NCES Publications

Characteristics of Public School Districts in the United States: Results from the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey

6/30/2009 10:00:00 AM

This report presents selected findings from the school district data file of the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public, private, and Bureau of Indian Education-funded (BIE) K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The public school sample was designed so that national-, regional-, and state-level elementary, secondary, and combined public school estimates can be made. Public schools include both traditional public and public charter schools. The School District data file includes responses from school districts to the School District Questionnaire along with the "district items" taken from the Public School Questionnaire (With District Items) completed by the subset of public schools that were not associated with "traditional" school districts. These schools include state-run schools, traditional public schools in single-school districts, and independent charter schools.

Characteristics of Public, Private, and Bureau of Indian Education Elementary and Secondary Schools in the United States: Results from the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey

6/30/2009 10:00:00 AM

This report presents selected findings from the school data files of the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public, private, and Bureau of Indian Education-funded (BIE) K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The public school sample was designed so that national-, regional-, and state-level elementary, secondary, and combined public school estimates can be made. Public schools include both traditional public and public charter schools. The private school sample was designed so that national-, regional-, and affiliation-level estimates can be produced. BIE schools were sampled with certainty, and thus national estimates for BIE schools can be produced.

Characteristics of Public and Bureau of Indian Education Elementary and Secondary School Library Media Centers in the United States: Results from the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey

6/30/2009 10:00:00 AM

This report presents selected findings from the library media center data files of the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public, private, and Bureau of Indian Education-funded (BIE) K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The public school sample was designed so that national-, regional-, and state-level elementary, secondary, and combined public school estimates can be made. BIE schools were sampled with certainty, and thus national estimates for BIE schools can be produced. SASS is a school-based sample, so library media centers associated with public schools and with BIE schools were included.

Characteristics of Public, Private, and Bureau of Indian Education Elementary and Secondary School Principals in the United States: Results from the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey

6/30/2009 10:00:00 AM

This report presents selected findings from the school principal data files of the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public, private, and Bureau of Indian Education-funded (BIE) K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The public school sample was designed so that national-, regional-, and state-level elementary, secondary, and combined public school estimates can be made. Public schools include both traditional public and public charter schools. The private school sample was designed so that national-, regional-, and affiliation-level estimates can be produced. BIE schools were sampled with certainty, and thus national estimates for BIE schools can be produced.

Characteristics of Public, Private, and Bureau of Indian Education Elementary and Secondary School Teachers in the United States: Results from the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey

6/30/2009 10:00:00 AM

This report presents selected findings from the school teacher data files of the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public, private, and Bureau of Indian Education-funded (BIE) K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. School districts associated with public schools and library media centers in public and BIE schools are also part of SASS. The public school sample was designed so that national-, regional-, and state-level elementary, secondary, and combined public school estimates can be made. The private school sample was designed so that national-, regional-, and affiliation-level estimates can be produced. BIE schools were sampled with certainty, and thus national estimates for BIE schools can be produced. Teachers associated with selected schools were sampled from a teacher list provided by each school.

Financial Accounting for Local and State School Systems: 2009 Edition

6/23/2009 7:17:00 AM

This NCES handbook has been designed as the national standard for state and loal education agencies to use in tracking and reporting financial data and for school districts to use in preparing their comprehensive annual financial reports (CAFRs). The purpose of the handbook is to ensure that education fiscal data can be reported in a comprehensive manner.

The 2009 Edition contains guidance conforming to Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statements, up to Statement 47. There are chapters on budgeting, governmental accounting and financial reporting. Account codes have been updated to reflect changes in the new reporting requirements and developments in technology and security. There are also special chapters on accounting student activity funds and a model for school level program cost accounting.

