• Data File: Local Education Agency (School District) and School Universe Survey Longitudinal Data Files: 1986–1998 (13-year)
• Data File: Common Core of Data Local Education Agency Dropout and Completion Data: School Year 2000–01
• CD-ROM: Common Core of Data (CCD) School Years 1996–97 Through 2000–01
• CD-ROM: Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study Data Analysis System (DAS) B&B:2000/01
• National Household Education Surveys Program of 2001: Data Files and Electronic Codebook

• NAEP Mathematics 2003 State Snapshot Reports
• The Nation's Report Card: Trial Urban District Mathematics 2003 Snapshot Reports
• NAEP Reading 2003 State Snapshot Reports
• The Nation's Report Card: Trial Urban District Reading 2003 Snapshot Reports
• Financial Accounting for Local and State School Systems: 2003 Edition
• Programs and Plans of the National Center for Education Statistics, 2003 Edition
• NCES Nonfiscal Data Handbook for Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education

• Training
• The AERA Grants Program
• The NAEP Secondary Analysis Grant Program
• AIR Grants Program
• NPEC/AIR Focused Grants

These Common Core of Data (CCD) files link local schools and school districts over time and provide imputed values for data that were not originally reported by states. These files include enrollment,
free/reduced-price lunch eligibility, and high school completion data, by race and gender. While the statistical techniques used to track agencies and schools over time and extensively impute missing data produce overall reliability, these longitudinal files are not intended to give official state or national totals for any variable included in the CCD. The regular (not longitudinal) public education agency and school universe files should be used when seeking information about individual education agencies, schools, or a state's officially reported data.

The data can be downloaded from the NCES Electronic Catalog in ASCII (with file layouts and corresponding documentation) and SAS formats.

This file provides data on dropout and completion counts and rates and enrollment counts for public elementary and secondary agencies (school districts) for the 2000–01 school year. The database provides the following information for each education agency: NCES agency ID code; name, address, and telephone number; number of dropouts by grade, race, and sex; dropout rate by grade, race, and sex; enrollment base used in dropout rate; number of high school completers by race and sex; 4-year high school completion rate by race and sex; and base used in 4-year high school completion rate. Data were provided by state education agencies (SEAs) from their administrative records.

The data can be downloaded from the NCES Electronic Catalog either in SAS files or in flat files that can be used with other statistical processing programs, such as SPSS. Documentation is provided in separate files.

The Common Core of Data (CCD) is the primary NCES database on elementary and secondary public education in the United States. CCD is a comprehensive, annual, national statistical database of all elementary and secondary schools and school districts, containing data that are comparable across all states. The 50 states and the District of Columbia, Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, Department of Defense Dependents schools, and outlying areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) schools are included in the collection.

This CD-ROM is a comprehensive source of information about all public elementary and secondary schools in the United States. It presents data from the CCD at the state, local education agency, and school levels. This CD-ROM includes information about the numbers of students, teachers, other education staff, school characteristics, school and school district locale (e.g., rural, suburban, big city), and revenues and expenditures for education from the CCD, as well as community demographics drawn from the 1990 census. It is designed for easy use, and allows the user to create a number of tables.

Featured on this CD-ROM are data from the 2000/01 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:2000/01). The B&B:2000/01 study collects additional data for 1999–2000 bachelor's degree recipients in 2001, providing a wealth of data on their undergraduate experiences as well as postbaccalaureate enrollment and employment experiences.

This DAS CD-ROM contains the B&B:2000/01 DAS, as well as all other postsecondary longitudinal DASs as of August 2003. These data sets are for public use and do not allow users direct access to the data, but do allow them to design and run basic analyses specific to their needs.

The National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) comprised three surveys in 2001—the Adult Education and Lifelong Learning Survey (AELL-NHES:2001), the Before- and After-School Programs and Activities Survey (ASPA-NHES:2001), and the Early Childhood Program Participation Survey (ECPP-NHES:2001).

The data, data documentation, and software to help users search through and convert the data into SPSS, SAS, or STATA files are available on CD-ROM. The data files and syntax needed to set up the data files in SPSS, SAS, or STATA can be downloaded directly from the NCES Electronic Catalog. The four-volume documentation for the data sets is also available from the NCES Electronic Catalog. Volume I provides information common to all three of the NHES:2001 surveys and should be referenced before using any of the data files. Volume II provides information specific to ECPP-NHES:2001, volume III provides information specific to ASPA-NHES:2001, and volume IV provides information specific to AELL-NHES:2001.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as "The Nation's Report Card," has recently released a set of state snapshot reports and a companion report, The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics Highlights 2003, containing the main results of the NAEP 2003 mathematics assessment. A one-page snapshot report is available for each state and other jurisdiction that participated in the NAEP 2003 mathematics assessment. The snapshot reports present brief text describing overall student results, bar charts showing NAEP achievement levels for each year in which the state participated, and tables displaying results by gender, race/ethnicity, and eligibility for free/reduced-price lunch. Trends in scale scores at selected percentiles are also displayed. The companion report provides more extensive information about the results of the 2003 and earlier comparable mathematics assessments.

National Center for Education Statistics

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as "The Nation's Report Card," has released one-page reports on mathematics achievement at grades 4 and 8 for the following urban school districts: Atlanta City, Boston School District, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, City of Chicago School District 299, Cleveland Municipal School District, Houston Independent School District, Los Angeles Unified, New York City Public Schools, and San Diego City Unified. Each report consists of a printable page in PDF format containing overall results for each district, student percentages at NAEP achievement levels, performance of NAEP reporting groups in each district, average mathematics score gaps between selected groups, and scale scores at selected percentiles.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as "The Nation's Report Card," has released a set of state snapshot reports and a companion report, The Nation's Report Card: Reading Highlights 2003, containing the main results of the NAEP 2003 reading assessment. A one-page snapshot report is available for each state and other jurisdiction that participated in the NAEP 2003 reading assessment. The snapshot reports present brief text describing overall student results, bar charts showing NAEP achievement levels for each year in which the state participated, and tables displaying results by gender, race/ethnicity, and eligibility for free/reduced-price lunch. Trends in scale scores at selected percentiles are also displayed. The companion report provides more extensive information about the results of the 2003 and earlier comparable reading assessments.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as "The Nation's Report Card," has released one-page reports on reading achievement at grades 4 and 8 for the following urban school districts: Atlanta City, Boston School District, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, City of Chicago School District 299, Cleveland Municipal School District, Houston Independent School District, Los Angeles Unified, New York City Public Schools, and San Diego City Unified. Each report consists of a printable page in PDF format containing overall results for each district, student percentages at NAEP achievement levels, performance of NAEP reporting groups in each district, average score gaps between selected groups, and scale scores at selected percentiles.

This NCES handbook has been designed as the national standard for state departments of education to use in reporting financial data and for school districts to use in preparing their comprehensive annual financial reports (CAFRs) that are submitted to their respective state departments of education. The purpose of the handbook is to ensure that education fiscal data are reported in a comprehensive manner. This 2003 edition contains guidance conforming to Governmental Accounting Standards Board statements, up to statement 39. 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 2003 revision of Financial Accounting for Local and State School Systems reflects the many changes that have taken place since its initial publication in 1980 and modest update in 1990. It is anticipated that this handbook will receive periodic updates to ensure that contemporary issues are regularly incorporated into
the accounting guidance for schools. The online version of this handbook will be updated as revisions are approved.

This report summarizes current NCES statistical programs, major publications, and plans for future work. It includes descriptions, timelines, and plans for all NCES data collections, such as the Common Core of Data, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, National Assessment of Educational Progress, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, and National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. Also included are descriptions of NCES centerwide programs and services, such as statistical standards, training, technology, and customer service.

The NCES Nonfiscal Data Handbook was developed to provide guidance concerning the consistent maintenance of student, staff, and education institution information. This handbook defines data elements and definitions describing students, staff, schools, local education agencies (LEAs), intermediate educational units (IEUs), and state education agencies (SEAs) in early childhood, elementary, and secondary education. It is intended to serve as a reference for public and private education agencies, schools, early childhood centers, other educational institutions, and researchers involved in the collection of education data. This handbook contains no data and is updated annually.

