Recommendations are made for data processing procedures for the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) Common Core of Data survey program. Data are anticipated from about 16,000 local education agencies and 85,000 schools in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 7 territories. These recommendations concern editing and verification performed between the receipt of data and the start of substantive analyses--inspecting for suspect values, as well as detecting and correcting erroneous values. A flow chart details the editing process, which includes online data entry edits, preliminary machine edits, and batch production edits. The precise nature and relationship between the data entry and preliminary edit phase depends on the form in which the data are received. Online data entry edits are strongly recommended, since the first check will usually be for a keying error and the source document is still immediately available. The preliminary edit examines the data statistically, searching for frequent or universal format-type problems, while the production edit attempts to individually identify every field or record that fails an edit. Other described processes include automatic correction, relational or longitudinal edits, table-driven edits, switch-driven edits, and user-oriented interfaces. Specific suggestions are described for two surveys: the Universe of Public Schools Survey and the Local Education Agency Non-Fiscal Survey. Various survey forms and data processing instructions are appended. (GDC)