The Nation's Report Card: Arts 2008

6/15/2009 10:00:00 AM

This report presents the results of the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) arts assessment. It was administered to a nationally representative sample of 7,900 eighth-grade public and private school students. Approximately one-half of these students were assessed in music, and the other half were assessed in visual arts. The music portion of the assessment measured students' ability to respond to music in various ways. Students were asked to analyze and describe aspects of music they heard, critique instrumental and vocal performances, and demonstrate their knowledge of standard musical notation and music's role in society. The average responding score for music was reported on a NAEP scale of 0 to 300. The visual arts portion of the assessment included questions that measured students’ ability to respond to art as well as questions that measured their ability to create art. Responding questions asked students to analyze and describe works of art and design. For example, students were asked to describe specific differences in how certain parts of an artist's self-portrait were drawn. The average responding score for visual arts was reported on a NAEP scale of 0 to 300. Creating questions required students to create works of art and design of their own. For example, students were asked to create a self-portrait that was scored for identifying detail, compositional elements, and use of materials. The average creating task score for visual arts was reported separately as the average percentage of the maximum possible score from 0 to 100 with a national average of 52. Results are also reported for student performance by various demographic characteristics such as race/ethnicity, gender, and eligibility for the National School Lunch Program. Although the results for music and visual arts are reported separately and cannot be compared, some general patterns in differences between student groups were similar in the two disciplines. The average responding scores in both music and visual arts were 22 to 32 points higher for White and Asian/Pacific Islander students than for Black and Hispanic students. The creating task scores in visual arts were also higher for White and Asian/Pacific Islander students than for their Black and Hispanic peers. The average responding scores for female students were 10 points higher than for male students in music and 11 points higher in visual arts. Female students also outperformed male students in creating visual art.

The Nation's Report Card: Highlights Arts 2008

6/15/2009 10:00:00 AM

This report presents a broad summary of the results of the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) arts assessment. Brief information about the assessment is provided, including what the assessment measured and what student populations were assessed. Results for eighth-graders in music and visual arts are reported for students overall and by various demographic characteristics such as race/ethnicity, gender, and eligibility for the National School Lunch Program.

Late High School Dropouts: Characteristics, Experiences, and Changes Across Cohorts

6/10/2009 7:07:00 AM

This report presents information about selected characteristics and experiences of high school sophomores in 2002 who subsequently dropped out of school. It also presents comparative data about late high school dropouts in the years 1982, 1992, and 2004. The findings address only dropping out in late high school and do not cover students who dropped out before the spring of 10th grade. For this reason, the reported rates are lower than those based on the students’ entire high school or earlier school career. Key findings include the following:

Forty-eight percent of all late high school dropouts come from families in the lowest quarter (bottom 25 percent) of the socioeconomic status distribution, and 77 percent of late high school dropouts come from the lowest half of the socioeconomic status distribution.
Most late high school dropouts (83 percent) listed a school-related (versus a family- or employment-related) reason for leaving. These reasons included missing too many school days, thinking it would be easier to get a GED, getting poor grades, and not liking school.
The overall late high school dropout rate was lower in 2004 than in 1982 (7 percent versus 11 percent, respectively) and lower in 1992 than in 1982 (6 percent versus 11 percent), but it showed no statistically significant difference in 2004 compared with 1992.

Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 2006-07

6/9/2009 7:00:00 AM

This annual report provides basic information from the Common Core of Data about the nation's largest public school districts in the 2006-07 school year. The data include such characteristics as the number of students and teachers, number of high school completers and the averaged freshman graduation rate, and revenues and expenditures. Findings include: In 2006-07, these 100 largest districts enrolled 23 percent of all public school students, and employed 22 percent of all public school teachers. The districts produced 17 percent of all high school completers (both diploma and other completion credential recipients) in 2005-06. Across the districts, the average freshman graduation rate was 75.6 percent. Three states -- California, Florida, and Texas -- accounted for almost half of the 100 largest public school districts. Current per-pupil expenditures in fiscal year 2003 ranged from a low of $5,719 in the Puerto Rico School District to a high of $19,749 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Web Tables: Undergraduate Financial Aid Estimates by Type of Institution in 2007–08

6/4/2009 9:00:00 AM

Data presented in these tables are from the 2007–08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08). NPSAS is the most comprehensive, nationally representative source of data on student financial aid. Estimates include average tuition and fees, average total price of attendance, and the percentages of undergraduates receiving various types and combinations of financial aid and average amounts received, with a particular focus on grants and loans. These tables focus only on undergraduates, and separate tables are included for those who attended public 4-year, private-not-for-profit 4-year, public 2-year, or private for-profit postsecondary institutions during the 2007–08 academic year.