This summer, NCES is offering a series of advanced-studies seminars on the analysis of the following NCES databases:

• Education finance data from the Common Core of Data (CCD) (May 24–26)
• National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 Eighth-Graders (NELS:88) and Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 Tenth-Graders (ELS:2002) (May 26–28)
• Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) (June 28–30)
• Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K) (July 6–9)
• National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) (July 14–16)
• National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) (July 20–23)
• Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) (August 4–6)

These seminars are designed for researchers in academic communities and other research communities (e.g., federal agencies, research organizations, and think tanks that are interested in quantitative studies). Each multi-day seminar is held in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area and covers several topics, including the nature and content of the database, computer software for accessing and analyzing the data, and funding opportunities. Seminar activities include lectures, illustrations, demonstrations, and hands-on practice. At the end of each seminar, participants are expected to make a brief presentation describing their analyses and findings.

Jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NCES, and the Institute of Education Sciences, this training and research program is administered by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). The program has four major elements: a research grants program, a dissertation grants program, a fellows program, and a training institute. The program is intended to enhance the capability of the U.S. research community to use large-scale data sets, specifically those of the NSF and NCES, to conduct studies that are relevant to educational policy and practice, and to strengthen communications between the educational research community and government staff.

Applications for this program may be submitted at any time. The application review board meets three times per year. The following are examples of grants recently awarded under the program:

Research Grants

• Lynn Addington, American University—Educational Repercussions for Victims of Bullying and School Crime: A Longitudinal Analysis of the School Crime Supplements
  
• Marigee Bacolod, University of California, Irvine—Equalizing Educational Opportunities: Who Teaches and Where They Choose to Teach
  
• William Carbonaro, University of Notre Dame—Racial/Ethnic Differences in College Graduation: The Lasting Effects of Students' High School Experiences
  
• Thomas Dee, Swarthmore College—A Teacher Like Me: Does Race, Ethnicity or Gender Matter?
  
• David Figlio, University of Florida—Inside the "Black Box": School Responses to Accountability Pressure
  
• Janet Holt, Northern Illinois University—Racial and Gender Gaps in Math and Science Educational and Occupational Persistence: Exploring Critical Transitions Using Growth Mixture Modeling
  
• Kim Lloyd, Washington State University—Affirmative Action and the Texas Top 10% Policy: Minority Representation and Success in Selective Public and Private Universities Under Alternative Policy Regimes
  
• John Logan, University at Albany, SUNY—Brown v. Board of Education at 50: Desegregation Orders and Public School Integration
  
• Sean Reardon, Pennsylvania State University—Understanding the Growth of Achievement Inequality in the Early Years of Schooling
  

Dissertation Grants

• Sharon Christ, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill—Discipline Policy and Tracking Policy Effects on the Political Socialization of Students: How Middle and High Schools Regulate and Organize Students for Active Democratic Citizenship
  
• Gayle Christensen, Stanford University—What Matters for Immigrant Achievement Cross-Nationally? A Structural Equation Model Comparing Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Student Achievement
  
• Allison Gruner, Harvard University—Inclusion: What is the Impact on Students Without Disabilities?
  
• Michal Kurlaender, Harvard University—Reinforcing Disadvantage or Increasing Opportunity? Alternative Routes to Educational Attainment
  
• Megan Kurlychek, Pennsylvania State University—The Multilevel Context of School Crime: Assessing the Relative Contributions of Student, School and Community Characteristics
  
• Yan Lee, University of California, Los Angeles—Are There Competitive Effects of School Choice on Traditional Public Schools? The Case of Michigan Charter Schools
  
• Kimberly Lowry, University of Central Florida—The Paths to Becoming a Mathematics Teacher
  
• John Luczak, Stanford University—Who Will Teach in the 21st Century? Beginning Teacher Training Routes and Attrition Rates
  

The NAEP Secondary Analysis Grant Program was developed to encourage education researchers to conduct secondary analysis studies using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the NAEP High School Transcript Studies. This program is open to all public or private organizations and consortia of organizations. The program is typically announced annually, in the late fall, in the Federal Register . Grants awarded under this program run from 12 to 18 months and awards range from $15,000 to $100,000. The following grants were awarded for fiscal year 2003:

• Dr. Duncan Chaplin, Urban Institute—Estimating Relationships in NAEP
  
• Linda Cook, Educational Testing Service—Are the Inclusion Policies and Practices for State Assessment Systems and NAEP State Assessments Aligned?
  
• Dr. Louis DiBello, Educational Testing Service—Skill Profiles for Groups of Students at a Given NAEP Scale Level—Development and Demonstration
  
• David Grissmer, RAND—Analysis of Central City NAEP
  
• Andrew Houtenville, Cornell University—Monitoring Students With Disabilities Using NAEP Data
  
• Brian A. Jacob, Harvard College—Test-Based Accountability and Student Achievement: An Investigation of Differential Performance Trends on NAEP and State Assessments
  
• Akihito Kamata, Florida State University—Differential Item Functioning Analyses for Students With Test Accommodations on NAEP Test Items
  
• Donald J. Leu, University of Connecticut—The Impact of Computer Access and Use on Student Reading Achievement
  
• Christopher Swanson, Urban Institute—Measuring Classroom Instruction Using NAEP
  

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR), with support from NCES and the National Science Foundation (NSF), has developed a grants program titled Improving Institutional Research in Postsecondary Educational Institutions. The goals of this program are to provide professional development opportunities to doctoral students, institutional researchers, educators, and administrators, and to foster the use of federal databases for institutional research in postsecondary education. The program has the following four major components:

• dissertation research fellowships for doctoral students;
  
• research grants for institutional researchers and faculty;
  
• a Summer Data Policy Institute in the Washington, DC, area to study the national databases of NSF and NCES; and
  
• a senior fellowship program.
  

Calls for proposals go out in spring, and proposals are normally accepted through June 30 for work starting no later than September 1 of each year. The following are examples of grants awarded for fiscal year 2003.

• Lamont A. Flowers, University of Florida—Labor Market Outcomes of African American College Graduates
  
• Heidi Grunwald, University of Michigan—Factors Affecting Faculty Use of Instructional Technology in Traditional Classrooms: A Hierarchical Linear Model Approach
  
• Aruna Lakshmanan, Louisiana State University—A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Educational Aspirations and Their Relation to College Choice Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling and Group-Based Mixture Modeling
  
• Sang Min Lee, University of Florida—Identifying Longitudinal Causal Model for Postsecondary Educational Attainment for Low Socioeconomic Status Students
  
• Susan Carol Losh, Florida State University—It's in the Details: Dimensions of Education, Gender, and Relations Among Basic Science Knowledge, Attitudes, Understanding Scientific Inquiry, and Pseudoscience Support in the American General Public
  
• Stephen R. Porter, Wesleyan University—Educating Future Scientists: Understanding the Impact of Baccalaureate Institutions on the Decision to Pursue Graduate Studies in Science and Engineering
  
• Jim S. Settle, University of Missouri-St. Louis—The Effect of Socioeconomic Status on Year- to-Year Persistence of First-Generation and Continuing-Generation College Students at Two-Year and Four-Year Institutions
  
• Leslie Stratton, Virginia Commonwealth University—The Sensitivity of Attrition Models to the Timing and Duration of Withdrawal: Analysis Using Beginning Postsecondary Longitudinal Data from 1990–1994
  

The National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC) and the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) are pleased to announce the inaugural year of a focused grant program that will fund research and studies to increase understanding and knowledge in a specific issue area that has been identified by the NPEC Executive Committee as critically important to the postsecondary education community. This year the focus is on student success. Proposals may suggest undertaking a variety of activities that focus on student success. Proposals are due January 15 of each year and the grant award period is June 1, 2004, through May 31, 2005. In 2004, NPEC and AIR plan to make 5 to 10 one-year grant awards ranging up to $15,000 for dissertation work and up to $30,000 for other activities. Grant recipients should plan on making a presentation of their work at NPEC's national conference in 2006. Travel to the conference will be paid by NPEC.