NCES Blog

Ever wonder what parts of the country produce the most English majors? Want to know which school districts have the most guidance counselors? The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has all the tools you need to dig into these and lots of other data!

Whether you’re a student embarking on a research project or a college professor looking for a large data set to use for an assignment, NCES has you covered. Below, check out the tools you can use to conduct searches, download datasets, and generate your own statistical tables and analyses.

Conduct Publication Searches

Two search tools help researchers identify potential data sources for their study and explore prior research conducted with NCES data. The Publications & Products Search Tool can be used to search for NCES publications and data products. The Bibliography Search Tool, which is updated continually, allows users to search for individual citations from journal articles that have been published using data from most surveys conducted by NCES.

Key reference publications include the Digest of Education Statistics, which is a comprehensive library of statistical tabulations, and The Condition of Education, which highlights up-to-date trends in education through statistical indicators.

Learn with Instructional Modules

The Distance Learning Dataset Training System (DLDT) is an interactive online tool that allows users to learn about NCES data across the education spectrum. DLDT’s computer-based training introduces users to many NCES datasets, explains their designs, and offers technical considerations to facilitate successful analyses. Please see the NCES blog Learning to Use the Data: Online Dataset Training Modules for more details about the DLDT tool.
 

Download and Access Raw Data Files

Users have several options for conducting statistical analyses and producing data tables. Many NCES surveys release public-use raw data files that professors and students can download and analyze using statistical software packages like SAS, STATA, and SPSS. Some data files and syntax files can also be downloaded using NCES data tools:

• Education Data Analysis Tool (EDAT) and the Online Codebook allow users to download several survey datasets in various statistical software formats. Users can subset a dataset by selecting a survey, a population, and variables relevant to their analysis.

• Many data files can be accessed directly from the Surveys & Programs page by clicking on the specific survey and then clicking on the “Data Products” link on the survey website.

Generate Analyses and Tables

NCES provides several online analysis tools that do not require a statistical software package:

• DataLab is a tool for making tables and regressions that features more than 30 federal education datasets. It includes three powerful analytic tools:
  • QuickStats—for creating simple tables and charts.
  • PowerStats—for creating complex tables and logistic and linear regressions.
  • TrendStats—for creating complex tables spanning multiple data collection years. This tool also contains the Tables Library, which houses more than 5,000 published analysis tables by topic, publication, and source.

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• National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Data Explorer can be used to generate tables, charts, and maps of detailed results from national and state assessments. Users can identify the subject area, grade level, and years of interest and then select variables from the student, teacher, and school questionnaires for analysis.

• International Data Explorer (IDE) is an interactive tool with data from international assessments and surveys, such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The IDE can be used to explore student and adult performance on assessments, create a variety of data visualizations, and run statistical tests and regression analyses.

• Elementary/Secondary Information System (ElSi) allows users to quickly view public and private school data and create custom tables and charts using data from the Common Core of Data (CCD) and Private School Universe Survey (PSS).

• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Use the Data provides researcher-focused access to IPEDS data and tools that contain comprehensive data on postsecondary institutions. Users can view video tutorials or use data through one of the many functions within the portal, including the following:
  • Data Trends—Provides trends over time for high-interest topics, including enrollment, graduation rates, and financial aid.
  • Look Up an Institution—Allows for quick access to an institution’s comprehensive profile. Shows data similar to College Navigator but contains additional IPEDS metrics.
  • Statistical Tables—Equips power users to quickly get data and statistics for specific measures, such as average graduation rates by state.

Schools can help to foster students’ understanding of diversity and create environments where students feel safe and welcome. One way to do this is by organizing student groups whose purpose is to promote acceptance of other students. The School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) collected data on the presence of recognized student acceptance groups during the 2015–16 school year from a nationally representative sample of 3,500 K–12 public schools. The questionnaire asked whether schools had student groups that promote acceptance of students’ sexual orientations^[i] and gender identities,^[ii] of students with disabilities, and of cultural diversity.

Among all public schools, groups that promote acceptance of students with disabilities were most common. Some 27 percent of schools reported having a student group that promotes acceptance of students with disabilities during the 2015­–16 school year, compared with 21 percent that reported having a student group that promotes acceptance of cultural diversity and 12 percent that reported having a student group that promotes acceptance of students’ sexual orientations and gender identities.

