Related Posts: Education Funding in early Utah, 1870-1899

The problem

This post provides supplemental data for my research into early Utah education, 1870-1899. In it I explain how I made the age corrections to the legal school-age population for each state.

See the age corrections for every state at my web-page: http://www.troysrepublic.com/AgeCorrections.html

For eduction statistics, many statistics of interest are ratios of the school age population. However, it wasn’t until 1890 that the Reports to the Commissioner of Education (COE reports) reported the 5 to 18 population for each state and territory. In prior reports the school-age population was enumerated according to the legal school age for each state or territory. It could be 4 to 16, 5 to 21, 6 to 16, etc. Also, most of the age ranges are not inclusive, so 5 to 18 is really ages 5 up to but not including 18. So when I say, for example, that the legal school age is 5 to 17 what I mean is that the legal school age is 5 through 16. Also, the legal school age could change. For example, in 1875 Alabama’s legal school age was 5 to 21. In 1877 it was 7 to 21. Continue reading →