National Center for Education Statistics--NCES--What's New at the website (2024)

Introduction
Good afternoon everyone. I am pleased to have this opportunityto speak here at the Institute of European and American Studies regardingmy agency, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the UnitedStates, and about possibilities and benefits of Taiwan’s increased participationin international education research. It was not too long ago in the UnitedStates that international comparisons of education systems were conductedin an atmosphere of competitiveness and rivalry. But over the past decadewe have witnessed a gradual transition towards examining other countryexperiences and using international research to improve our schools. Asmore countries take part in international research projects, and as weexplore together the similarities and differences between systems in greaterdepth, our joint efforts become truly an international cooperative undertaking.It is in this spirit that I present my remarks today.

Education policy making in the United States is becomingmore data-driven. At the federal, state and local levels, there is a largerrecognition of the importance of interesting, compelling information. Inthis new global economy and information age, data is being used, analyzed,communicated, and debated more than ever before. Dominating the public’sattention in primetime and newspaper headlines have been storie3s aboutserious, even critical educational issues backed by solid data, such asovercrowded schools, school crime, and the quality (or lack thereof) inthe teaching profession. Recent television productions on equity and educationin the United States featured education leaders using data forcefully toargue their points. Stories on education issues that were once based onanecdotes and opinions are being replaced by the explosion of the use ofsolid information and data sources. Though this trend is exciting for thoseof us in the data and analysis business, it is also sobering to those ofus at NCES. We have a large job to do, and it is getting larger.

I. Background on NCES
Many of you may already be aware of some of the activitiesand publications of my agency, which I will refer to from here on as "NCES."Before I present a detailed description of NCES, I would like to describebriefly how NCES fits in the federal government and in the overall pictureof education policy and research in the United States.

As the name implies, NCES is a part of the federal government.It lies within the United States Department of Education, which is headedby Secretary of Education, a member of the President’s Cabinet. Withinthe Department, NCES is part of the Office of Educational Research andImprovement, or "OERI," and is headed by an Assistant Secretary. The positionof NCES Commissioner, in which I currently serve, is a position filledby a Presidential appointment who must be confirmed by the United StatesSenate. The Commissioner serves for a four-year term.

NCES is one of 13 federal statistical agencies, and theprimary one for collecting and analyzing data related to education. Althoughthe structure of the federal agencies has changed throughout our country’shistory, NCES has been in existence in one form or another since 1867.Though the federal government remains the junior government partner ineducation, working with state and local education agencies, statisticsis one area that has always been considered central to the federal role.Our current mission, as mandated by Congress, is to do the following:

• Collect, collate, analyze, and report full and complete statisticson the condition of education in the United States and other Nations;
• Conduct and publish reports and specialized analyses of themeaning of such statistics; and
• Assist state and local education agencies in improving theirstatistical systems.

The most common end results of these activities, and certainlythe most visible ones, are our publications. NCES issues nearly 200 publicationseach year. These documents include statistical reports, bulletins, earlyreleases of preliminary findings, directories, and handbooks of standardterminology. Many of these publications report the findings of specificsurveys, but at least three— The Condition of Education, the Digestof Education Statistics, and the Projections of Education Statistics,—cover the field of education statistics from a broad perspective. I willdiscuss our publications in more detail in the next section of my talk.

In summary, NCES has been well managed with a clear visionfor the future. NCES had acquired a reputation for trustworthy, usefuldata and long-range planning that has given the organization great stabilityand quality, even under adverse circ*mstances. As Commissioner, I haveestablished four values to guide NCES’ national data agenda, namely: regularity,quality, usefulness and timeliness. Consequently, NCES has a strong foundationfor quality data collection and use. Consequently, NCES shares with otherstatistical agencies, however, in the realities of having to do more withless. That has been the pattern for the last few years and will intensifyin the near future. In FY99, NCES staff consists of 116 positions, some15% less than a decade ago. Yet, since FY85, there has been an unprecedentedgrowth of NCES mission and responsibility, from $12.7 million to $104 millionin FY99 (or, 818% increase).

The Office of the Commissioner sets policy andstandards for NCES and provides oversight for the operation of it, ensuringthat statistical quality and confidentiality are maintained. Two standingbodies of individuals external to NCES provide input to the Office of theCommissioner. The Advisory Council on Education Statistics (ACES) providesgeneral input regarding the activities of NCES, while the National AssessmentGoverning Board (NAGB) provides oversight specifically for the NationalAssessments of Educational Progress.

