Alaska school board elections, 2016

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Elections

Most Alaska school districts held school board elections on October 4, 2016. Alaska's three largest school districts, which were among America's largest school districts by enrollment in the 2013–2014 school year, held elections for eight seats.

Here are several quick facts about Alaska's school board elections in 2016:

• The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2016 was Anchorage School District with 48,159 K-12 students.
  • Anchorage's school board elections were held in conjunction with the city's municipal elections on April 5, 2016.
• The smallest Alaskan school district among the nation's top 1,000 largest with an election in 2016 was Fairbanks North Star Borough School District with 14,105 K-12 students.
• Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District and Fairbanks North Star Borough School District had the most seats on the ballot in 2016 with three seats each up for election.
• The other district had the fewest seats on the ballot among the largest districts with two seats up for election.

The district listed below served 80,048 K-12 students during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district name for more information on the district and its school board elections.

2016 Alaska School Board Elections
District	General date	Regular term (years)	Seats up for election	Total board seats	Student enrollment
Anchorage School District	4/5/2016	3	2	7	48,159
Fairbanks North Star Borough School District	10/4/2016	3	3	7	14,105
Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District	10/4/2016	3	3	7	17,784

Election trends

Trends in Alaska school board elections

See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief

The 2015 school board elections in Alaska's largest school districts attracted fewer candidates than the state's 2014 school board elections. Both years saw a similar number of seats on the ballot go unopposed, and they had similar success rates for newcomers. In 2015, half of the seats were unopposed, and newcomers won 12.50 percent of the seats. The 2014 school board elections saw 42.86 percent of seats go unopposed. Newcomers won 14.29 percent of the seats on the ballot that year.

The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in Alaska's school board elections. These districts did not utilize primary or runoff elections. Winners only had to receive a plurality, or relative majority, of votes to secure a seat. All of the school board elections held in the state in 2014 and 2015 were nonpartisan.

Details of the data discussed here can be found in the table below.

Competitiveness

School board elections held in the state's largest school districts attracted an average of 1.5 candidates in 2015. This was lower than 2014 average of 1.86 candidates per seat on the ballot. Four of the eight seats up for election in 2015 went unopposed, and three of the seven seats on the ballot were unopposed in 2014.

Incumbency advantage

See also: School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief

School board incumbents in 2015 had a 100 percent success rate. Seven of the eight incumbents whose terms were up for re-election ran to retain their seats. All seven of them won the election, with four of them running unopposed and three of them defeating challengers.

In 2014, 85.71 percent of incumbents who ran for re-election retained their seats. All seven incumbents whose seats were on the ballot ran for re-election, and six of them won another term. Three of the incumbents ran unopposed, but the other four faced challengers. Three of those who faced challengers won re-election, and the other was defeated.

The map below details the success rates for incumbents who ran in the 2015 school board elections that were held in the largest school districts by enrollment in the U.S.

The map above details the success rates of incumbent who ran to retain their school board seats in the largest school districts in each state. States depicted in gray did not hold school board elections.

Data table

Alaska school board elections, 2014 - 2015
	2014	2015
All candidates
Seats up	7	8
Candidates	13	12
Candidates/seat	1.86	1.50
Unopposed seats	3	4
% unopposed	42.86%	50.00%
% seats won by newcomers	14.29%	12.50%
Incumbents
Sought re-election	7	7
Unopposed	3	4
Retained	6	7
% retained	85.71%	100.00%

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Alaska

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Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The chart below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Compared to its relative neighbors, fourth grade students in Alaska tied with California for the lowest percentage (27 percent) scoring at or above proficient in reading.

The table below show the percentage of students in Alaska and its neighboring states who were proficient or above proficient in math and reading in fourth grade and eighth grade during the 2012-2013 school year.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Alaska	37%	33%	27%	31%
California	33%	28%	27%	29%
Oregon	40%	34%	33%	37%
Washington	48%	42%	40%	42%
U.S. average	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables"

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Alaska and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.

Alaska schools reported a graduation rate of 71.8 percent, second lowest among its neighboring states.

In Alaska, more students took the SAT than the ACT, earning an average SAT score of 1,495.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013
State	Graduation rate, 2013		Average ACT composite, 2013		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Alaska	71.8%	Fifth	21.1	37%	1,495	52%
California	80.4%	Third	22.2	26%	1,505	57%
Oregon	68.7%	Fifth	21.5	34%	1,539	49%
Washington	76.4%	Fourth	22.8	21%	1,537	60%
U.S. averages	81.4%		20.9	54%	1,498	50%
**Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores," accessed May 28, 2015 The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013"

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Alaska was higher than the national average at 6.9 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 7.0 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Alaska
	Alaska	U.S.
Total population:	737,709	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	570,641	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	66%	73.6%
Black/African American:	3.4%	12.6%
Asian:	5.9%	5.1%
Native American:	13.8%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	1.2%	0.2%
Two or more:	8.4%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	6.5%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	92.1%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	28%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$72,515	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	11.3%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Alaska. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Alaska

Alaska voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

More Alaska coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Alaska
• United States congressional delegations from Alaska
• Public policy in Alaska
• Endorsers in Alaska
• Alaska fact checks
• More...

See also

Alaska	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Alaska List of school districts in Alaska	School board elections, 2016 Alaska school board elections, 2015 Alaska school board elections, 2014	Education reform at the state and local levels (2016) School boards in session: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey