Note from the Acting Commissioner

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Vol 2, Issue 3, Topic: Note from the Acting Commissioner

By: Gary W. Phillips

As the primary federal agency responsible for providing data on the condition of education in the United States, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducts and reports on numerous data collections and studies. The information generated covers a wide range of topics encompassing all levels of education, from preprimary programs to graduate study and lifetime learning. This information is available at various levels of aggregation, ranging from the national to the institutional, and in a wide variety of formats. In addition to ordering print or CD-ROM versions, users can now access most reports and data sets from the NCES Web Site (http://nces.ed.gov). NCES is constantly striving to improve the quality, timeliness, relevance, and accessibility of education statistics.

NCES Data are Used by Policymakers, Researchers, and Others

Objective, high-quality statistics are crucial for informed decision making about education- whether at the national, state, local, institutional, or family level. Part of the audience for NCES data and publications consists of members of the education research and policy communities. These users include policymakers and researchers at all levels of government, in education organizations and advocacy groups, in a variety of postsecondary institutions and research-oriented organizations. NCES information is also published by the news media and used by parents, teachers, and other members of the general public.

By maintaining the close contacts with users, NCES tries to ensure that it collects and communicates the statistics needed to inform policy decisions and stimulate research. Formal mechanisms for obtaining user input include broadly representative survey review panels and data cooperatives, as well as user satisfaction questionnaires. However, because NCES has the goal of providing unbiased information that can be used by everyone, users do not usually have an opportunity to express their viewpoints in NCES publications. The Education Statistics Quarterly provides a unique forum for various expert users to share their opinions with others who use NCES information.

In Each Quarterly Issue, Users Express Their Opinions in Two Independent Commentaries

Each issue of the Education Statistics Quarterly includes two invited commentaries by respected experts in the education research and policy communities. These independent perspectives on policy and data issues are intended to stimulate ideas and discussion in the field of education statistics. Since publication of the first issue in spring 1999, the Quarterly has offered commentaries about NCES reports on the following featured topics:

Policy commentaries

In each issue, the first of the two invited commentaries typically focuses on important policy implications of an NCES data set. In the fall 1999 issue (volume Im issue 3), for example, Peter Syverson of the Council of Graduate Schools explores the implications of data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B: 1993/1997) indicating the emergence of a new "new majority of working adults involved in graduate...education," which "requires a set of services...quite different from those required for the traditional graduate student." In the current issue of the Quarterly, the first commentary presents the viewpoints of U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley on policy issues related to NCES projections and education statistics.

Data commentaries

The second commentary generally focuses on more data and measurement issues, including strengths and limitations of the data currently available, as well as actual or desirable plans for future surveys or analyses. In the winter 1990 issue (volume I, issue 4), for example, Richard Niemi of the University of Rochester explores a number of issues related to data from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment, including the extent to which these data can and cannot be used to answer several common questions about the past and present civics performance and abilities of students in the United States. In the current issue of the Quarterly, Lavan Dukes and Edward Croft of the Florida Department of Education discuss why projections of education statistics are important and how states contribute to and benefit from good projections data.

Future issues of the Quarterly will continue to provide independent commentaries on education statistics topics of enduring importance. If you have ideas for interesting topics or commentators, we would like to hear about them. In addition, we would like to hear what you think about the general utility of this type of commentary. Please direct your comments to the Quarterly Editorial Board at the following address:

Education Statistics Quarterly
National Center for Education Statistics
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Washington, DC 20006