The U.S. has a core constitutional and founding commitment to equality of opportunity for all citizens. Whether viewed as an end in itself or a means to fostering increased national achievement and competitiveness, the 21st century United States conversation about equity reflects a national consensus about the many benefits of and necessity for…

Avoiding statistical mistakes is important for educators at all levels. Basic concepts will help you to avoid making mistakes using statistics and to look at data with a critical eye. Statistical data is used at educational institutions for many purposes. It can be used to support budget requests, changes in educational philosophy, changes to…

A sample of 134 sixth-grade students who were using the Connected Mathematics curriculum were administered an open-ended item entitled, Vet Club (Balanced Assessment, 2000). This paper explores the role of misconceptions and naive conceptions in the acquisition of statistical thinking for middle grades students. Students exhibited misconceptions…

This study uses the context of the weather to explore the development of students' intuitive ideas of variation from pre-Grade 1 to Grade 9. Three aspects of understanding these intuitions associated with variation are explored in individual videotaped interviews with 73 students: explanations, suggestions of data, and graphing. The development of…

The major purpose of this report is to examine what the operating aid formula for the 1977-78 New York State school year could have been for the 347 save-harmless districts and the 236 limited aid districts if the 1977 legislature had not based apportionments on the previous year's aid. The study, conducted by a governor-appointed task force,…

This fold-out chart provides information about educational achievement in New Mexico for 1988-89. Demographic and educational indicators are summarized for the 88 school districts with over 292,450 students in 633 public schools in the state. The New Mexico Assessment System measures student achievement in language arts, social studies, science,…

Information is presented about education in North Carolina. Data are included in the following areas: (1) population; (2) enrollment and attendance; (3) faculty numbers and salaries; (4) general financial resources; (5) governmental revenue; (6) school revenue; (7) governmental expenditures and debt; (8) school expenditures; and (9) miscellaneous…

A statistical portrait is provided of private schools in the United States, using the best national data available to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Previously published work is used to give an overview of private schools from 1980-81 through 1985-86. Following an introductory examination of private schools in the United…

This paper reports summary data on the general characteristics, fiscal revenues and expenditures, educational agency and school numbers and sizes, and students and staff for each state, the District of Columbia, and outlying areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands). Data are reported for…

The transition to high school is a crucial time in a student's academic career. This summary is presented as a caution to students, parents, teachers, administrators, and the public to warn of some of the hazards of the transition year (grade nine). In 1989-90, ninth-graders in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District had the lowest…

Three historic examples demonstrate the vital role data displays (graphs and tables) have played in important discoveries. Levels of information that form the basis of a theory of display are described, and steps to improve the quality of tabular presentations in educational writing are outlined. (SLD)

The school-year and annual dropout counts for high schools in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District are summarized for the past 7 years, 1983-84 through 1989-90, and for grades 7 and 8 for the past 6 years. Also reported are the current status of entering ninth graders of 1983-84 through 1989-90, and of the entering seventh graders of…

The third annual report on the educational status of New York State-supported elementary schools and secondary schools for the 1989-90 school year is presented. Based on legal mandates, the report addresses enrollment trends; indicators of student achievement in reading, writing, mathematics, science, and vocational courses; graduation, college…

The Office of Research and Evaluation of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District (AISD) has been monitoring the dropout situation in the AISD since 1983-84. In July 1986, a computerized database, the Secondary Student Longitudinal File, was constructed to enable tracking of the enrollment of any group of students beginning with the 1983-84…

This report presents Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) student performance results for the 1989-90 school year. Data are aggregated and reported for the state as a whole, for various student and district demographic groupings, for school districts, and for individual campuses. Section I provides an executive summary of…