• Historical Development of the Digest
• Characteristics and Uses of the Digest
• Conclusion

Most of the statistical information collected by the U.S. Office of Education¹ from 1918 to 1958 was published in the Biennial Survey of Education in the United States. The Biennial Survey was thus a valuable resource for researchers, planners, and others interested in the field of education statistics. With the demise of the Biennial Survey following the publication of the 1958 edition, there was no longer a document that summarized the data produced by the Division of Educational Statistics.² By 1962, the need for such a document was apparent to a number of thoughtful people in the Office of Education.

At a meeting in his office in July 1962, Ralph C.M. Flynt provided the impetus that led to the development of the first Digest of Education Statistics.³ Mr. Flynt was the Associate Commissioner for Educational Research and Development, a man of long tenure and high standing in the Office of Education. He directed us to prepare during the next 6 weeks a “handbook” of statistics that would be useful for research, legislative, and general information purposes. He envisioned a publication of some dignity and stature, one that would reflect credit upon the Office as well as provide a useful source of information. One of his suggestions was that the handbook should have a maroon cover. (In this respect he was destined to be disappointed in the outcome: the first Digest came back from the printer with a bright yellow cover.)

Work on the new handbook began almost immediately in order to meet Mr. Flynt’s timetable. The responsibility was assigned to the Reference, Estimates, and Projections Section, where the project benefited greatly from the able direction of the section chief, Kenneth A. Simon. Dr. Simon provided the excellent leadership needed to keep the work moving smoothly, and it was he who chose the name for the new publication. Staff members assigned to the Digest were relieved of most of their other responsibilities during the developmental phase of the project. The manuscript was completed on schedule: it contained 82 tables, six figures, and a concise introduction to each of its four chapters. The camera-ready copy for the first Digest was prepared “in house,” and the report was published by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in October 1962.

The new Digest summarized the major items that had been collected by the Office of Education through the years. In one convenient source it provided data on the number of schools, students, staff, and graduates, as well as on the revenues and expenditures of educational institutions. The demand for the new publication was so great that the initial supply was soon exhausted. It was reprinted in December 1962 and offered for sale at $1.00 a copy by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). (GPO has continued to stock the publication through the years. It has frequently appeared on the GPO list of bestsellers, and a substantial number of copies continue to be sold, at a price of $50.00 a copy for the 2001 edition.)

The Digest expanded during the 1960s and 1970s, but at a relatively modest pace. A conscious effort was made to reach out and bring in materials from other agencies that would add to the usefulness of the publication. The U.S. Census Bureau, with its data on the educational attainment of the population, the social and economic characteristics of students, and the education expenditures of state and local governments, was a prime source for additional statistics that found their way into the Digest. Among the other organizations that provided data for the 1980 edition were the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the College Entrance Examination Board, the Institute of International Education, the National Education Association, the National Catholic Educational Association, and the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, sponsored by the American Council on Education and administered by the Graduate School of Education at the University of California at Los Angeles.

With its six chapters, 200 tables, and 14 figures, the 1980 Digest was still less than half the size of recent editions. Major expansion of the Digest since the late 1980s has turned a good publication into a great one. While it still contains the standard items that users of education statistics continue to find very useful, a great deal of new material has significantly enhanced its value. The Digest now accomplishes much more than merely summarizing the data from other publications. It is also the primary source for a substantial amount of information not found elsewhere. For example, it provides detailed information for each state and a considerable amount of data for individual colleges and universities and for large school districts. The 2001 edition of the Digest, which made its appearance on the World Wide Web on March 1, 2002, contains seven chapters, 430 tables, and 33 figures. It also devotes considerable attention to data sources and definitions of terms, and it provides caveats that guide users in interpreting the data.

Recent editions of the Digest reflect some of the major concerns of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the 21st century. NCES is interested in how students progress through the education system, how many drop out along the way, and how many stay in school and graduate from high school and college. One way NCES measures student persistence is through longitudinal surveys that track representative samples of students through high school and postsecondary education. NCES is also increasingly concerned with qualitative as well as quantitative analyses of American education. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides data over time on how well students in elementary and secondary schools are doing in such subjects as reading, writing, mathematics, and science. International tests of reading, mathematics, and science enable one to compare American students with young people in countries around the world. The Digest serves as a readily accessible resource for these kinds of data.

The users of the statistics in the Digest are a diverse group. Members of Congress and their staffs use the data to plan federal education programs and to serve the needs of their constituents. Federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the National Science Foundation, look for information on the supply of trained manpower coming out of schools and colleges, and also for data on the courses of study being taught there. Education officials at the state and local levels seek background information to deal with the problems of staffing and financing public schools. Education organizations, such as the American Council on Education, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association, use the data for planning and research. The news media, including the national television networks, the national news magazines, and some of the nation’s leading daily newspapers, use the statistics to inform the public about such matters as trends in NAEP test scores, dropout rates, expenditures per pupil in public schools, and costs of attending college. Business organizations use trend data on enrollments and expenditures to forecast the demand for their products. Members of the general public use the data to become more informed citizens and to make intelligent decisions concerning the education issues of the day.

What accounts for the success of the Digest, and why is it so widely used today? Part of the answer, no doubt, is the fact that it reflects a prodigious amount of high-quality work. Putting together the Digest is an awesome responsibility, and when one reviews the manuscript with its hundreds of pages each year, one sometimes wonders how this responsibility is so capably met. Each edition seems to expand and improve upon the one that went before it. Certainly the increased use of computers helps to expedite the process, but much more than computer literacy is involved. For a number of years, the Digest was produced in the old Statistical Information Branch, headed by a peerless and dynamic leader, Dr. Forrest W. Harrison. The Statistical Information Branch had the dual responsibilities of preparing the Digest (along with two other major publications⁴) and disseminating data to the many users of education statistics. Thus, staff working on the Digest were exposed to the kinds of questions that real people ask about American education. The Digest continues to respond admirably to such questions by emphasizing the kinds of data that users really need.

Among the qualities that enhance the usefulness of the Digest are clarity, comparability, and consistency. Recognizing that the Digest is essentially a reference work and that almost no one is going to sit down and read it from cover to cover, the authors construct each table with the user in mind. Each table conveys its message clearly and is designed to stand alone. Referring to the text that introduces each chapter or to other tables or figures may provide additional information, but is not a requisite for understanding a particular table. Comparability from one year to the next is a hallmark of the Digest, which provides the same kinds of data year after year to meet the needs of those users who are looking at trends in American education. When there is an unavoidable break in a series, such as occurred when alterations were made in the universe of higher education institutions, the Digest highlights and explains the change that has occurred. Consistency within each annual report is achieved by clearly delineating the sources of data and by specifying the reasons why the statistics in one table may differ from those in another. For example, the statistics from the NCES Common Core of Data and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey are not likely to be identical, and it is important for the user to know the source from which the data in a particular table came.

NCES and its predecessors have been collecting statistics on American education since 1870. From 1870 to 1917, the major published source for these data was the Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of Education. From 1918 to 1958, as previously mentioned, it was the Biennial Survey of Education in the United States. From 1962 to the present, the Digest of Education Statistics has served a similar function. It will be observed that the Annual Reports covered 47 years, and the Biennial Surveys were published for 40 years. The Digest of Education Statistics is about to celebrate its 40th birthday, and it has a good chance of outlasting its predecessors. I join many other users of education statistics in hoping that it will be around for many years to come.