An Overview of Technical Procedures for the NAEP Assessment

6/1/2009 10:00:00 AM

This document provides detail about the technical aspects of NAEP. The goals of the publication are to provide readers with an overview of the projects and to help them better understand the philosophical approach, procedure, analyses, and psychometric underpinnings of NAEP. The guide follows a question-and-answer format, presenting the most commonly asked questions and following them with succinct answers. A glossary is found at the end of the guide, along with a schedule of assessments.

The Condition of Education 2009

5/28/2009 10:00:00 AM

The Condition of Education 2009 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 46 indicators on the status and condition of education. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2009 print edition includes 46 indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education.

The Condition of Education 2009 in Brief

5/28/2009 10:00:00 AM

The Condition of Education 2009 in Brief contains a summary of 12 of the 46 indicators in The Condition of Education 2009. The topics covered include: public and private enrollment in elementary/secondary education; projections of undergraduate enrollment; student achievement from the National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading and mathematics; status dropout rates; immediate transition to college; educational attainment; expenditures for elementary and secondary education; and undergraduate fields of study.

An Evaluation of Bias in the 2007 National Households Education Surveys Program: Results From a Special Data Collection Effort

5/12/2009 7:39:00 AM

The National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) is a random digit dialing (RDD) survey program developed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. The surveys are designed to help NCES collect data directly from households about important education topics. Like many household studies that rely on landline phone sampling frames, NHES has experienced both declining response rates and increasing undercoverage rates. The study described in this report was designed to examine bias in the NHES:2007 due to nonresponse, as well as bias due to noncoverage of households that only had cell phones and households without any telephones. Results from this study suggest that there is no systematic pattern of bias in key statistics from the NHES:2007, though it might underestimate some indicators such as the percentage of preschoolers who watch two or more hours of TV in a typical weekday and overestimate some indicators such as the percentage of preschoolers with mothers who are not in the labor force.

Issue Tables: A Profile of Military Servicemembers and Veterans Enrolled in Postsecondary Education in 2007-08

5/11/2009 10:51:00 AM

This set of Issue Tables describes military servicemembers and veterans in undergraduate education at institutions eligible for Title IV federal funding for financial aid. The data come from 2007-08, just prior to the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act's implementation. The purpose is to provide baseline data with which to compare undergraduate enrollment and student characteristics of current military undergraduates with their future counterparts who will enroll in postsecondary education under the New GI Bill.

Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools, Findings from the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2007-08

5/5/2009 7:00:00 AM

This First Look report uses data from the 2007-08 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) to examine a range of issues dealing with school crime and safety, such as the frequency of school crime and violence, disciplinary actions, and school practices related to the prevention and reduction of crime. SSOCS is the primary source of school-level data on crime and safety for NCES. Since 1999, it has been administered four times to the principals of nationally representative samples of public primary, middle, high, and combined schools.

