived article about that subject.)
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850,000 students are home-schooled. That's 2 percent of all students
ages 5 to 17.
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9.8 million school-age children aged 5 to 17 speak a language other than
English at home. They make up nearly 1-in-5 children in this age group.
Most of these children (6.8 million) speak Spanish at home.
- 72% of children 12-to-17 years old are academically on track for
their age. The rate is higher for girls than for boys (79 percent versus 69
percent).
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22% of the children aged 12 to 17 are either enrolled in a special class
for gifted students or do advanced work in one or more subjects.
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59% of children 6 to 17 participate in at least one of three
extracurricular activities, sports, clubs or extra lessons.
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8.2 million students 25 and over are enrolled in college.That represents about half of all college students.
- 56% of all college students now are women. Women have held the majority status in college enrollment since 1979.
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