Education Statistics Research Paper

The educational statistical system was originally created to provide measurement of administrative capacity, such as the distribution of financial resources, rather than the capacity of individuals, such as what is learned by individuals. In recent years, national policies about education have shifted from providing access to resources to encouraging greater accountability by the school organizations themselves. Thus, the statistical system concentrated more attention between 1965 and 1999 on measures of student achievement and its correlates. The complete system of education statistics includes information about students, teachers, administrators, the general population, and finances.

1. Organization Of National And International Education Statistics

For the United States, the constitutional power and responsibility for providing schooling for children resides in the laws of each state. Local school systems and colleges and universities collect some forms of statistical information about themselves to administer their own programs. Each school system and state education agency or college and university assembles basic facts about itself such as numbers of students enrolled, number of teaching staff, number of graduates, and amount of financial resources available. Since the nineteenth century, the federal government has been given authority to assemble aspects of school system statistics into national summaries at a central agency, such as the Department of Education, to provide for national trends in finance, enrollment, and completions of schooling and for monitoring the administration of programs in education. Standard definitions are assembled by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the US Department of Education to assist local agencies, states, and colleges and universities develop common statistical measures (NCES 1999c).

International organizations that provide central functions for the reporting of educational statistics include the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and UNESCO. International standards were created in the 1970s by UNESCO to enable worldwide assembly of statistics of these basic enrollments, graduates, and financial accounts into a single report (UNESCO 1998). Statistics collected under these procedures were published annually in the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook until 1998 but may be discontinued after that year (UNESCO 1998). The ISCED definitions are used also by the OECD for the collection of educational statistics for its member countries which include Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Turkey, and the United States (OECD 1999). OECD publishes an annual report, Education at a Glance, that provides comparable statistics across countries on demographic, financial resources, school participation, school environment, graduate output, student achievement, and labor market outcomes (OECD 1997).

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provides general oversight of the federal statistical agencies in the US government by evaluating their programs and establishing funding priorities. It also oversees and coordinates the administration’s information and regulatory policies to develop better performance measures and to reduce burdens on the public. Survey instruments of the population proposed by federal agencies are evaluated by the OMB offices to insure that survey questions are not asked of the general public unnecessarily.

2. US Department Of Education

In recognition that local schools and states needed to be able to monitor their own performance in enrollments in schools by comparing themselves with other states, a US Department of Education was originally created in 1867 for the purpose of collecting information on schools and teaching that would help the states establish efficient school systems. The most recent US Department of Education was created in 1979 by the Department of Education Organization Act (93 Stat. 668; 20 USC 3401). The responsibility for education statistics belongs to an agency within the Department of Education: The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The General Education Provision act says, ‘The purpose of the Center shall be to collect, and analyze, and disseminate statistics and other data related to education in the United States and in other nations’ (20 U.S.C. 1221e-1, as amended). The programs of statistical data collection and reporting by NCES are described in their report Programs and Plans (NCES 1999c).

Congress allocates funds to NCES for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, reporting, and training persons to use educational statistics. These funds are then used in nationally competed contracts with companies that carry out survey collection and analysis functions for the government. The quality of the statistics are monitored by a staff of NCES to insure that unbiased collection procedures are followed and reported to all those who would use these statistical services. The agency conducts a few research studies of its own to improve, expand and modernize its techniques of statistical collection and reporting. Oversight of the agency is provided by a board of researchers from university settings and by other governmental agencies such as the Office of Management and Budget, which seeks to assure the public that data collection requests are not too heavily burdensome on the organizations that are required to provide the funds.

3. The Census Bureau

The first statistical information on schooling for the Nation was collected in the Census of 1840. The 1840 census required that ‘the marshals and assistants should collect and return in statistical tables … all such information in relation to mines, agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and schools, as will exhibit a full view of the pursuits, industry, education, and resources of the country’ (Wright 1900). This first report resulted in national statistics from school systems rather than from individuals and it resulted in a number of errors such that in some states more students were reported than children counted in the population. Beginning in 1850 individuals were asked whether they had ‘attended school at any time during the year preceding the census’ (Folger and Nam 1967 p. 2). Censuses during the twentieth century continued to ask individuals whether they were enrolled in school, but did not ask about grade of enrollment until 1940. The censuses since 1940 all contained grade of enrollment by demographic characteristics such as residence, sex, and race.

The census of 1840 also initiated a series of questions for adults on the ability to read and write. The reliability of this item was said to be weak, and to be reported for whites only. Approximately 1 in 5 persons in 1840 answered the census takers that they were illiterate (Folger and Nam 1967). A question on ability to read and write was continued in the censuses until 1930. But, by 1940 illiteracy rates had dropped to about 3 percent and adults were asked how many years of school they had completed (Folger and Nam 1967 p. 131). This question has continued until the census of 2000 which has modifications to expand the categories of persons with more than a high school education. A complete description of the actual census items used in measuring educational levels is contained in 200 Years of U.S. Census Taking (US Bureau of the Census 1989).

The Census Bureau conducts monthly surveys of employment for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and includes items on educational attainment and school enrollment regularly so that analysis of changes in employment patterns, income, marriage, voting, and mobility might be examined for persons of different educational levels. The March Current Population Survey which collects information on income for all respondents contains questions about years of school completed. Statistics on these factors are reported in the annual series of reports on the Current Population Survey and are included in the public use tapes available to researchers. Occasionally, at the request of other agencies, the Census Bureau asks its respondents expanded questions about their education, such as their field of study (US Bureau of the Census 1999). The measure of educational levels was changed to type of degree rather than years of school completed in 1993.

4. National Science Foundation And National Academy Of Sciences

The National Science Foundation monitors the production of scientists and engineers through the collection and analysis of surveys on doctorates and of financial support for basic research by government agencies as well as by private businesses. A summary of these statistical studies are reported every two years in a report titled, Science & Engineering Indicators (National Science Board 2000). NSF also provides survey data to researchers intended to study issues in academic science and engineering resources (such as the production, employment, and funding of scientists) in publicly available databases. Or by accessing the website (http: //www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/stats.htm) some of the statistical data sources can be accessed directly.

The National Academy of Sciences is a nongovernmental organization established by President Lincoln to provide the Federal Government with the best advice of scholars throughout the country. It receives funding from federal agencies to conduct studies on specific issues, including the quality of statistical data collection activities of the government and the interpretation of statistical reports on student achievement and international comparisons. Thus, discussions and reports by the National Academy of Sciences indirectly influence the policies of the government in procedures for their statistical system. Reports of the National Academy are publicly available through their website (http://www.nas.edu).

5. School Participation And Graduation

The number and percentage of the population attending schools of different kinds was a significant indicator of changes in institutional support for education during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when the education system was expanding. In more recent years, a more significant indicator of educational levels is the completion of secondary school, of college, and field of study of graduates. Information about enrollments and graduates has been collected in household surveys, the census of population, and from reports of schools and colleges to the Commissioner of Education Statistics since 1840 and are summarized annually in the Digest of Education Statistics (NCES 1999a). The federal statistical agencies provide aggregate summaries of local, state, and household reports into a national summary.

Such descriptive statistics are of more interest to historian’s analysis of changes in American institutions than to social science analysis of individual differences in progress through the education system. The study of personal choice within a school setting is conducted in a series of studies that follow a sample of students through school with paper and pencil questionnaires. Many such longitudinal studies are carried out by federal agencies in education, labor, and health for the purpose of analyzing consequences of student performance and choices made at an early age on later life chances (West et al. 1998). Many of these studies are conducted by joint participation of researchers and government agencies for the design and support of the analysis of significant issues in education and educational policy. Beginning in the 1990s, most of this information is made available through agency web- sites.

6. Student Achievement

Every classroom in the United States evaluates student performance directly or indirectly. A national system of testing companies measuring student performance has grown since World War II to provide school teachers and administrators with professionally developed assessment instruments to evaluate the performance of whole schools compared with national averages or for individual student scores used for screening for college entry. Because of concerns that student performance as measured by college entrance exams appeared to be declining during the 1960s, but that the national estimates were not reliable, the Federal government created the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) in 1966 as an independent measure of changes in student performance of the country. The National Assessment surveys and reporting of statistics has been supported and managed by NCES and results of the assessments for mathematics, science, reading, writing, and civics can be found in their annual publications. Establishing national standards for education performance and developing a methodology for conducting national assessments was made the responsibility of the National Assessment Governing Board by Congress in 1988. Planning and research to develop international comparisons of student performance was first initiated in 1958 and first conducted among 14 year-old students in mathematics in 1965 (Husen 1967). The countries that participate in these international comparisons formed an informal network of research institutes called the International Organization for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Several international studies of student performance in science, civics, writing, science, and mathematics were conducted between 1970 and 1999 (Medrich and Griffith 1992, OECD 2000). The US government, through the NCES and NSF, has provided support and monitoring of these studies because the results of the studies have received significant national publicity and have been effective in mobilizing local school districts to pay greater attention to student performance levels. The growth of the American form of testing in many other countries can be seen in the large number of countries that participated in the Third International Study of Mathematics and Science in 1995 when 50 countries participated in some aspects of the study and new countries were added to the assessment carried out in 1999. New international studies will be carried out after the year 2000 that use European definitions of the end of secondary schooling and measure student performance on skills and knowledge of mathematics, science, and reading literacy (OECD 2000).