New Indicators of High School Career/Technical Education Coursetaking: Class of 2005

4/29/2009 8:00:00 AM

This Statistics in Brief uses data from the 2005 High School Transcript Study (HSTS) to examine the career/technical education (CTE) coursetaking of public high school graduates using new indicators of participation. These indicators examine the extent to which students participate in CTE and in specific occupational areas (such as agriculture and business) broadly (many students earning credits) versus deeply (many credits earned by participating students). First, the brief looks at student participation across the three main CTE curriculum areas (family and consumer sciences education, general labor market preparation, and occupational education). Second, the brief looks at coursetaking within occupational areas, including occupational concentration. Finally, the brief examines coursetaking across occupational areas, including the areas that students tend to combine. Findings indicate that high school graduates’ use of the CTE curriculum is generally broad rather than narrow in the sense that most (70 percent) earn credits in both occupational education and either general labor market preparation or family and consumer sciences education, and most (58 percent) earn credits in more than one occupational area. Five occupational areas had the broadest participation (i.e., had the greatest number of graduates earning credits in the area): business; communications and design; manufacturing, repair, and transportation; consumer and culinary services; and computer and information sciences). The occupational areas with the deepest levels of participation were manufacturing, repair, and transportation; agriculture and natural resources; health sciences; and construction and architecture. Finally, some occupational areas were more likely than others to be taken together. For example, marketing coursetakers were more likely than other occupational coursetakers to earn credits in business.

The Nation's Report Card: Long-Term Trend 2008

4/28/2009 10:00:00 AM

This report presents the results of NAEP’s long-term trend assessments in reading and mathematics that were administered in the 2007–08 school year to students aged 9, 13, and 17. Because the long-term trend assessments have been administered at different times during NAEP’s 40-year history, it is possible to chart educational progress back to 1971 in reading and 1973 in mathematics. The previous long-term trend assessment occurred in 2004. This report provides trend results in terms of average scale scores, percentiles, and five performance levels. Results are described by race/ethnicity, gender, and type of school. Sample test questions are provided for each age level in each subject. Overall, the national trend in reading showed gains in average scores at all three ages since 2004. Average reading scores for 9- and 13-year-olds increased in 2008 compared to 1971, but the reading score for 17-year-olds was not significantly different. The national trend in mathematics showed that both 9- and 13-year-olds had higher average scores in 2008 than in any previous assessment year. For 17-year-olds, there were no significant differences between the average score in 2008 and those in 1973 or 2004.

Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2008

4/21/2009 7:00:00 AM

A joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics, this annual report examines crime occurring in school as well as on the way to and from school. It provides the most current detailed statistical information to inform the Nation on the nature of crime in schools. This report presents data on crime at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, principals, and the general population from an array of sources--the National Crime Victimization Survey, the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the School Survey on Crime and Safety and the School and Staffing Survey. Data on crime away from school are also presented to place school crime in the context of crime in the larger society.

National Household Education Surveys Program of 2007: Methodology Report

4/20/2009 2:30:00 AM

This report documents the design and collection of the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) of 2007. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the collection and the report. Chapter 2 discusses the design of the questionnaires. Chapter 3 presents the sample design. Chapter 4 provides information about the data collection experience. Chapter 5 focuses on unit response rates. Item response rates and imputation are discussed in chapter 6. Chapter 7 contains information about weighting and variance estimation. Chapter 8 provides a summary of bias analyses conducted as part of the study. Chapter 9 provides a comparison of estimates to extant data sources. Chapter 10 summarizes the re-interview study.

2007–08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08): Student Financial Aid Estimates for 2007–08

4/14/2009 7:00:00 AM

This is the First Look at the results of the 2007–08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08), the most comprehensive, nationally representative survey of student financing of postsecondary education in the United States. About 114,000 undergraduate students and 14,000 graduate and first professional students were randomly selected from more than 1,600 postsecondary institutions. The report describes the percentages of students receiving various types of financial aid and average amounts received, by type of institution attended, attendance pattern, dependency status, and income level.

The Nation’s Report Card: 2007 At a Glance

4/3/2009 10:44:00 AM

The Nation’s Report Card: 2007 At a Glance is a compilation of reprinted Executive Summaries from the reading, mathematics, and writing report cards based upon data collected in 2007. The reports provide national, state, and district-level results as well as trends for different student groups such as gender, race/ethnicity, students with disabilities (SD), English language learners (ELL), and socioeconomic status. At a Glance also takes a closer look at the types of students who participated in the 2007 assessments.