Historical public education information in Alaska, 2011-2014

---

This article does not contain the most recently published data on this subject. If you would like to help our coverage grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.

---

Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

School choice in the U.S.

Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

This page contains archived information on Alaska's public education system, primarily from 2011-2012, but also from other years due to the availability of data at the time it was written. For more recent information, view Alaska's public education page.

The Alaska public school system (prekindergarten through grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards members and superintendents. In 2012, Alaska had 131,167 students enrolled in a total of 511 schools in 54 school districts. There were 8,088 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 16 students, which was the same as the 2012 national average. There was roughly one administrator for every 193 students, compared to the 2012 national average of one administrator for every 295 students. On average Alaska spent $16,674 per pupil in 2011, which ranked it third highest in the nation. Alaska's high school graduation rate was 70 percent in 2012. This was the Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate reported to the United States Department of Education for all students in 2011-2012.

State agencies

See also: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development oversees public K-12 education and public libraries in Alaska. The current Commissioner of Education is Michael Hanley.

As of 2014, the mission statement of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development read:

“

To ensure quality standards-based instruction to improve academic achievement for all students.

”

The State Board of Education and Early Development has nine members who are appointed by the governor. The Board appoints the Commissioner of Education and Early Development with the governor's approval. They also appoint an advisor to represent the military community, a student advisor and a student advisor-elect. The Board is responsible for setting state academic content and performance standards, establishing high school graduation requirements, approving school construction and maintenance projects and regulating Title 14 programs.

Regional comparisons

See also: General comparison table for education statistics in the 50 states and Education spending per pupil

The following chart shows how Alaska compared to three neighboring states in school year 2011-2012 with respect to number of students, schools, the number of teachers per pupil, and the number of administrators per pupil. Further comparisons between these states with respect to performance and financial information are given in other sections of this page.

Regional Comparison, 2011-2012
State	Schools	Districts	Students	Teachers	Teacher/pupil ratio	Administrator/pupil ratio	Per pupil spending
Alaska	511	54	131,167	8,088	1:16.2	1:199.1	$16,674
California	10,170	1,187	6,287,834	268,689	1:23.4	1:389.4	$9,139
Oregon	1,261	221	568,208	26,791	1:21.2	1:364.8	$9,682
Washington	2,365	316	1,045,453	53,119	1:19.7	1:373.1	$9,483
United States	98,328	17,992	49,521,669	3,103,263	1:16	1:295.2	$10,994
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey", 2011-12 v.1a. National Center for Education Statistics, Table 2. Number of operating public schools and districts, state enrollment, teacher and pupil/teacher ratio by state: School year 2011–12 U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Demographics

See also: Demographic information for all students in all 50 states

Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

School choice in the U.S.

Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

The following table displays the ethnic distribution of students in Alaska as reported in the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for 2011-2012.

Demographic information for Alaska's K-12 public school system, 2011-2012
Ethnicity	Students	State Percentage	United States Percentage**
American Indian	30,770	23.46%	1.10%
Asian	8,065	6.15%	4.68%
African American	4,730	3.61%	15.68%
Hawaiian Nat./Pacific Isl. Students	2,904	2.21%	0.42%
Hispanic	8,147	6.21%	24.37%
White	66,704	50.85%	51.21%
Two or More	9,847	7.51%	2.54%
**Note: This is the percentage of all students in the United States that are reported to be of this ethnicity.

Enrollments by region type

See also: Student distribution by region type in the United States

During the 2011-2012 school year, rural schools were the most common regional type of school in Alaska, with 40.4 percent of students attending them. Suburban schools were the least common in the state, with only 2.9 percent of students attending them.

Student distribution by region type, 2011-2012 (as percents)
State	City schools	Suburban schools	Town schools	Rural schools
Alaska	34.2%	2.9%	22.5%	40.4%
California	43.4%	39.3%	6.1%	11.3%
Oregon	32.6%	23.3%	26.3%	17.8%
Washington	29.1%	41.1%	12.3%	17.5%
U.S. average	28.9%	34%	11.6%	25.4%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

Academic performance

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). Compared to three neighboring states, Alaska scored better or equal to California but far lower than Oregon and Washington in the 2012-2013 school year.

The table below shows 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," accessed May 13, 2014

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

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

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the U.S.

The following table shows the graduation rates, average composite ACT and SAT scores and rankings for Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington for the school 2012-2013 school year.

Comparison table for graduation rates and scoring*
State	Graduation rate 2012		Average ACT Composite 2012		Average SAT Composite 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Alaska	70%	Fifth	21.2	35%	1495	52%
California	78%	Fourth	22.1	25%	1505	57%
Oregon	68%	Fifth	21.4	38%	1539	49%
Washington	77%	Fourth	22.9	21%	1537	60%
U.S. average	80%		21.1		1498
*Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate (except for Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, which did not report “Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate,” but instead used their own method of calculation). **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. Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express

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 9–12 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.

Educational choice options

See also: School choice in Alaska

School choice options in Alaska included charter schools, magnet schools, private schools, mandatory intradistrict open enrollment in public schools and homeschooling as of 2014.

