The U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) administers the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), which is a mandatory survey of all public schools and school districts in the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. To support school districts' timely submission of accurate data, OCR takes steps…

This case study focuses on a multidecade time-series study of changes in public acceptance of evolution in the United States. Change over time is often a central issue in social science research. There are two kinds of change over time. Time-series studies address change in populations or groups over time. Longitudinal studies address changes in…

States serve as the central authority in higher education oversight, playing a critical role in consumer protection and quality assurance within the regulatory triad and as an independent regulatory entity. However, there is a notable gap in understanding the components of renewal processes, how agencies implement them in practice, and the…

Student outcome data is essential for decision-making in higher education, informing choices at the student, institutional, and state levels. Within state authorization--the gatekeeping process for institutional entry, continued operation, and closure--these data support oversight, accountability, and consumer transparency. This brief summarizes…

This documentation is for the Provisional File Version 1a of the School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) for school year (SY) 2021-22, fiscal year 2022 (FY 22) conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It contains a brief description of the data collection in conjunction with information required to understand and access the…

State regulators are the central authority in higher-education oversight, charged with ensuring consumer protection and quality assurance within the regulatory triad. Yet gaps remain in the understanding of regulatory renewal processes, their real-world implementation, and the capacity challenges these agencies face. To address this, State Higher…

Cooperative Extension professionals utilize proven qualitative techniques to collect and analyze information to make data-driven decisions that guide program direction and determine impact. While the process may not always look the same, it is indeed essential to ensure findings are credible and reflective of the data. A codebook is a valuable…

Educators working in museums, zoos, and botanic gardens are increasingly required to demonstrate impact. These requirements position 'performative evaluation' as the dominant model, one which also acts as a political, non-neutral, and managerial form of accountability. In contrast, 'practice evaluation' is intended to be democratic, dialogic, and…

The U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) administers the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), which is a mandatory survey of all public schools and school districts in the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. This Data Snapshot provides an overview of the CRDC for the 2020-21 school year.

This chapter contributes to the literature on surveillance in education toward the development of a new branch of studies in educational surveillance that foregrounds the intersections of surveillance with international education, internationalization in higher education, and the global competition for international student enrollments. This study…

Statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) can enable researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to identify and understand important relationships and trends across the education-to-workforce continuum. A well-developed SLDS can increase state and territory governments' ability to establish more informed and equitable policies, enable agency…

Passive data from a tracking application (or "meter") installed on participants' devices to register the URLs visited have great potential for studying people's online activities. However, given privacy concerns, obtaining cooperation installing a meter can be difficult and lead to selection bias. Therefore, in this article, we address…

This brief examines how state policies and practices continue to evolve in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on data provided by 45 states plus the District of Columbia as of early May 2022. The brief updates our 2021 report, "Are Students Present and Accounted For? An Examination of State Attendance Policies During the COVID-19…

Each year, state legislators introduce hundreds of bills that generate new data collections, analyses, and resources, playing a crucial role in how people access and use data. Notably, in 2023 legislators introduced and enacted bills governing cross-agency data systems--the most important step that states must take to make robust access to data…

The U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) administers the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), which is a mandatory survey of all public schools and school districts in the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. To support school districts' timely submission of accurate data, OCR takes steps…