This guide is designed to assist those readers of "The Condition of Education" and similar reports who may lack experience or confidence in reading and understanding statistical information. It serves four purposes (1) identifies and describes the principal features of statistical tables and charts; (2) presents a few illustrations of how indicators and other statistical measures are constructed; (3) alerts the reader to both the strengths and weaknesses of statistical data by describing and illustrating the nature and effects of sampling and non-sampling variability; and (4) offers a few precepts and suggestions with respect to the interpretation of statistical data. Numerous examples and illustrations are given in each section to clarify what is said and familiarize the reader with the techniques to use in extracting information from both tabular and graphic data presentations. (JAZ)