The Statistical Standards and Methodology Groupprovides state-of-the-art technical and statistical support to NCES andto federal and nonfederal organizations and entities involved in statisticalwork in support of it. In addition, the staff develops and produces thebook, Projections of Education Statistics, and operates the systemof licensing for individuals and organizations that require access to confidentialdata for statistical purposes.

The Data Development and Longitudinal Studies Groupis responsible for focusing the content and design of the National Centerfor Education Statistics programs; improving analyses, distribution, anduse of products; and increasing international activity. The staff alsoproduces the major flagship publications of the center: the Digest ofEducation Statistics, and The Condition of Education.

The Surveys and Cooperative Systems Group overseesplanning, design, operations, statistical analysis, reporting and disseminationfor elementary, secondary, vocational, postsecondary, and library surveys.It ensures that quality and confidentiality are maintained. The staff isalso responsible for the development and implementation of the Congressionallymandated National Cooperative Education Statistics System in areas of elementaryand secondary education, postsecondary education, and library statistics.

Finally, the Assessment Group creates, designs,develops, implements and reports on the National Assessment of EducationalProgress at the national level and coordinates assessment and related datacollection activities with the states. The staff also conducts a varietyof other related education assessment studies.

As a federal agency, we must always bear in mind thatour role is to serve: we fulfill the needs of our constituency, or our"customers" as we like to call them. Gradually over the years, the makeupof our customers has changed. Certainly policy makers have always compriseda key part, as have educational researchers. Recently, however, we havebeen expanding our range of customers. We feel strongly that the data wecollect and analyze can be useful not only to national- and state-levelpolicy makers and researchers, but also to all teachers, parents, schoolboards, school district superintendents, school principals, and anyoneelse involved in the reform and improvement of learning. Thus, althoughwe serve by fulfilling the needs and requests of our traditional customers,we also serve by actively reaching out to new and different customers whowe feel can be assisted by our information. As a result, we are a verypublic and visible agency, perhaps the most so of any of the 13 federalstatistical agencies.

II. Programs and Plans of NCES
In talking about the activities of NCES, it is perhapseasiest to talk in terms of the type of questions we answer, the ways inwhich we answer them, and how these answers are reported.

Administrative Data on Students, Teachers, and Schoolsand Sample Surveys

First, if we think about the most basic questions about an educationsystem, they might include student enrollments, numbers of schools andteachers, and expenditures on education. In the United States, we wouldlike to be able to analyze this information in several different ways,including by inter-state comparisons and trend data from previous years.For this type of information, NCES has several ongoing data collectionactivities. These activities survey all organizations and institutionswithin their categories. In other words, they are universe surveys.

Our primary database for basic information on public elementary andsecondary education is the Common Core of Data. The Common Core of Datais based on an annual survey of all public elementary and secondary schools,and all school districts in the United States. It provides general descriptivestatistics about some 85,000 public schools and some 14,000 school districts,demographic information about students and staff, and fiscal data.

The same type of data on private schools is collected by the PrivateSchool Survey, which is conducted every two years. In addition to the typeof data found in the Common Core of Data, the Private School Survey includessuch variables such as religious or other affiliation and program emphasis,for some 25,000 private schools across the U.S.

Basic information regarding postsecondary education can be foundin the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). This database,which is updated annually, includes information on fall enrollment, numberof degrees offered, faculty salaries, financial statistics, and librarystatistics. All of these data exist at the institution level for some 10,000higher education and post-secondary institutions, including some 3,500two and four year colleges and universities.

If we think further about needs for educational data, we would probablybe interested in background characteristics of students, schools, and teachers,such as home and school environments. Because this information is considerablymore complex than basic data on schools, it would unfeasible to surveyall members of the group. So, instead, we use sample surveys or cross-sectionalstudies.

The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) surveys state education agenciesto produce national and state-level data on public and private schools,principals, school districts, and teachers. It monitors supply and demandconditions, teacher work force composition, school policies, and the generalstatus of teaching and schooling. It facilitates comparison between publicand private schools and allows linkages of data on teachers, schools, schooldistricts, and administrators.

The National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF) examines facultyand staff characteristics, including socio-demographic characteristics,field of instruction, professional background, courses taught, and tenure.Two cycles of NSOPF have been conducted to date, allowing for comparisonsto be made over time and detailed comparisons among faculty in variousdisciplines.

