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Government Information, Statistics, and more!: National Center for Education Statistics

This LibGuide is an annotated list of government, statistical, and reference information websites.

National Center for Education Statistics

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Education. It is one of thirteen principal federal statistical agencies whose activities are predominantly focused on the collection, compilation, processing, or analysis of information for statistical purposes.

NCES is located within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES). NCES has a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.

The National Center for Education Statistics Site Index (below are links to some of the pages the Index leads to).

Fast Facts, by Topic

 

Back-to-School Statistics - statistics about the 'back-to-school' experience over the last few years.
 

The National Assessment of Educational Progress is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what our nation’s students know and can do in subjects such as mathematics, reading, science, and writing.

 

The International Activities Program (IAP) supports a variety of activities to make international comparative data available on education and learning, supports U.S. participation in international studies of student knowledge and adult skills, and makes the data and findings available from these studies.

 

The Distance Learning Dataset Training (DLDT) system is an online, interactive tool that allows you to learn about National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data products across the education field and evaluate them for your particular purposes. The DLDT modules are designed to introduce you to many NCES datasets, their design, and special considerations for analysis to facilitate effective use.

 

The NCES Kids' Zone provides information to help you learn about schools; engage in several games, quizzes and skill building about math, probability, graphing, and mathematicians; and many interesting facts about education. 

 

Publications & Products

 

Data & Tools

  • Administrative Data Collections at NCES - data from all state and local K-12 education agencies and from all postsecondary schools or institutions of higher education.
  • DataLab - online table and regression maker tools featuring 30+ federal education datasets. (QuickStats – create simple tables and charts; PowerStats – create complex tables, logistic and linear regressions; and TrendStats – create complex tables using multiple data collection years. Also, contains 5000+ published analysis tables by topic, publication, and source.)
  • Online Codebook - download NCES survey datasets in various statistical software formats. Customize your dataset.
  • International Data Explorer - an interactive online tool with data from international assessments and surveys.
  • Bibliography - search for individual citations from journal articles that have been published using data from most research programs conducted by NCES. The bibliography includes citations from 1973 to present.

 

Data Systems, Use, Privacy Surveys & Programs

  • The Common Education Data Standards - CEDS are a collaborative national effort to develop voluntary, common education data standards for a key subset of K-12 (e.g., demographics, program participation, course information) and K12-to-postsecondary education transition variables. Participants in the Initiative include representatives from states, districts, higher education organizations, and key non-profit organizations. The CEDS Initiative's goal is to identify a list of key K-12 and K12-to-postsecondary transition variables (expansion into PreK and the workforce will be considered in the future) and agree upon standard definitions, code sets, business rules, and technical specifications for those variables. This will increase data interoperability, portability, and comparability across states, districts, and higher education organizations.
  • The Interagency Working Group on Expanded Measures of Enrollment and Attainment (GEMEnA) is working to improve the federal government’s ability to measure how adults acquire the skills and credentials needed for work, including occupational certificates, the attainment and maintenance of certification and licensing, on-the-job training, and basic skills development.
  • National Forum on Education Statistics - NFES - NCES has established the National Forum on Education Statistics to improve the collection, reporting, and use of elementary and secondary education statistics. The Forum deals with issues in education data policy, sponsors innovations in data collection and reporting, and provides technical assistance to improve state and local data systems.
  • Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Program - SLDS, these systems are intended to enhance the ability of states to efficiently and accurately manage, analyze, and use education data, including individual student records. The data systems help states, districts, schools, and teachers make data-driven decisions to improve student learning, as well as facilitate research to increase student achievement and close achievement gaps.

