This review of the current data collection activities of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is divided into two parts: a section of major recommendations applying to NCES plans in general, and a section reviewing each data collection activity and presenting specific suggestions. Section I recommends that NCES should: (1) explicitly consider moving beyond the collection of data on schooling to the collection of data on education; (2) conduct a longitudinal study of students in the elementary, middle-school, and junior high school grades; (3) pay greater attention to the collection of data on school processes; (4) organize the systematic collection of data on student performance on employer sponsored tests; (5) devote greater attention to those educational organizations that serve preschool youngsters; (6) put in place a process for ensuring that its large-scale data collection efforts can be linked with more micro-level studies; (7) work with a few states to develop pilot state level data bases related to significant issues; and (8) maintain an awareness of emerging technologies for the transmission and communication of data to relevant groups of users. Section II comments on the six current NCES surveys: Private School Survey, Public School Survey, Recent Survey of College Graduates, Survey of Teacher Demand and Shortage, High School and Beyond, and Library and Media Center Survey. (LMO)