Figure 1. Percentage of public schools reporting the presence of recognized student acceptance groups, by school level and purpose of student group: School year 2015–16

¹Primary schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not higher than grade 3 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 8. Middle schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 4 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 9. High schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 9 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 12. The total also includes combined schools. Combined schools are schools that have a combination of grades that cannot be categorized as primary, middle, or high schools, including K–12 schools. 
²Sexual orientation was defined for respondents as one’s emotional or physical attraction to the same and/or opposite sex. Gender identity was defined for respondents as one’s inner sense of one’s own gender, which may or may not match the sex assigned at birth. Different people choose to express their gender identity differently. For some, gender may be expressed through, for example, dress, grooming, mannerisms, speech patterns, and social interactions. Gender expression usually ranges between masculine and feminine, and some transgender people express their gender consistent with how they identify internally, rather than in accordance with the sex they were assigned at birth. An example of a student group to promote acceptance of students' sexual orientations and gender identities provided to respondents was a Gay-Straight Alliance.
³An example of a student group to promote acceptance of students with disabilities provided to respondents was Best Buddies.
⁴An example of a student group to promote acceptance of cultural diversity provided to respondents was a Cultural Awareness Club.
NOTE: Responses were provided by the principal or the person most knowledgeable about school crime and policies to provide a safe environment. Although rounded numbers are displayed, the figures are based on unrounded data. 
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2015–16 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2016. See table 37.

All three types of acceptance groups were more common in high schools than in middle or primary schools. The most common type of student acceptance group varied by school level. For example, among middle schools, the percentage of schools that reported having a student group that promotes acceptance of students with disabilities (32 percent) was higher than the percentage that reported having a student group that promotes acceptance of cultural diversity (22 percent) or acceptance of students’ sexual orientations and gender identities (12 percent). This pattern was similar for primary schools. Among high schools, the percentage of schools that reported having a student group that promotes acceptance of students’ sexual orientations and gender identities (50 percent) was higher than the percentage that reported having a student group that promotes acceptance of students with disabilities (45 percent).

During the 2015–16 school year, all three types of student acceptance groups were more commonly found in schools in cities and suburbs than in schools in rural areas. For example, 30 percent of schools in cities and 26 percent of schools in suburbs reported having a student group that promotes acceptance of cultural diversity, compared with 10 percent of schools in rural areas.

Figure 2. Percentage of public schools reporting the presence of recognized student acceptance groups, by purpose of student group and school locale: School year 2015–16

¹Sexual orientation was defined for respondents as one's emotional or physical attraction to the same and/or opposite sex. Gender identity was defined for respondents as one's inner sense of one's own gender, which may or may not match the sex assigned at birth. Different people choose to express their gender identity differently. For some, gender may be expressed through, for example, dress, grooming, mannerisms, speech patterns, and social interactions. Gender expression usually ranges between masculine and feminine, and some transgender people express their gender consistent with how they identify internally, rather than in accordance with the sex they were assigned at birth. An example of a student group to promote acceptance of students' sexual orientations and gender identities provided to respondents was a Gay-Straight Alliance.
²An example of a student group to promote acceptance of students with disabilities provided to respondents was Best Buddies.
³An example of a student group to promote acceptance of cultural diversity provided to respondents was a Cultural Awareness Club.
NOTE: Responses were provided by the principal or the person most knowledgeable about school crime and policies to provide a safe environment.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2015–16 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2016. See table 37.

You can find more information on school crime and safety in NCES publications, including Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings From the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2015–16 and the 2017 Indicators of School Crime and Safety.

By Rachel Hansen, NCES, and Melissa Diliberti, AIR

By Lauren Musu-Gillette

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of blog posts about statistical concepts that NCES uses as a part of its work.

Many of the important findings in NCES reports are based on data gathered from samples of the U.S. population. These sample surveys provide an estimate of what data would look like if the full population had participated in the survey, but at a great savings in both time and costs.  However, because the entire population is not included, there is always some degree of uncertainty associated with an estimate from a sample survey. For those using the data, knowing the size of this uncertainty is important both in terms of evaluating the reliability of an estimate as well as in statistical testing to determine whether two estimates are significantly different from one another.

NCES reports standard errors for all data from sample surveys. In addition to providing these values to the public, NCES uses them for statistical testing purposes. Within annual reports such as the Condition of Education, Indicators of School Crime and Safety, and Trends in High School Drop Out and Completion Rates in the United States, NCES uses statistical testing to determine whether estimates for certain groups are statistically significantly different from one another. Specific language is tied to the results of these tests. For example, in comparing male and female employment rates in the Condition of Education, the indicator states that the overall employment rate for young males 20 to 24 years old was higher than the rate for young females 20 to 24 years old (72 vs. 66 percent) in 2014. Use of the term “higher” indicates that statistical testing was performed to compare these two groups and the results were statistically significant.

