- Surveys & Programs
- Data & Tools
- Fast Facts
- News & Events
- Publications & Products
- About Us
What is SCED?
The School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) is a voluntary, common classification system for prior-to-secondary and secondary school courses. This classification system was developed to meet the need for common, widely understood, standardized course codes that can be used to compare course information, maintain data about students' coursework, and efficiently exchange course-taking records.
SCED is based on a 5-digit Course Code that provides a basic structure for classifying course content. Additional SCED elements and attributes provide descriptive information about each course.
The full 12-character SCED Identifier provides more information, including the course level, the amount of available Carnegie Unit credit (or the span of grades for prior-to-secondary courses) and the placement of the course if it is part of a sequence.
The SCED Finder will help you select all of these elements to prepare 12-character SCED identifiers for courses.
The SCED was developed by the National Forum on Education Statistics. It is updated and maintained by a working group of state and local education agency representatives who receive suggestions and assistance from a wide network of subject matter experts at the national, state, and local levels. As a result, SCED is designed to be flexible enough that education agencies can modify it to meet their needs.
How it Works:
