It is a much-lamented fact that research with the potential to inform or influence education policy instead remains policy inert. There are many reasons for this frustrating state of affairs, including a lack of strategic thinking on the part of researchers on how to successfully accomplish outreach--as opposed to communication with peers…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) program periodically conducts national-level assessments of student achievement in geography. In July 2019, the National Assessment Governing Board announced a decision to eliminate geography, economics, arts, and foreign language assessments from the NAEP testing schedule through 2029. In…

On September 22, 2017, the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) and the National Center for Education Research (NCER) at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) convened a group of experts in policy, practice, and research related to Career and Technical Education (CTE). The goal of the meeting was to seek input from…

As the United States continues to grow and the composition of its population shifts, expanding opportunity and reducing barriers to education must be a national priority. An essential first step toward greater educational equality is a deeper understanding of the fundamental changes in the demographic composition of the nation. Consider, for…

The United States and much of the world is struggling with what "education" and being "educated" mean. Daily media are replete with debates on issues ranging from gender and class rights to the ideological and practical purpose of education. Prominent among these debates are discussions about whether education should be geared…

Forty years ago, the National Center for Education Statistics initiated the national longitudinal studies program in response to congressional concern for policy-relevant information on school-to-work transitions. This program has grown substantially, and not unexpectedly, questions have arisen about its usefulness and present operation. This…

Public school critics often point to rising expenditures and relatively flat test scores to justify their school reform agendas. The claims are flawed because their analyses fail to account for the difference in data types between dollars (ratio) and test scores (interval). A cost-benefit analysis using dollars as a common metric for both costs…

The Coleman report, "Equality of Educational Opportunity," is the fountainhead for those committed to evidence-based education policy. Remarkably, this 737-page tome, prepared 50 years ago by seven authors under the leadership of James S. Coleman, still gets a steady 600 Google Scholar citations per year. But since its publication, views…

This report describes how five states -- Alabama, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee and Texas -- made exceptional progress in student achievement during the first decade of the 21st century. State leaders in these states all realized early in the decade that they had a problem they wanted to address. They established a "plan" at the state…

The field of education in the United States is in a period of unprecedented change. Educators in all disciplines are challenged to understand and respond to the waves of reform sweeping over the national education landscape. Linking these reforms to meaningful outcomes that will produce more rigorous and effective measures of quality and…

It is difficult to make a clear impact statement about charter schools. Much of the available research is equivocal, and many important questions related to the impact of charter schools remain unanswered. Researchers have primarily examined four general topics with respect to the impact of charter schools; (1) Do charter schools raise student…

The educational achievement and attainment of young people in the United States has been a long-standing issue of concern. While analyses of long-term trend data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that students in the United States have made gains in reading and mathematics over the past few decades, a sizeable…

Impoverished populations and schools in rural areas face special challenges that are different from other settings. Among these are the distances from social services, the sparse availability of assistance programs, and the shortage of resources to support educational programs and student learning. Rural schools, do, however, have assets that can…

Describes the functions and responsibilities of the Education Commission of the States as well as their educational contributions. (RK) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Program Description.

The "Evaluation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress: Study Reports" describes the special studies that comprised the design of the evaluation. In the Final Report, the authors presented a practical discussion of the evaluation studies to its primary, intended audience, namely policymakers. On this accompanying CD, readers…