The Comparative Guide to American Elementary & Secondary Schools

"This 10th edition begins with a brief introduction and user guide before delving into state and national educational profiles. The states are arranged in alphabetic order; each profile contains four sections: a state public school educational profile; National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test scores; a school district profile; and school district rankings. … users will find ready reference facts on such things as mean ACT and SAT scores; ratios of students to teachers and to librarians; percentages of male and female students; scores on math, science, and reading for 4th and 8th grade; and average proficiencies on tests by gender and race. After these overviews, each county within …is listed in alphabetic order, subdivided by school districts within that county. In these school district profiles, users can find the number of schools and students, gender and race percentages, the percentage of English language learners, the percentage of students with individual education programs, the percentage of students eligible for the free lunch program, and more. The last section within the state profile ranks 22 pieces of data by school district (number of teachers, female and male students, Asian students Hispanic students, English language learner students, etc.). The last part of the book, National Public School Data, provides summary information about how students in public schools are faring academically in addition to national statistics based on the NAEP test scores. The end of this section ranks districts in ascending and descending order using such criteria as numbers of female and male students, student/counselor ratios, and other categories. Following the national section is a glossary, index of school districts, and a city index. This comprehensive reference is recommended to public libraries."
-ARBA, 2019

“Overall, the volume is indeed easy to use…This would be useful for both public and academic libraries.”
-ARBA

“Listed by alphabetized county name, district profiles provide contact information, graduation and drop-out rates, teacher-to-student ratios, librarian and counselor numbers, and per-student expenditures. An important addition to education policy collections.”
-Library Journal

“This is a valuable resource for those contemplating a move or for those engaged in educational research. This work recommended for purchase by school districts, universities with colleges of education, and public libraries.”
-Against the Grain

“This is a comparative guide, not a ratings guide…As a comparative guide, it provides data and ratios on each school district and allows users to compare that data among districts to draw their own conclusions. Organized by state and then by country and then by district name, each succinct tabular profile reports that district’s grade span, numbers of schools, enrollment, number of teachers, student/teacher ratio, expenditures per student, number of librarians and guidance counselors, number of students per each of these specialists, percentage of enrollment in various racial/ethnic groups and the district’s percentile ranking on a national socio-economic indicator scale. Thus one can compare the Grand Island school district in Nebraska to, say, the Chappaqua Central district in Westchester County, New York…Since school district lines and political boundaries often overlap, an index to cities facilitates finding the profile of the district (or districts) serving a particular city. This will be a useful, factual complement to sources such as Places Rated Almanac and the New Rating Guide to Life in America’s Small Cities.”
-Rettig on Reference