Educational funding and expenditures

Breakdown of expenditures by function in fiscal year 2012
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers

See also: Alaska state budget and finances

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), in fiscal year 2012, expenditures for elementary and secondary education accounted for 13.4 percent of the state budget, which was up 2.6 percentage points, or 24.1 percent as a share of the budget, from fiscal year 2008. At that time, the state spent 10.8 percent of the budget on elementary and secondary education. In 2011 the majority of Alaska's education revenue came from state funding at 60 percent. Local funding accounted for just over 22 percent, and federal funding accounted for just under 18 percent.

Comparison of financial figures for school systems
State	Percent of budget (2012)	Per pupil spending (2011)	Revenue sources (2011)
			Percent federal funds	Percent state funds	Percent local funds
Alaska	13.4%	$16,674	17.82%	60.06%	22.12%
California	25.3%	$8,724	14.56%	55.06%	30.37%
Oregon	18.4%	$13,467	14%	46.07%	39.93%
Washington	10.8%	$11,846	11.57%	57.2%	31.23%
Sources: NASBO, "State Expenditure Report," Table 8: Elementary and Secondary Education Expenditures As a Percent of Total Expenditures U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Revenue breakdowns

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system revenues in Alaska totaled approximately $2.4 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including revenue sources, for Alaska and surrounding states as of fiscal year 2011.

Revenue sources by type, fiscal year 2011 (in thousands)
State	Local revenue	State revenue	Federal revenue	Total revenue
Alaska	$521,513	$1,416,163	$420,152	$2,357,828
California	$20,846,942	$37,690,834	$9,990,221	$68,527,997
Oregon	$2,420,619	$2,792,762	$848,637	$6,062,018
Washington	$3,690,190	$6,758,505	$1,367,629	$11,816,324
U.S. total	$264,550,594	$267,762,416	$74,943,767	$607,256,777

Expenditure breakdowns

See also: Public school system expenditures in the United States

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system expenditures in Alaska totaled approximately $2.4 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including expenditure types, for Alaska and surrounding states.

Expenditures by type, fiscal year 2011 (in thousands)
	General expenditures**	Capital outlay	Other***	Total expenditures
Alaska	$2,192,045	$180,137	$67,734	$2,439,916
California	$56,784,812	$6,535,512	$3,579,908	$66,900,232
Oregon	$5,418,357	$461,979	$325,080	$6,205,416
Washington	$9,890,471	$1,467,334	$530,786	$11,888,591
U.S. total	$520,577,893	$52,984,139	$29,581,293	$603,143,325
**Funds spent operating local public schools and local education agencies, including such expenses as salaries for school personnel, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs, but excluding capital outlay, interest on school debt, payments to private schools, and payments to public charter schools. ***Includes payments to state and local governments, payments to private schools, interest on school system indebtedness, and nonelementary-secondary expenditures, such as adult education and community services expenditures. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Personnel salaries

See also: Public school teacher salaries in the United States

Note: Salaries given are averages for the state. Salaries may vary between a state's urban, suburban, and rural districts and should be adjusted for cost of living. For example, a MacIver Institute study of average teacher salaries in 60 metropolitan areas found that salaries in New York City were the third-highest in absolute figures but 59th-highest when adjusted for the cost of living.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average national salary for classroom teachers in public elementary and secondary schools declined by 1.3 percent from the 1999-2000 school year to the 2012-2013 school year. During the same period in Alaska, the average salary increased by 3.1 percent.

Estimated average salaries for teachers (in constant dollars**)
	1999-2000	2009-2010	2011-2012	2012-2013	Percent difference
Alaska	$63,495	$63,696	$63,464	$65,468	3.1%
California	$65,159	$72,803	$69,672	$69,324	6.4%
Oregon	$57,856	$58,948	$58,302	$58,758	1.6%
Washington	$56,089	$56,578	$53,101	$53,571	-4.5%
U.S. average	$57,133	$58,925	$56,340	$56,383	-1.3%
**"Constant dollars based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, adjusted to a school-year basis. The CPI does not account for differences in inflation rates from state to state."

Organizations

Unions

In 2012, the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now assessed the power and influence of state teacher unions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their rankings were based on 37 different variables in five broad areas, including: resources and membership, involvement in politics, scope of bargaining, state policies and perceived influence. Alaska ranked 15th overall, or strong, which was in the second tier of five.

The main union related to the Alaska school system is the Alaska Public Employees Association/AFT, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. The Alaska Public Employees Association/AFT is the largest education association in the state. For the 2008 tax period, it had $3.6 million in total income.

List of local Alaska school unions:

• Alaska Public Employees Association/AFT
• Anchorage Education Association
• Matanuska Susitna Education Association
• Kenai Peninsula Education Association
• Juneau Education Association
• AFT Fairbanks
• AFT Anchorage
• AFT Soldotna

Government sector lobbying

See also: Alaska government sector lobbying

The main education government sector lobbying organization is the Association of Alaska School Boards.

Studies and reports

State budget solutions education study

See also: State spending on education v. academic performance (2012)

State Budget Solutions examined national trends in education from 2009 to 2011, including state-by-state analysis of education spending, graduation rates and average ACT scores. The study showed that the states that spent the most did not have the highest average ACT test scores, nor did they have the highest average graduation rates. A summary of the study is available here. The full report can be accessed here.

See also

• Public education in Alaska
• Alaska
• Education Policy in the U.S.