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    Utah school board elections, 2016

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    Elections

    General elections for Utah school boards were held on November 8, 2016. Special elections were held in conjunction with some general elections to fill vacancies.

    The 14 Utah school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held school board elections for 48 seats in 2016. Here are several quick facts about those school board elections:

    • The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2016 was the Alpine School District with 73,975 K-12 students.
    • The smallest Utah school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2016 was the Box Elder School District with 11,310 K-12 students.
    • Six of Utah's largest districts tied for the most seats on the ballot in 2016 with four seats up for election in each.
    • The other eight largest districts tied for the fewest seats on the ballot with three seats up for election in each.

    The district listed below served 488,124 K-12 students during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on each and its school board elections.

    2016 Utah School Board Elections
    District General date Regular term (years) Seats up for election Total board seats Student enrollment
    Alpine School District 11/8/2016 4 3 7 73,975
    Box Elder School District 11/8/2016 4 4 7 11,310
    Cache County School District 11/8/2016 4 3 7 16,279
    Canyons School District 11/8/2016 4 3 7 34,394
    Davis School District 11/8/2016 4 3 7 70,411
    Granite School District 11/8/2016 4 3 7 70,407
    Jordan School District 11/8/2016 4 4 7 53,355
    Nebo School District 11/8/2016 4 4 7 31,905
    Ogden School District 11/8/2016 4 4 7 12,620
    Provo School District 11/8/2016 4 3 7 15,181
    Salt Lake City School District 11/8/2016 4 4 7 24,597
    Tooele County School District 11/8/2016 4 4 7 14,324
    Washington County School District 11/8/2016 4 3 7 28,085
    Weber School District 11/8/2016 4 3 7 31,281

    Election trends

    Trends in Utah school board elections

    School Board Election Trends Banner.jpg
    See also: School boards in session: 2014 elections by the numbers

    The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in school board elections held in Utah's largest school districts by student enrollment. Details of the data discussed here can be found in the table below.

    Competitiveness

    A total of 48 school board seats in Utah's largest school districts by enrollment were up for election in 2016. In 2014, 50 seats were on the ballot, and 114 candidates ran in the elections. That created an average of 2.28 candidates per seat, which was higher than the 2014 national average of 1.89 candidates per seat. A total of 26 percent of school board seats up for election in Utah were unopposed in 2014. Nationwide that year, 32.57 percent of school board seats were unopposed.

    Incumbency advantage

    See also: Analysis of incumbency advantage in the 2014 school board elections

    A total of 76 percent of the school board incumbents whose terms were on the ballot in Utah in 2014 ran to retain their seats, and 78.95 percent of them won. Nationally, 81.37 percent of incumbents won re-election in 2014.

    Twenty newcomers were elected to school boards in the state in 2014. They took 40 percent of the seats on the ballot, which was higher than the 38.19 percent of school board seats that went to newcomers nationally in 2014.

    The map below details the success rates for incumbents who ran in the 2014 school board elections that were held in the largest school districts by enrollment in the U.S.

    SBE Incumbent Success Rates 2014-US Map.png

    Data table

    Utah school board elections, 2014 - 2016
    2014 2016
    All candidates
    Seats up 50 48
    Candidates 114 TBD
    Candidates/seat 2.28 TBD
    Unopposed seats 13 TBD
    % unopposed 26.00% TBD
    % seats won by newcomers 40.00% TBD
    Incumbents
    Sought re-election 38 TBD
    Unopposed 11 TBD
    Retained 30 TBD
    % retained 78.95% TBD

    Academic performance

    See also: Public education in Utah

    BP-Initials-UPDATED.png The sections below do not contain the most recently published data on this subject. If you would like to help our coverage grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.

    Education terms
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    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 table 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 three neighboring states (Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada), students in Utah earned the second-highest scores in all categories, falling behind students in Colorado.[1]

    Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
    Math - Grade 4 Math - Grade 8 Reading - Grade 4 Reading - Grade 8
    Utah 44% 36% 37% 39%
    Arizona 40% 31% 28% 28%
    Colorado 50% 42% 41% 40%
    Nevada 34% 28% 27% 30%
    U.S. averages 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 Utah and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.[1][2][3]

    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.[4]

    Utah schools reported a graduation rate of 83 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, highest among its neighboring states.

    In Utah, more students took the ACT than the SAT in 2013, earning an average ACT score of 20.7.

    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
    Utah 83% Third 20.7 100% 1684 6%
    Arizona 75.1% Fifth 19.6 50% 1551 35%
    Colorado 76.9% Fourth 20.4 100% 1721 14%
    Nevada 70.7% Fifth 21.3 32% 1454 48%
    United States 81.4% 20.9 54% 1498 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"
    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 Utah was lower than the national average at 1.5 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 1.5 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.[5]

    State profile

    State profile

    Demographic data for Utah
     UtahU.S.
    Total population:2,990,632316,515,021
    Land area (sq mi):82,1703,531,905
    Race and ethnicity**
    White:87.6%73.6%
    Black/African American:1.1%12.6%
    Asian:2.2%5.1%
    Native American:1.1%0.8%
    Pacific Islander:0.9%0.2%
    Two or more:2.6%3%
    Hispanic/Latino:13.4%17.1%
    Education
    High school graduation rate:91.2%86.7%
    College graduation rate:31.1%29.8%
    Income
    Median household income:$60,727$53,889
    Persons below poverty level:12.7%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 Utah.
    **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 Utah

    Utah voted Republican in all six presidential elections between 2000 and 2020.


    More Utah coverage on Ballotpedia

    See also

    Utah School Boards News and Analysis
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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables," accessed May 13, 2014
    2. ↑ ACT, "2012 ACT National and State Scores," accessed May 13, 2014
    3. ↑ Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT Scores by State 2013," October 10, 2013
    4. ↑ StudyPoints, "What's a good SAT score or ACT score?" accessed June 7, 2015
    5. ↑ United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data (CCD), State Dropout and Graduation Rate Data File, School Year 2010-11, Provision Version 1a and School Year 2011-12, Preliminary Version 1a," accessed May 13, 2014
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