Foreword

The 2006 edition of the Digest of Education Statistics is the 42nd in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The Digest has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977–78, 1983–84, and 1985–86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest includes a selection of data from many sources, both government and private, and draws especially on the results of surveys and activities carried out by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). To qualify for inclusion in the Digest, material must be nationwide in scope and of current interest and value. The publication contains information on a variety of subjects in the field of education statistics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons. Supplemental information on population trends, attitudes on education, education characteristics of the labor force, government finances, and economic trends provides background for evaluating education data. Although the Digest contains important information on federal education funding, more detailed information on federal activities is available from federal education program offices.

The Digest contains seven chapters: All Levels of Education, Elementary and Secondary Education, Postsecondary Education, Federal Programs for Education and Related Activities, Outcomes of Education, International Comparisons of Education, and Libraries and Educational Technology. Preceding these chapters is an Introduction that provides a brief overview of current trends in American education, which supplements the tabular materials in chapters 1 through 7. The Digest concludes with an appendix that is divided into several sections. The Guide to Sources provides a brief synopsis of the surveys used to generate the tabulations for the Digest. Also, a Definitions section is included to help readers understand terms used in the Digest.

In addition to updating many of the statistics that have appeared in previous years, this edition contains new material, including

• average base salary for full-time public elementary and secondary school teachers with a bachelor's degree as their highest degree, by years of full-time teaching experience and state (table 73);
• average base salary for full-time public elementary and secondary school teachers with a master's degree as their highest degree, by years of full-time teaching experience and state (table 74);
• averaged freshman graduation rates for public secondary schools, by state (table 101);
• average reading scale scores of 4th- and 8th-graders, by selected student and parent characteristics and school type (table 116);
• average mathematics scale scores of 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-graders, by selected student and parent characteristics and school type (table 127);
• average science scale scores and achievement-level results of 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-graders, by selected student characteristics and percentile (table 128);
• number and percentage of students expelled and suspended from public elementary and secondary schools, by sex, race/ethnicity, and state (tables 148 and 149);
• bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by field of study (table 257); and
• current postsecondary education and employment status, wages earned, and living arrangements of special education students out of secondary school up to 4 years, by type of disability (table 383).

Updates to tables from the next Digest of Education Statistics will appear on the NCES website prior to printing the full edition. The Digest can be accessed from here.

Val Plisko
Associate Commissioner
Early Childhood, International, and Crosscutting Studies Division

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