Historical public education information in Idaho, 2011-2013

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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 Idaho'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 Idaho's public education page.

The Idaho public school system (prekindergarten through grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards and superintendents. In 2012 Idaho had 279,873 students enrolled in a total of 762 schools in 149 school districts. While the national ratio of teachers to students was 1:16, in Idaho there were 15,990 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 18 students. There was roughly one administrator for every 423 students, compared to the national average of one administrator for every 295 students. On average Idaho spent $6,824 per pupil in 2011, which ranked it 50th in the nation, or lowest spending in the country. According to the Idaho State Department of Education, the state's graduation rate was 92 percent for the 2009-2010 school year.

State agencies

See also: Idaho State Department of Education

The Idaho State Department of Education oversees and manages public schools for students from kindergarten to 12th grade in Idaho. The department has nine education divisions: Assessment and Accountability Division, Child Nutrition, Content, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, School Choice, Statewide System of Support, Student Engagement and Postsecondary Readiness, Special Education and Teacher Certification.

The mission statement of the Idaho State Department of Education reads:

“

The Idaho State Department of Education is accountable for the success of all Idaho students. As leaders in education, we provide the expertise and technical assistance to promote educational excellence and highly effective instruction.

”

The Idaho State Board of Education oversees and manages higher education in Idaho.

Regional comparison

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

The following chart shows how Idaho 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 during the 2011-2012 school year. 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
Idaho	762	149	279,873	15,990	1:17.5	1:422.5	$6,824
Montana	826	500	142,349	10,153	1:14	1:274	$10,639
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

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

Demographic information for Idaho's K-12 public school system
Ethnicity	Students	State percentage	United States percentage**
American Indian	3,767	1.35%	1.10%
Asian	3,695	1.32%	4.68%
African American	2,845	1.02%	15.68%
Hawaiian Nat./Pacific Isl.	963	0.34%	0.42%
Hispanic	45,486	16.25%	24.37%
White	218,400	78.04%	51.21%
Two or More	4,717	1.69%	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 a plurality of students in Idaho attended rural schools. This was the same case for students in Montana. However, students in Oregon and Washington were more likely to attend city schools or suburban schools than rural schools.

Student distribution by region type, 2011 - 2012 (as percents)
State	City schools	Suburban schools	Town schools	Rural schools
Idaho	27.5%	15.9%	20.8%	35.8%
Montana	23.8%	1.9%	35.0%	39.4%
Oregon	32.6%	23.3%	26.3%	17.8%
Washington	29.1%	41.1%	12.3%	17.5%
U.S. average	28.9%	34.0%	11.6%	25.4%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

Academic performance

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). Compared to three neighboring states (Montana, Oregon, and Washington), a smaller percentage of Idaho's students were considered at or above proficient in math and reading in fourth 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
Idaho	40%	36%	33%	38%
Montana	45%	40%	35%	40%
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

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

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Idaho and surrounding states in 2012 and 2013.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores*
State	Graduation rate, 2012		Average ACT composite, 2012		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Idaho	92%	First	21.6	67%	1364	99%
Montana	84%	Second	22	61%	1595	25%
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 Idaho was lower than the national average at 1.6 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 1.9 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

Educational choice options

See also: School choice in Idaho

As of June 2015, school choice options in Idaho included: charter schools, homeschooling, online learning, private schools and inter-district and intra-district public school open enrollment policies.

Education funding and expenditures

See also: Idaho state budget and finances

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

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), Idaho spent approximately 25.7 percent of its fiscal year 2012 budget on elementary and secondary education. This was down 2.9 percentage points, a 10.1 percent decrease in the share of the budget from fiscal year 2008, when the state spent 28.6 percent of its budget on elementary and secondary education. Nearly 64 percent of Idaho's education revenue comes from state funding. Local funding accounts for just over 22 percent, and federal funding accounts for just under 14 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
Idaho	25.7%	$6,824	13.91%	63.73%	22.36%
Montana	15.5%	$10,639	16.35%	44.1%	39.55%
Oregon	14%	$9,682	14%	46.07%	39.93%
Washington	22.9%	$9,483	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

See also: Public school system revenues in the U.S.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system revenues in Idaho totaled approximately $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including revenue sources, for Idaho and surrounding states.

Revenues by source, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	Federal revenue	State revenue	Local revenue	Total revenue
Idaho	$299,354	$1,371,789	$481,296	$2,152,439
Montana	$264,594	$713,886	$640,138	$1,618,618
Oregon	$848,637	$2,792,762	$2,420,619	$6,062,018
Washington	$1,367,629	$6,758,505	$3,690,190	$11,816,324
U.S. total	$74,943,767	$267,762,416	$264,550,594	$607,256,777
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

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 Idaho totaled approximately $2 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including expenditure types, for Idaho and surrounding states.

Expenditures by type, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	General expenditures**	Capital outlay	Other***	Total expenditures
Idaho	$1,867,679	$85,001	$65,674	$2,018,354
Montana	$1,506,467	$103,728	$25,691	$1,635,886
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 Idaho, the average salary increased by 2.4 percent.

Estimated average salaries for teachers (in constant dollars**)
	1999-2000	2009-2010	2011-2012	2012-2013	Percent difference
Idaho	$48,578	$49,404	$49,359	$49,734	2.4%
Montana	$43,896	$48,845	$49,354	$49,999	13.9%
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. Idaho ranked 36th overall, or weak, which was in the fourth tier of five.

The main union related to the Idaho school system is the Idaho Education Association (IEA), an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). IEA is the largest education association in the state.

List of local Idaho school unions:

• Idaho Education Association
• Pocatello Education Association
• Boise Education Association
• Meridian Education Association
• Blackfoot Education Association
• Bonneville Education Association

Collective bargaining and tenure

The Idaho State Legislature passed Senate Bill 1108, which limited teachers' collective bargaining rights to salary and benefits. It removed issues such as class sizes, teacher workload and promotions from collective bargaining, and it permitted collective bargaining only if the union could prove it represented more than 50 percent of employees. It eliminated tenure for new teachers, with new educators instead being offered one- or two-year contracts following a three-year probationary period.

The entire overhaul plan eliminated 770 teaching positions but used $250 million to raise pay for teachers. Governor Butch Otter supported the measures.

The Idaho Education Association warned the plan would drastically cut the ability of unions to bargain. Hundreds of teachers protested the bills on February 21, 2011.

Transparency

In March 2010, the Idaho State Senate and Idaho House of Representatives approved a bill that required school districts with more than 300 students to publish their school spending data. The Idaho State Department of Education does list information regarding the state's academic performance at the state, district and school levels.

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 Idaho
• Idaho
• Education Policy in the U.S.