Federal Statistics Program
Assessment Division/National Assessment of Educational Progress
Early Childhood, International, and Crosscutting Studies Division
Elementary, Secondary, and Library Studies Division
Office of the Commissioner
Office of the Deputy Commissioner
Postsecondary Division
Assessment Division/National Assessment of
Educational Progress
ESSI activities for the NCES Assessment Division (AD) support all phases of the assessment process for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a school-based survey administered every year to 4th, 8th, and 12th graders in a variety of subjects, and the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, which is an assessment of literacy skills administered to adults in households approximately every decade. ESSI’s work for the Assessment Division includes projects in these areas:
Statistical Review and Research
Analysis, Design, and Reporting
Assessment Development and Quality Assurance
Data Collection and Field Operations
State Training and Outreach
Statistical Review and Research
Statistical Review and Research Support includes research into statistical methods relevant to large scale national assessments, such as the identifiability of item response theory (IRT)-based models and multidimensional IRT; analysis of disclosure risk of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data files prior to public release; and extensive technical review and analysis activities that ensure data-based reports—such as national, state, and district National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Report Cards, Highlights, Snapshots, CDs, related web pages, and technical reports and special statistical analysis reports—meet NCES quality and publication standards. Recent publications may be found at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/getpubcats.asp?sid=031.
Analysis, Design, and Reporting
These projects include: the development of background questions for new assessments, such as the American Indian/Alaska Native Supplemental Survey; the design of internal web-based systems for the review, production, and tracking of Assessment Division publications; analysis, planning, and outreach support for the NAAL; development and implementation of a research agenda on the use and validation of testing accommodations in National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); and the review, analysis, and evaluation of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), NELS, and ECLS data related to the educational achievement of Native American students, with recommendations for further research and development. Other projects in this area include the design, development, and maintenance of the NAAL website (www.nces.ed.gov/naal/) and the development, graphics design, and production of Report Card covers, related brochures, and popular reports.
Assessment Development and Quality Assurance
This includes projects that support the development, review, and revision of background questions for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) (http://www.nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/bgquest.asp), including the development of a web-based cross-survey database of background questions and methodological studies aimed at improving the quality of background data; the development, review, and revision of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) cognitive items, including facilitating state item reviews, providing technical assistance to states, and conducting special studies related to the development of cognitive items; monitoring scoring of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) constructed response items and the conduct of special studies related to the scoring process; and quality assurance reviews of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data files.
Data Collection and Field Operations
Provides tracking and documenting quality assurance procedures for sampling and data collection activities for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); providing technical reviews, summaries, and analyses of reports on sampling and data collection activities; design, development, review, and production of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) operational and field publications; and providing technical support for selected school districts that participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Trial Urban District Assessment study.
State Training and Outreach
This includes designing, developing, and evaluating advanced technical training—such as seminars, workshops, courses, and related training materials—in assessment literacy for state leaders; implementing programs to develop the skills of state leaders to facilitate their understanding and use of results from large-scale assessments such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); designing, developing, and administering the joint NCES-University of Maryland Graduate Certificate Program in Large Scale Assessment, which provides in-person and web-based/distance learning training courses to state officials to certify learning acquired in understanding and using large scale educational assessment data (www.gcponline.org); content development, review, and quality assurance of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) website (www.nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/); and support for the development and production of a publication on the history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Early Childhood, International, and
Crosscutting
Studies Division
As its name implies, ECICSD provides information on the state of education in the United States on a wide range of important topics. ECICSD programs include:
The Condition of Education
Early Childhood Longitudinal Surveys
National Household Education Surveys
International Comparisons
Fast Response Surveys
State Education Reforms
Fast Facts
The Condition of Education
The annual Condition of Education, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/ and Digest of Education, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/ provide descriptions of the state of education in the United States and trends in key education indicators. ESSI staff contribute analysis, writing, editing, and production efforts to these publications.
Early Childhood Longitudinal Surveys
ECLS, http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/, is one of the first nationally representative studies of early childhood development and educational experiences. It includes two longitudinal studies of children, their families, and their early care and educational experiences—a birth cohort of children being followed from their birth through first grade (study begun in 2001) and a kindergarten cohort of children being followed from their entry in kindergarten through fifth grade (begun in 1998). Recent reports co-authored by ESSI staff include Children's Reading and Mathematics Achievement in Kindergarten and First Grade (NCES 2002125), http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002125, and The Kindergarten Year, http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001023.
National Household Education Surveys
NHES, http://nces.ed.gov/nhes/, is a household-based set of surveys that collects data on a wide range of educational activities of the U.S. population, from early childhood through adulthood. Recent reports co-authored by ESSI staff include Trends in the Use of School Choice: 1993 to 1999, http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003031, and Homeschooling in the United States: 1999, http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001033.
International Comparisons
The U.S. contribution to international studies of education progress, include the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), http://nces.ed.gov/timss/, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/, and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/pirlspub/1.asp). Recent reports co-authored by ESSI staff include Mathematics Teachers' Familiarity with Standards and their Instructional Practices: 1995 and 1999, http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003022, Outcomes of Learning: Results from the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment of 15-Year-Olds in Reading, Mathematics, and Science Literacy, http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002115, and International Comparisons in Fourth-Grade Reading Literacy: Findings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2001, http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003073.
