Educational data collection may be fraught with problems because of individuals' resentment and resistance to providing data. State and local education agencies often report that data requests from federal agencies represent an administrative burden, especially when they are not an expected part of the personnel workload. Educators may not know why the data are relevant or needed, and may fear that releasing complete data might result in a compliance review, a lawsuit, or embarrassment to the school district or state when it is compared to other school districts or states. There are a number of ways to manage or reduce resistance to providing data, which would be appropriate for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): (1) reduce the data reporting burden by sampling only a portion of local education agencies; (2) employ contractors rather than agencies to conduct the surveys; (3) distribute useful reports from the surveys to the participants; (4) enlist Congressional support; (5) reduce the number of surveys conducted by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR); and (6) approach and negotiate with chief state school officers individually, not as a group. (GDC)