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Statistical Standards Program

Publication Information

U.S. Department of Education
Miguel Cardona
Secretary

Institute of Education Sciences
Mark Schneider
Director

National Center for Education Statistics
Peggy Carr
Commissioner

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and other nations. It fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report full and complete statistics on the condition of education in the United States; conduct and publish reports and specialized analyses of the meaning and significance of such statistics; assist state and local education agencies in improving their statistical systems; and review and report on education activities in foreign countries.

NCES activities are designed to address high priority education data needs; provide consistent, reliable, complete, and accurate indicators of education status and trends; and report timely, useful, and high quality data to the U.S. Department of Education, the Congress, the states, other education policymakers, practitioners, data users, and the general public.

We strive to make our products available in a variety of formats and in language that is appropriate to a variety of audiences. You, as our customer, are the best judge of our success in communicating information effectively. If you have any comments or suggestions about this or any other NCES product or report, we would like to hear from you. Please direct your comments to:

National Center for Education Statistics
Institute of Education Sciences
U.S. Department of Education
550 12th Street, SW, Room 4055
Washington, DC 20202

The NCES Home Page is: http://nces.ed.gov

Printed April 1996 (NCES publication number: 96860rev)
Reprinted October 1999
Acrobat PDF Version April 2019

Content Contact:
IESData.Security@ed.gov