The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) reports on thecosts of higher education, distribution of financial aid, and characteristicsof aided and non-aided students. Administrative records concerning studentfinancial aid are coupled with student interviews and data from a sub-sampleof parents.

Because the home environment is so crucial to a student’s successin school, NCES collects information on the home environment through theNational Household Education Survey (NHES). It is a telephone survey ofhouseholds that covers varied educational topics, such as program participation,home activities, early childhood and adult education, as well as parentalinvolvement in education, and the role of families in children’s learning.It also includes extensive family and household background informationas well as characteristics of the school attended by the child. The surveyaddresses high priority topics on a regular basis, but also includes one-timesurveys on topics of particular interest.

Altogether, the databases and surveys I just mentioned provide anextremely rich source of information on virtually any non-achievement relatedaspect of our education system. We have data on the full range of publicand private schools, teachers, and students, beginning with pre-kindergartenprograms, continuing through primary, secondary, postsecondary, and adulteducation programs. Data exist at the national, state, local, and, in somecases, the institution level. We have basic data on schools and students,but also detailed information on student and teacher backgrounds, and homeand school environment. Data can be analyzed using a variety of variables,including socioeconomic ones such as population of the local community,ethnicity and poverty status of students and school populations, educationlevel of parents, and languages spoken at home. Because most of these surveysare conducted on a regular basis, it is possible to examine trends fromyear to year.

As just hints of the potential of these databases, we can answersuch basic and detailed questions as:

• How many schools and universities are there in the United States, howmany students do they enroll, and how many teachers do they employ?
• How have public and private school and university enrollments changedover time?
• Are minority students and students from low-income families participatingin early childhood education programs at the same rate as non-minoritystudents and students from and middle- and high-income families?
• How well do public and private school teachers feel they are involvedin making key policy decision?
• How much time do teachers spend on school-related activities beforeand after school and on weekends?
• What percentage of postsecondary students receives financial aid, whatare the types and sources of that aid, and what are the average amounts?What are background characteristics of students receiving aid versus thosenot receiving aid?
• What percentage of university students’ classroom hours is spent withsenior faculty members?
• How has the number of bachelor’s degree awarded in computer and informationscience changed over time?
• Is parents’ choice of residence influenced by where their child wouldgo to school?

Longitudinal Studies

All of the surveys and studies I mentioned so far are updated ona regular basis, many of them every year. Thus, they can show trends overtime. However, for more detailed information on what happens to particulargroups of students as they grow older, NCES conducts several longitudinalstudies. These studies follow cohorts of students of varying initial ages,provide detailed information on academic growth, high school dropouts,and experiences in postsecondary education and the world of work. Thesestudies are long-term surveys that follow specific classes of studentsbefore, during, and after both high school and college. At the end of eachstudy, educational and occupational aspirations are compared against actualattainment. Our longitudinal studies include:

• The National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS72),which followed a sample of 1972 high school senior seniors from 1972 to1986.
• High School and Beyond (HS&B), which followed 1980 tenth-grade studentsfrom 1980 through 1992, and 1980 twelfth-grade students from 1980 through1986.
• The National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), whichsurveyed eighth-grade students in 1988 and will continue surveying themthrough the year 2000.
• The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which began this year by surveyinga sample of kindergarten children and will survey them through the fifthgrade.

In addition, NCES is conducting two postsecondary longitudinalstudies:

• The Beginning Postsecondary Student (BPS) longitudinal study is a surveyof all students, regardless of age, who began postsecondary education inthe school years 1989-90 and 1995-96. It describes their experience duringhigher education and future work status, as well as family formation.
• The Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) study surveys a sample of 1992-93baccalaureate degree completers one year after graduation. It examinesoccupational, educational, and family, experiences of college graduatesover time. The study will follow each cohort to gather information concerningdelayed entry into graduate education, times to completion of graduateeducation, and the interactions between work and education at the graduatelevel.

What makes these longitudinal studies so powerful is their ability todraw profiles of groups of students and follow them as they move from childhood,through adolescence, and into adulthood. We are able to see, for example,the educational paths students take, including such key decisions as choicesof programs, courses, and majors and the decision to enroll in postsecondaryeducation. We see where students with different background characteristicsencounter roadblocks in their education and how successful they are inpersisting. And we can see what students with different cultural, family,and educational backgrounds choose to do after high school and can followtheir progress in postsecondary education and the work force. As I willdiscuss later, these type of studies are extremely useful in studying theeffects of particular educational and social policies and in designingnew ones.