If differences between groups are not statistically significant, NCES uses the phrases “no measurable differences” or “no statistically significant differences at the .05 level”. This is because we do not know for certain that differences do not exist at the population level, just that our statistical tests of the available data were unable to detect differences. This could be because there is in fact no difference, but it could also be due to other reasons, such as a small sample size or large standard errors for a particular group. Heterogeneity, or large amounts of variability, within a sample can also contribute to larger standard errors.

Some of the populations of interest to education stakeholders are quite small, for example, Pacific Islander or American Indian/Alaska Native students. As a consequence, these groups are typically represented by relatively small samples, and their estimates are often less precise than those of larger groups. These less precise estimates can often be reflected in larger standard errors for these groups. For example, in the table above the standard error for White students who reported having been in 0 physical fights anywhere is 0.70 whereas the standard error is 4.95 for Pacific Islander students and 7.39 for American Indian/Alaska Native students. This means that the uncertainty around the estimates for Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native students is much larger than it is for White students. Because of these larger standard errors, differences between these groups that may seem large may not be statistically significantly different. When this occurs, NCES analysts may state that large apparent differences are not statistically significant. NCES data users can use standard errors to help make valid comparisons using the data that we release to the public.

Another example of how standard errors can impact whether or not sample differences are statistically significant can be seen when comparing NAEP scores changes by state. Between 2013 and 2015, mathematics scores changed by 3 points between for fourth-grade public school students in Mississippi and Louisiana. However, this change was only significant for Mississippi. This is because the standard error for the change in scale scores for Mississippi was 1.2, whereas the standard error for Louisiana was 1.6. The larger standard error, and therefore larger degree of uncertainly around the estimate, factor into the statistical tests that determine whether a difference is statistically significant. This difference in standard errors could reflect the size of the samples in Mississippi and Louisiana, or other factors such as the degree to which the assessed students are representative of the population of their respective states. 

Researchers may also be interested in using standard errors to compute confidence intervals for an estimate. Stay tuned for a future blog where we’ll outline why researchers may want to do this and how it can be accomplished.

By Sarah Grady

NCES collects a lot of data from students, teachers, principals, school districts, and state education agencies, but a few of our data collections directly survey members of the American public using residence as a first point of contact. Why? Some information about education in the U.S. cannot be collected efficiently by starting with schools or other institutions. Instead, contacting people directly at home is the best way to understand certain education-related topics.

The 2012 National Household Education Survey (NHES) included two survey components:

• The Early Childhood Program Participation (ECPP) survey, mailed to parents of children ages birth to age 6 and not yet enrolled in kindergarten
• The Parent and Family Involvement in Education (PFI) survey, mailed to parents of students in kindergarten through grade 12

The ECPP survey provides information about children from the perspective of their parents and includes questions about:

• Factors that influence choices of childcare arrangements 
• Characteristics of childcare providers and cost of care 
• Participation in home activities such as reading, telling stories, and singing songs 

The items on this survey provide a wealth of information about how America’s children are learning and growing at home as well as the characteristics of the children who are in different types of care arrangements, including having multiple care arrangements. 

NCES’s administrative data collections like EDFacts tell us a great deal about the sizes and types of schools in the U.S., while surveys like The National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) and the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) tell us about school policies, school climate, and teacher attitudes and experiences. But NHES is the source for information about students’ and families’ experiences with schooling, irrespective of school affiliation. Parents with students attending all types of schools in the U.S.—public, private, charter schools, schools that were chosen rather than assigned by the school district, even parents who educate their children at home rather than send them to a school—respond to the survey and answer questions about topics such as:

• Involvement in education-related activities 
• Involvement in school activities 
• Satisfaction with the school 
• Parental expectations for children’s education   
• Homeschooling practices 

In 2016, NHES will field the Adult Training and Education Survey (ATES), which will provide data about adults’ educational and work credentials, including professional certifications and licenses. This survey meets an important need for more information about where and how adults acquire the skills they need for work. The ATES will start with a random sample of U.S. adults rather than a sample of postsecondary institutions, which enables NCES to collect information about a broader array of credentials than could be collected by reaching students through postsecondary institutions. In short, NHES data allow us to understand how the American public is experiencing education so that we can better respond to the changing education needs of our people—be they young children, K-12 students, or adults.