Federal agencies conduct a number of studies that are intended to inform the general public about knowledge and attitudes held by adults. For example, the International Adult Literacy Survey was conducted in member countries of the OECD in 1994 to describe the literacy and numeracy of the adult populations in those countries (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/98053.pdf). A new survey of adults called the ‘Life Skills Survey’ is being planned for the year 2002 that will include national and international comparisons to identify and measure adult skills linked to social and economic success. The survey items in this survey will be based on a framework derived from American theories of intelligence and intends to create paper and pencil tests that would demonstrate the distribution of these skills in the population (NCES). This study and another study conducted for the National Science Foundation seeks to identify the distribution of knowledge and attitudes about science (science literacy) among adults in the United States and other countries (National Science Board 2000). Each of these surveys serves to provide policymakers with information about the level of information held by adults.

Studies and reports about methods for assessing student performance are conducted by the National Academy of Sciences in its Board on Testing and Assessment and the Board on International Comparative Studies in Education. These committee members are selected from academic researchers who have written about student assessment procedures. Their discussions and reports raise questions in their meetings about the statistical quality of the intended and unintended affects of reporting of student assessment by statistical agencies and thus provide helpful guidance to federal policies about data collection.

7. Teachers, Teaching, And Curriculum And Instruction

A complete system of statistics for measuring changes in the US educational system would have to include aspects of the educational processes itself: teaching, curriculum, and instruction (Shavelson et al. 1989). Jeannie Oakes and Neil Carey say,

Curriculum is the what of science and mathematics education. Curriculum in content—the topics, concepts, processes and skills that students learn in science and mathematics classes— but it includes more than that. It includes the depth to which students explore content; the way teachers organize, sequence, and present it; and the textbooks and materials schools use (Shavelson et al. 1989, p. 96).

International studies have helped introduce the methods of measuring the content of education systems. However, the statistical system has yet to put together all of the elements of this system in one place so that the operating events in schools can be compared and contrasted. Surveys are separately conducted about student achievement, teacher characteristics, curriculum, and teaching practices (National Science Board 2000).

Little consensus has been reached among education researchers about the most significant events in schools. Studies are conducted of pedagogy, curriculum content, and home environment (The Coleman Report 1966). The statistical system produces statistical studies that permit the analysis of social characteristics of students and parents as well as some of the classroom. But no single survey itself can summarize all of the elements essential to describing the processes and outcomes of the educational system.

8. School Finance

Differences in community capacity to support school systems results in large differences across the United States in revenues for public elementary and secondary schools. Since the differences may result from either differences in cost of living or in unequal spending, the collection and analysis of statistics on school finance of public elementary and secondary school systems is a major activity for NCES (NCES 1999c). In higher education, the methods that students and families use for payment of their tuition and living expenses while in college are a national policy concern and a subject of intense data collection and analysis (NCES 1999c). Surveys are conducted to determine what the effect of federal policy on the subsidies for tuition is to individuals and institutions.

The connection between educational level of individuals and personal income is a subject of data collection in surveys by the US Census Bureau where individuals are asked to report both their educational levels and income. In only a few instances has personal income been associated with measurement of specific educational experiences, such as field of study in college in Census Bureau surveys.

9. Statistics And The Internet

The results of education statistical studies are being disseminated more rapidly and thoroughly through the Internet than in previous years. All federal and many state education agencies are making available on their Websites statistical tables and analytical reports. Also, the databases themselves can be addressed over the Internet. In some instances, it is possible to request a specific table by electronic mail from a particular survey that generates the specific summaries. These changes in production and distribution of statistical materials have revolutionized the availability of statistics and makes their use much more likely to occur in many reports.

10. Statistics And Public Policy

School systems of all kinds have been undertaking reform of their practices of teaching and instruction for a number of years. Statistical measurement of the outcomes of schooling is important for the public discussion of the purposes and directions of these reforms. For example, the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study which reported that US students compared well with other countries in the 4th grade, less well at the 8th grade, and were much lower than other countries in the 12th grade attracted the attention of the President and many members of Congress. The production of statistical studies have affected deliberations about the importance of legislation regarding the improvement of education in the United States.

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