Book Description

The elementary and secondary education data collection system has undergone a major transformation over the past decade, becoming a coordinated, cohesive system. This report reviews what the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) can and cannot say about education in the United States for kindergarten through grade 12. Six issue areas have been defined by the Indicators Panel convened by the NCES. In the first part of this document, six types of data are juxtaposed against the following six issue areas: (1) institutions and their characteristics; (2) finance; (3) staffing; (4) curriculum and course content; (5) students; and (6) achievement. The second part of this report is then organized into sections that provide information on continuing data collections, new initiatives, and remaining gaps for each of these broad types of education data. Each section contains a description of the availability of the data specific to its subject, a bibliography of current and planned NCES publications on the topic, and a summary chart of the availability of data. The NCES remains committed to providing timely and policy-relevant data. The data collection system maintains its relevance by remaining flexible and responsive to new policy needs. An appendix provides a short profile of each national survey that collects data on education in kindergarten through grade 12. (SLD)