Other School Characteristics

The majority of schools, 57 percent, were in large or midsize cities or their accompanying urban fringe areas (table 8). These schools accounted for more than two-thirds (69 percent) of all public school students. About 1 of every 6 students was in a large city school in 2001-02; a smaller proportion, about 1 in 10, attended a rural school that was not within a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) (see appendix table A-8).

Title I schools. Table 9 shows the number of Title I eligible schools by state, and the number of these that have schoolwide Title I programs. Three states did not indicate which of their schools were eligible for Title I services. Among those states that could provide this information, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, and South Dakota reported that more than 7 out of 10 public school students were in Title I eligible schools. More than half of the students were enrolled in schools with schoolwide Title I programs schools in the District of Columbia, Mississippi, and Texas.

Magnet schools. States were asked to identify magnet schools. Forty-five states were able to report magnet school information (table 9). Of these, 28 states had at least one magnet school, 2 states reported no magnet schools and an additional 13 reported that the category of magnet schools was not applicable in their state. Two of the 45 states reported magnet status for less than 80 percent of their schools and are not included in this distribution. California and Illinois reported the greatest number of magnet schools, 456 and 420, respectively. Illinois served 15 percent of its students in magnet schools; in California, the figure was 9 percent.

Charter schools. Thirty-nine states (including the District of Columbia) recognized charter schools in 2001-02. Of this group, 37 reported having one or more charter schools in operation (table 9). The number of schools ranged from a single charter school in Indiana, Maine, and Mississippi to more than 300 in Arizona and California. In the District of Columbia, charter schools enrolled almost 9 percent of all public school students.