Other Data and Resources
This Page contains other data and information sources, within and outside the U.S. Department of Education that are related to the Institute's mission:
Each year, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education publishes several primary reference volumes on education in the nation that are widely used by educational researchers and policy analysts, including: Digest of Education Statistics, a comprehensive review of education statistics on elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and adult education; and The Condition of Education, an annual report that includes information on enrollment rates, dropout rates, trends in academic achievement, and education spending.
In addition to basic data collection, NCES is also the official federal source of education projections at the national level. The annual publication, Projections of Education Statistics provides national projections about enrollments, graduates, degrees, instructional staff, and expenditures. Several other reference publications are also useful. For example, The Youth Indicators looks at the lives of students beyond schoolhouse doors. Published every two years, Youth Indicators investigates factors beyond the schoolhouse which affect student performance -- early childhood experiences, family relationships, and home environments -- and the pervasive effects of success at school on success in the job market and aspirations for the future. The publication, 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait aggregates all relevant statistics about the history of our educational system in one convenient book, and The EDsearch: Education Statistics on Disk, a software package for IBM PCs, collects the Digest, Condition, Youth Indicators, and other NCES statistical publications into a topic-searchable database. All these major publications and software are available at the NCES Publication Web Site, along with other interesting survey reports, tabulations, and data sets, including:
The Common Core of Data (CCD) on elementary and secondary education in the 50 states; the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), and three major longitudinal studies of elementary and secondary students: the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72), the High School and Beyond (HS&B) Study, and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88).
The NCES Section of the ED WWW server also contains information on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which for more than 20 years has served as "the Nation's Report Card." NAEP is the only nationally representative assessment of what our nation's students know and can do and is the primary source of data on educational achievement in the core academic subjects. Since 1990, NAEP has also collected and published state-level data, which allows participating states to track how their students are performing, both over time and relative to other states.
The U.S. Bureau of Census conducts an Annual Survey of Government Finances, which covers the entire range of government finance activities, including those related to education. The Census Bureau's Governments Division also collects data on revenues and expenditures of elementary and secondary as well as postsecondary education entities. The elementary/secondary education data are collected as a part of the Annual Survey of Government Finances. The postsecondary education data are available through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Survey (IPEDS) project conducted with the Department of Education.
The Bureau of Census Government Division Home Page contains the following data: (1) School Finance Data (individual unit data); (2) State Finance Data by State; (3) State and Local Government Finance Estimates by State; (4) Quarterly Tax; (5) Financial Data for the Largest 50 Cities and Counties; and (6) Federal Expenditures etc..
There are many other places at the OERI and the U.S. Department of Education web sites, where you can find information on educational governance, finance, policy and management. The following are some interesting places to visit:
The Educational Resources Information Center, funded by OERI, is a nationwide information network that acquires, catalogs, summarizes, and provides access to education information from all sources. The data base and ERIC document collections are housed in about 3,000 locations worldwide, including most major public and university library systems. ERIC produces a variety of publications and provides extensive user assistance, including AskERIC an electronic question answering service for teachers on the Internet. The ERIC system includes 16 subject-specific Clearinghouses, the ERIC Processing and Reference facility, and ACCESS ERIC which provides introductory services. There are sevaral ways to get access to ERIC, the world's largest database on education: (1) by calling 1-800-LET-ERIC; (2) via the Internet through the AskERIC Virtual Library and (3) through the AskERIC online question-answering service (askeric@ericir.syr.edu).
If you are interested in educational governance, finance, policy and management, you may like to visit the home pages of the following ERIC clearinghouses: ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management Home Page, the ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools (in particular, its Rural Education Directory (Organizations and Agencies) and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education (in particular, its Administration and Finance sections.).
In order to help state and local decision makers improve their schools, OERI shares the latest research findings and information on education with parents, teachers, school board members, policymakers, and the general public through its Regional Educational Laboratories. These regional labs develop materials and provide assistance to states and local educators based on the most recent knowledge about improving teaching and learning.
Interesting information on educational reform, leadership, finance and governance could be found in the home pages of these regional labs. For example,
To help improve and strengthen student learning in the United States, OERI of the U.S. Department of Education sponsors university-based national education Research and Development Centers. The centers address specific topics such as student achievement in core academic subjects, teacher preparation and training, disadvantaged students, and educational reform policies. Many centers collaborate with other universities, and many work with elementary and secondary schools. Centers may be contacted directly for a catalog of their publications and services. You can find their web sites, addresses and telephone numbers from the OERI National Research Centers Web Page.
Educational reform is one the major research focuses of the Governance and Finance Institute (GFI). This section contains legislative information such as the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA), including information on the Title I Schoolwide Reform projects. You can also find information on other Legislative Acts concerning education or search for legislative information on other federal government programs using the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA).
Also available in this section are selected ED/OERI publications (mostly full-text reports) on educational reform, including the 1983 classic report, A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform; the annual GOALS 2000: A Progress Report; and the National Education Commission on Time and Learning final report, Prisoners Of Time. Other publications on educational reform include:
More information could be found in the section, U.S. Department of Education Resources. The following guidebooks will also help you to locate resources and services at the Department of Education:
Last update October 15, 2002 (jca).