Survey & Program Areas

  • Assessments of the academic performance of the nation's students as well as the literacy level of the adult population.
  • Data Systems, Use, and Privacy intended to improve student learning, and facilitate research to increase student achievement and close achievement gaps.
  • Early Childhood studies that examine child development, school readiness, and early school experiences.
  • Elementary/Secondary - information on the condition of public and private education.
  • International - studies comparing U.S. education with education in other countries.
  • Library - surveys on academic libraries, public libraries, school library media centers, and state library agencies.
  • Postsecondary - studies of students, financial aid, postsecondary faculty, and bachelor’s degree recipients, doctoral degree recipients, transcript studies, and various longitudinal studies.
  • Resources - studies of all levels of education, focused on understanding the data needs and interests of the U.S.

 

Press Releases & Annual Reports

 

School and College Search

  • ACS-ED Dashboard - the ACS-ED Demographics Dashboard is a quick infographic summary of annually-updated school district social and economic characteristics.
  • College Navigator is a direct link to nearly 7,000 colleges and universities in the United States - you can find information on all of them here.
  • Search for Private Schools - information from the 30,000 plus private schools that responded to the 2003-2004 Private School Universe Survey (PSS) conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.
  • Search for Public School Districts - retrieve information on all U.S. public school districts. The data is collected annually directly from State Education Agencies (SEAs).
  • Search for Public Schools - retrieve information on all U.S. public schools. This data is collected annually directly from State Education Agencies (SEAs).
  • Search for Schools and Colleges - search for and locate information on schools and colleges.

 

Comparison Tools

  • NAEP State Profiles - find key data for state/jurisdiction performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments in mathematics, reading, writing, and science at grades 4, 8 and 12 (where applicable). View trends and demographics, download snapshot reports, and compare results for each state/jurisdiction to the nation and to the other states.
  • Public School District Finance Peer Search - compare the finances of a public school district with its peers. Peer districts are districts which share similarities among these characteristics: total students; student teacher ratio; Percent Children in Poverty; District Type; and Locale Code.
  • Education Finance Statistics Center - get finance information on public elementary/secondary education. For specific public school district finance data, comparisons with other school districts, and school district fiscal and nonfiscal data over time, visit the Data & Tools page. Under Finance Publications, you can find resources such as the NCES Financial Handbook.

 

Geographic Tools

  • The ACS-ED Demographics Dashboard offers a quick infographic summary of annually-updated school district social and economic characteristics.
  • ACS-ED Maps provides a geographic look at school district social, economic, demographic, and housing conditions. Explore and compare districts and regions based on annually-updated data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey Education Tabulation (ACS-ED).
  • Locale Lookup - search for schools and school districts in cities, suburbs, towns, and rural areas, or find a geographic classification for any location in the U.S.
  • MapED provides geographic context to Census, NCES, and ED datasets. The application allows you to quickly explore information at local and national levels. MapED is maintained as part of NCES''s Census Mapping Program.
  • SAFEMap - use SAFE Map to see if schools are far enough away from activities that may not be safe for students and teachers.
  • School and District Navigator - explore the administrative conditions of schools and school districts.

 

Online Analysis

  • ACS-ED Tables - the American Community Survey Education Tabulation (ACS-ED) provides social, economic, demographic, and housing characteristics about school-age children and their parents in school districts and states. This annually updated custom data collection is developed for NCES by the U.S. Census Bureau to help better understand the educational conditions of families and local school systems.
  • Elementary/Secondary Information System (ELSi) - view public and private school data and create custom tables using ELSi—a quick and easy tool for obtaining basic statistical data using the most common variables and tables from CCD and PSS.
  • Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Data Center - a "one-stop-shop" for the retrieval and analysis of data on colleges and universities. Access and evaluate institutional-level data collected in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The Data Center includes a wide-range of functional options - compare institutions side-by-side, construct customized data sets, download full data files, create different statistical summaries, and trend reports. (Also an entry point to the IPEDS Executive Peer Tool and Data Analysis System).
  • National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Data Explorer - this tool provides you with tables of detailed results from NAEP's national and state assessments. The data are based on information gathered from the students, teachers, and schools that participated in NAEP.