Topical Studies

Look at key topics in more detailed reports and tabulations. Access recent topical reports like the ones below, or explore our topical resources, including historically black colleges and universities, historical tables and figures, and state education practices.

A Retrospective Look at U.S. Education Statistics provides an overview of the history and use of federal education statistics that have been collected and reported since 1868. The “statistical profiles” in this report offer an in-depth look at what each statistic measures, how it has been collected over the years, and what the data reveal about the statistic.

Education in the Time of COVID synthesizes highlights from a variety of data sources to provide a composite high-level view of the American education landscape since the onset of the pandemic.

The Education Across America: Cities, Suburbs, Towns, and Rural Areas website is designed for those who are interested in the condition of education in different geographic locales in the United States (i.e., cities, suburbs, towns, and rural areas). This website includes tabulations produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) that cover all locales, with indicators and summary reports that focus on specific locales forthcoming in future releases. Rural areas will be the first locale highlighted.