• Other Publications
  • The Nation's Report Card: Fourth-Grade Reading Highlights 2000
  • Highlights of U.S. Results From the International IEA Civic Education Study (CivEd)
  • Public School Finance Programs of the United States and Canada: 1998-99
  • The Condition of Education: 2000 in Brief
• Funding Opportunities
  • The AERA Grants Program
  • The NAEP Secondary Analysis Grant Program

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” is authorized by Congress, administered by NCES, and overseen by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). In 2000, NAEP administered a reading assessment to a nationally representative sample of fourth-grade students. The results of the assessment provide a snapshot of American fourth-graders’ achievement in reading.

This 12-page publication uses a tabloid format to present highlights from the 2000 reading assessment. It describes the assessment content, presents major findings, and provides information about students’ school and home experiences related to literacy. This publication also includes sample test questions and examples of student responses.

In 1999, the United States participated with 27 other countries in the Civic Education Study (CivEd), conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The results of this international assessment provide information about the civic knowledge and skills of 14-year-old students and their attitudes toward democracy and citizenship.

In the United States, CivEd was sponsored by NCES and administered to a nationally representative sample of 2,811 ninth-graders across 124 public and private schools. This 10-page brochure presents highlights of the U.S. results, including the performance of U.S. students relative to their counterparts in other countries, the school and classroom context of civic education in the United States, attitudes of U.S. students toward various civic issues, and characteristics of U.S. students that relate to their civic knowledge and attitudes.

The seventh in a series of reports describing public school finance programs, the current report was undertaken by NCES in partnership with the American Education Finance Association and the National Education Association. Each chapter consists of a paper that describes the system used in an individual U.S. state or Canadian province or territory to finance local school districts in the 1998–99 school year. The views expressed are those of the authors, and no official support by the U.S. Department of Education is intended or should be inferred.

The information in this report is designed to be useful to the education finance research community and fiscal policy analysts. Because of the report’s length—almost 1,300 pages—it is available only on the NCES Web Site and on a CD-ROM. In addition to downloading PDF files, users can search the report for specific information. This search capability should make this edition of the report even more accessible and user-friendly than previous editions.

Each year, NCES publishes The Condition of Education, a congressionally mandated report that focuses on indicators of the status and progress of education in the United States. The 2000 edition contains 67 indicators, grouped into sections on participation in education, learner outcomes, student effort and academic progress, quality of elementary and secondary educational environments, the context of postsecondary education, and societal support for learning.

The Condition of Education 2000 in Brief presents highlights from the full report in a small, easy-to-use format. It contains abbreviated versions of 30 indicators, including graphs as well as descriptive text.

Jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NCES, and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), 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 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.