Federal School District Data (EDFacts, ED Data Express, and the Common Core of Data)
Federal collections of school district assessment results, graduation rates, enrollment and staffing, reported by states to the U.S. Department of Education.
Two federal collections describe US public school districts. EDFacts is a Department initiative that "centralizes performance data supplied by state education agencies (SEAs)"; the Department republishes district-level extracts of it through ED Data Express. The Common Core of Data (CCD), which NCES describes as "the Department of Education's primary database on public elementary and secondary education in the United States" (About CCD), carries district enrollment and staff counts; its nonfiscal component is collected through EDFacts as well.
Coverage#
Mathematics proficiency and the four-year adjusted-cohort graduation rate cover school year 2020-21. English language arts proficiency covers 2021-22. District enrollment and staff counts cover school years 2023-24 and 2024-25. Each is the most recent release available at our last refresh.
Publication lags the present by more than one year. States report after a school year ends and the Department reviews before release, so the newest school year on the site is normally several years behind the current one, and the school years behind different measures on this page are not the same.
Districts covered in the most recent release: 17,019 with a mathematics figure, 17,389 with an English language arts figure, and 11,673 with a graduation figure. The last is smaller because only districts operating high schools have a graduating cohort.
Geography#
The publishing grain is the local education agency — the school district — not the census tract Birdseye displays. A tract shows the figure for the district covering most of it.
That is a district-wide figure, not a measurement of the tract. Schools within one district differ from each other, districts can be geographically large, and in several states elementary and secondary districts overlap, so a tract may be served by more than one district while showing one district's number. See how we combine geographies.
Considerations#
Proficiency is defined by each state, not federally. The Department states plainly that "student achievement data are defined differently in each state, and, therefore, should not be compared across states" (ED Data Express). Proficiency comparisons across a state line compare two different tests against two different cut scores.
Values are protected for privacy before release. An "S" means a value "has been suppressed" because a group "has too few students", because the Department "identified a data quality issue", or because data are missing. Where percentages are released for small groups, "ED provides a range of values rather than an actual, precise value" (ED Data Express FAQs). Many districts publish a range or a bound rather than an exact figure — for graduation rates, most of them do. The single number Birdseye shows in those cases is our own estimate lying inside the published range.
All EDFacts and CCD figures are self-reported by states, which the Department reviews but which states themselves "verify and certify".
Metrics built on this source#
Citation#
U.S. Department of Education, EDFacts, retrieved from ED Data Express (https://eddataexpress.ed.gov/); and U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), Local Education Agency Universe Files, school years 2023-24 and 2024-25
Birdseye figures derived from these sources are our own estimates. The Department is cited as the source of the original data only, and is not responsible for our calculations.
References#
- 1U.S. Department of Educationhttps://www.ed.gov/data/edfacts-initiative
- 2ED Data Expresshttps://eddataexpress.ed.gov/about
- 3About CCDhttps://nces.ed.gov/ccd/aboutccd.asp
- 4ED Data Express FAQshttps://eddataexpress.ed.gov/resources/ede-guides/faqs