American Institutes for Research Plays Major Role in Creating the NCES Handbook of Survey Methods

Washington, D.C. – Researchers from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) played a major role in the writing, editing and production of a recently released National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report, NCES Handbook of Survey Methods. The handbook, last updated in 2003, provides researchers with the most current information available on NCES’ methodologies for survey design, data collection, and data processing.

Xiaolei Wang, a senior research analyst at AIR, Shelley Burns from NCES, and Alexandra Henning of Quality Information Partners, Inc., were the editors for the handbook. AIR experts Susan Armstrong, Kyo Sin Kang, Jinae Boyer and Simone Robers were among the contributing authors.

NCES, a part of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) within the U.S. Department of Education, is the primary federal organization that collects and analyzes data related education in the United States.

The handbook is intended to be used as a companion report to Programs and Plans of the National Center for Education Statistics, which provides a summary description of the type of data collected by each program at NCES. It is available online at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011609.pdf.

About AIR
Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education, and workforce productivity. For more information, visit www.air.org.

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