Fast Response Surveys
FRSS, http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/publications/95360/, and Postsecondary Education Quick Information System (PEQIS), http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/peqis/, are two cutting edge data collection systems designed to collect and analyze data on education topics as the topics arise and are important to education decisionmakers. Recent reports co-authored by ESSI staff include Beyond School-Level Internet Access: Support for Instructional Use of Technology, http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002029.
State Education Reforms
ESSI staff co-authored the report, Overview and Inventory of State Education Reforms: 1990 to 2000, http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003020. This 2003 report describes the roles of states in elementary and secondary education through the 1990s.
Fast Facts
This NCES effort makes education information available to the public through the Web. The Fast Facts Web site, http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/, addresses education topics of high interest to the public. The Childstats web site, http://childstats.gov/, acts as a portal to varied important indicators on childhood well-being. The Social Sciences Briefing Room, http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/education.html, is a White House web site presenting information on education topics of high interest to the public.
Elementary, Secondary, and Library Studies Division
Projects in the ESLSD program play a key role in NCES’ efforts to provide timely collection, analysis, and dissemination of quality data on the state of the nation’s elementary and secondary schools and libraries. Examples of ESSI’s work on the survey programs, reports, and support work in the ESLSD program area are:
Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS)
Common Core of Data
Surveys of School Crime and Safety
Longitudinal Surveys of Secondary School Students
National Forum on Education Statistics
Finance Handbook
Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and Teacher Follow-up Surveys (TFS)
The SASS and its linked study, the TFS periodically collect data from the nation’s teachers, staff, and principals on a wide range of issues related to teaching. ESSI’s role in this effort is to provide consultant support for survey processes, analysis and reporting of data, outreach, and planning and development of future collections. Major reports co-authored by ESSI include Qualifications of the Public School Teacher Workforce: Prevalence of Out-of-Field Teaching 1987-88 to 1999-2000 at http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002313 and Overview of the Data for Public, Private, Public Charter, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Elementary and Secondary Schools at http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002603. ESSI is also instrumental in the development of the SASS website, which can be found at http://www.nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass/.
Common Core of Data
The CCD is an annual survey of schools, local education agencies, and states, which collects data related to fiscal and non-fiscal matters. ESSI supports the collection, processing, review, and reporting of these data. ESSI-authored reports include Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 2001-02 at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003353.
Surveys of School Crime and Safety
The Surveys of School Crime and Safety project is comprised of the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (SCS/NCVS), and the facilities questionnaire in the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS). ESSI plays a key role in all phases of survey research on this project, from questionnaire development to analysis and reporting of resultant data. Major ESSI-authored reports include Violence in U.S. Public Schools at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004314 and Are America’s Schools Safe? Kids Speak Out at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002331. ESSI also developed the project’s web site, found at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crime/.
Longitudinal Surveys of Secondary School Students
The Analysis and Training Support project, which uses data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS:88) and the more recent Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS:2000). ESSI produces analysis reports from these collections, as well as provides consultant support for survey design and execution, and for others’ report-writing efforts. Examples of reports co-authored by ESSI include Volunteer Service by Young People From High School Through Early Adulthood at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004365.
National Forum on Education Statistics
The Support for Elementary/Secondary School Systems project provides support work for the National Forum on Education Statistics, a group of national, federal, state, and local education agency representatives. Major published reports include Weaving a Secure Web around Education: A guide to Technology Standards and Security at http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003381.
Finance Handbook
The Finance Handbook project developed a finance data element document to be the companion report for NCES’ Financial Accounting Handbook. The Handbook provides a national standard to assist state and local education agencies in preparing their comprehensive annual financial reports. ESSI’s work includes the completion of Financial Accounting for Local and State School Systems: 2003 Edition, which reflects the changes in school finance that have occurred over the last decade, at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004318.
Office of the Commissioner
The Office of the Commissioner (OC) supports a number of cross-program activities that serve NCES as a whole. Examples of such activities include:
Measures of Instructional Processes R&D Program
NCES Data Archive
Education Statistics Quarterly
Publication Preparation
Measures of Instructional Processes R&D Program
The Instructional Processes Research and Development Program has taken a systematic approach to distilling what is known about measures of instruction, achievement growth associated with instruction, and the learning process itself. Based on this work, ESSI is developing measurement constructs related to “student content engagement,” and on teacher knowledge related to first-grade reading.
NCES Data Archive
ICPSR (the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research), working under subcontract to ESSI, archives and maintains all NCES data from previous data collections in currently accessible formats. ICPSR’s work makes old data sets accessible to a new generations of users, serving the organization as a form of institutional memory and broadening the impact and reach of NCES data (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/IAED/index.html).
Education Statistics Quarterly
ESSI’s editorial team, working with the NCES Editorial Board, compiles information about all of NCES’s publications and data products into the Quarterly, NCES’s flagship publication, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/quarterly/5_2/, now in its fifth year of publication.
