Institutional report cards are increasingly being used by higher educational institutions to present academic outcomes to external audiences of prospective students and parents, as well as program and institutional evaluators. While some prospective students are served by national transparency measures most users mine information from the…

The OECD's international education indicators have become very influential in contemporary education policies. Although these indicators are now routinely, annually published in the form of "Education at a Glance," the calculability upon which the indicators depend was an achievement that involved the mobilisation of a huge machinery of…

Adult learning policies, like any other policies, need to be effective: they need to reach their objectives and attain the desired impacts, which should be carefully defined. Understanding the performance of policies allows policy makers to change and improve them. A growing body of research and statistics provides important insights into how…

Districts now have access to a wealth of new information that can help target students with appropriate supports and bring focus and coherence to college readiness efforts. However, the abundance of data has brought its own challenges. Schools and school systems are often overwhelmed with the amount of data available. The capacity of districts to…

The 2012 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 48th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

The 2011 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 47th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

This report examines career/technical education (CTE) coursetaking of 2005 public high school graduates using a recently revised taxonomy and new indicators of participation to present a more contemporary and detailed picture of CTE coursetaking than is provided by previously-used indicators. To understand how students use the CTE curriculum, this…

Spurred by the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001, virtually every educational reform program now includes an accountability component that requires sound data collection and reporting (NCLB, 2002, section 101). Drawing from empirically based and theoretical literature in the field, this dissertation examines Adequate Yearly Progress…

The "2004/06 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06)" is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to respond to the need for a national, comprehensive database concerning issues students may face in enrollment, persistence, progress, and attainment in postsecondary education and in consequent early rates of…

The National Governors' Association is urging states to develop a standardized cohort graduation rate definition and to develop data systems with quality data that can in turn be used to produce a reliable indicator. This paper is an examination of one state's graduation rate using the cohort method. The statistics generated are compared to a…

Drawing on their extensive research, Nichols and Berliner document and categorize the ways that high-stakes testing threatens the purposes and ideals of the American education system. For more than a decade, the debate over high-stakes testing has dominated the field of education. This passionate and provocative book provides a fresh perspective…

In March 1996, the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) proposed to evaluate the Chicago Annenberg Challenge's (CAC) newly funded reform efforts in the Chicago public schools. The evaluation aimed to understand how schools involved in CAC efforts developed as organizations and, in turn, how these developments benefited students. The study…

This report describes the methods and procedures used for the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study: 1996-2001 (BPS:1996/2001). These students, who started their postsecondary education during the 1995-96 academic year, were first interviewed in 1996 as part of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:96). A follow-up…

This report examines issues related to the performance indicators used for international comparisons of Australia's vocational education and training (VET) system. Chapter 2 examines main sources of international comparisons of VET and main features of indicator frameworks used for comparisons. Chapter 3 presents an outline of these two main…