Publication Preparation
ESSI provides design and editorial efforts to create a uniform “look and feel” for NCES print publications, including work on the NCES Style Guide and Projections of Education Statistics to 2013 http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004013.
Another initiative in the OC, also with ESSI support, provides targeted support for dissemination efforts for NCES publications by establishing ongoing linkages with professional associations around areas of mutual interest.
Office of the Deputy Commissioner
The NCES Statistical Standards Program develops standards for procedures to ensure the quality of statistical surveys, analyses, and products; consults and advises on the implementation of standards for all Center projects; coordinates the review and adjudication process for NCES publications and products; and leads the NCES Technical Review Team. The Program also monitors and administers confidentiality procedures and related restricted use data licenses for Center data products. In addition to this set of ongoing activities, the Statistical Standards Program consults and advises on emerging statistical issues and initiates and monitors or participates in long-term statistical and methodological research projects.
NCES Statistical Standards
Statistical Research
NCES Statistical Standards
Written standards were first developed at NCES in 1987 when 21 standards were formally accepted by the congressionally mandated Advisory Council on Education Statistics. These standards were published and distributed throughout NCES. The most recent standards revision activity began in the summer of 1999. A multi-step process started with a review of the existing standards in the context of other national and international standards. ESSI participated in the Steering Committee and 15 Working Groups in the revision of our statistical standards. The draft revised standards were vetted through a series of internal seminars, approved by the NCES Senior Management Staff, reviewed and recommended for adoption by an independent panel of experts established by the National Institute of Statistical Sciences under subcontract to ESSI, and finally adopted for an October 1, 2002, release of The 2002 NCES Statistical Standards, http://nces.ed.gov/statprog/2002/stdtoc.asp.
Statistical Research
Periodically, statistical questions arise that break new ground for NCES or in some cases the discipline. The Statistical Standards Program consults and advises in these situations, and in some instances convenes a panel of experts to consult on or review specific problems. Examples of this process include a review of drop-out and graduation rate statistics. In this case, analysis conducted by the Elementary, Secondary, and Library Studies Division staff identified an issue that was pursued in a collaborative analysis with staff at the ESSI and the National Institute for Statistical Sciences. An expert review panel has been convened to study these issues. Another example involved a review of procedures used across NCES data collections for conducting non-response bias analyses. In this case, ESSI staff wrote a summary of the procedures used in current NCES surveys. The results of that review are used by the NCES Chief Statistician to evaluate and revise current standards related to nonresponse bias calculations in surveys.
The Statistical Standards Group recently sponsored the development of a handbook of NCES data collections that documents key aspects of the design, collection, and processing of NCES surveys, again under a subcontract arrangement with ESSI. ESSI is also involved in projects involving software development and testing in several areas concerning the analysis of complex sample survey data, and in statistical methods to protect confidential data.
Postsecondary Division
The Postsecondary Division (PSD) conducts universe censuses and sample surveys of institutions and students in tertiary education, and supports a variety of outreach activities to the postsecondary community. Its primary products include: the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the core annual system of surveys on postsecondary institutions, including such areas as enrollments and program completion, faculty and staff, finances, and academic libraries; the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), which examines how families and students pay for postsecondary education; and the Beginning Postsecondary Student (BPS) and Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) surveys.
ESSI’s primary participation in NCES’ Postsecondary Division has been in outreach, through the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC) http://nces.ed.gov/npec/. NPEC is a voluntary partnership of postsecondary institutions, associations, government agencies, and other organizations throughout the United States that promotes the quality, comparability, and utility of postsecondary education data and information. ESSI provides support for a number of NPEC activities, including:
Student Successes in Postsecondary Education
Data Feedback
Indicators and Communication Strategies
Student Successes in Postsecondary Education
ESSI works with NPEC to develop and implement an action agenda that focuses on student success in postsecondary education. Examples of activities are the NPEC/AIR (Association for Institutional Research) Student Success Grant Program (http://nces.ed.gov/npec/student_outcomes.asp#1), which provides grants for research into student outcomes; Student Success Policy Panels that address what we know and what we do not know about student success, and how information is used in policy development and decision-making; a primer of methodologies that are used to calculate postsecondary persistence and completion; and commissioned research that addresses student success from the perspective of different types of students and how student success is defined and measured for different types of institutions; and a National Conference on Student Success in 2006 that will showcase these activities.
Data Feedback
ESSI assists NPEC in designing the Data Feedback project, which will use IPEDS data to create a publishable report containing selected enrollment, faculty, and financial indicators for each institution, with comparable data at the national level; the report, which will be sent to each postsecondary institution, is designed to be used by institution decision-makers for internal management and external dissemination.
Indicators and Communication Strategies
With ESSI assistance, NPEC has also supported the development of state-level indicators that focus on the student and the economy and has developed a web-based tool that provides researchers with sources of data and definitions for postsecondary education data. ESSI has assisted NPEC in developing new communication strategies to help convey many of its ideas.
Another recent outreach product prepared was a brochure that summarized NCES’ congressionally mandated studies of college costs and prices (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003171).
ESSI has also supported data collection, processing, and analytic activities for the Beginning Postsecondary Student (BPS) and Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) surveys, as well as other postsecondary data collection efforts.