Assessments

One of the most important—and certainly the most closelywatched—aspects of any education system is academic achievement. For manypeople, the bottom line in education is whether students are acquiringthe skills and knowledge taught in their schools.

To answer this question on a national level, NCES conductsthe National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). NAEP ismandated by Congress and was first administered in 1969. It assesses theknowledge and skills of the nation’s youth in reading, mathematics, science,writing, history, geography, and other subject areas. It involves representativesamples of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students. In addition tothe national-level results, NAEP also provides comparative state data fora large number of states that voluntarily participate in selected assessments.NCES is responsible for collecting and reporting data on a periodic basis,and ensuring valid and reliable trend reporting. The accompanying chartsoverview the history of NAEP assessments and the recently adopted futureNAEP assessment schedule.

The results of NAEP are reported as scores from 0 to 500.Over the past several years, NCES has been using a set of performance levelsto report the NAEP results. The purpose of these proficiency levels isto establish objective criteria for different ranges of scores in termsof what students should know and be able to do. The advantage of theseproficiency levels is that they measure student performance against a standardof what their performance should be, rather than simply whether their scoresare higher or lower than students from previous years or in other states.The performance levels for the NAEP tests are developed by NAGB.

NCES also conducts the National Adult Literacy Survey(NALS), which measures the various literacy skills of the adult populationof the United States. The next NALS will be collected in 2002 which isa decade since the original study.

International Activities

In addition to its national data collection activities,NCES is an active participant in several international data collectionprojects, many of which you are probably familiar with. Over the past tenyears, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)has been conducting the International Education Indicators Project.The purpose of the project is to produce comparable data from OECD nationson education indicators of international importance. These include dataon enrollments, educational attainment of the population, labor marketoutcomes, expenditure, and achievement. NCES staff members serve on thevarious

CHART 1

Historic NAEP Assessments

CHART 2

Future NAEP Assessments

advisory boards that help guide the project. We are alsoresponsible for providing data on the United States. The indicators arecontained in the report, Education at a Glance, and the basic dataare also available on diskette.

NCES was also an active participant in the Third InternationalMathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) which is sponsored by the InternationalAssociation for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). We helpedfund the International Study Center at Boston College/Boston Massachusetts/USA,which was responsible for carrying out the assessments of achievement forthree populations (i.e., age 9, age 13, and end of secondary school). Inaddition, we sponsored several other research projects to complement theassessments of achievement. These included an analysis of textbooks andcurriculum frameworks, a videotape study of age 13 or eighth-grade mathematicslessons in Germany, Japan, and the United States, and an in-depth casestudy of schools, students, and teachers in those same three countriesfor all three populations.

We are now taking a similarly active role in TIMSS-R,a follow-up to TIMSS to be conducted in 1999, in cooperation with IEA.TIMSS-R will administer mathematics and science examinations again to age13 or eighth-grade students in approximately 40 countries, including Taiwan,many of which participated in the original TIMSS. The fact that age 13or eighth-grade students in 1999 were age 9 or fourth grade students in1995, the year the TIMSS assessments were originally administered, meansthat countries participating in both TIMSS and TIMSS-R will be able toidentify four-year trends in science and mathematics achievement for this.

We are also in the midst of the launch of the Programof International Student Achievement (PISA 2000), the first cycle of astrategy of the OECD to produce indicators on student achievement of age15 year old students in reading, mathematics, and science within its membercountries. These efforts will result in international student data thataddress both subject-specific knowledge and broader cross-curricular elementsand that are reported on a regular basis and in a timely and efficientmanner.

To make this international data even more useful for theU.S. audience, NCES has developed linkages between international indicatorsand similar ones used in the United States at the state level. For example,a statistical link was developed between NAEP and TIMSS for Grade 8 mathand science so that some 40 states received a projected TIMSS score basedon the 1996 NAEP performances.

Publications

Almost all of the surveys and activities I have mentionedhave associated with them publications reporting their results and methodologies.These publications can range from one-page issue briefs to multi-volumereports.

In addition to the publications specific to individualsurveys or activities, NCES publishes three flagship reports that takea comprehensive look at all aspects of education.

The Condition of Education is an annualreport to Congress that focuses on some 60 indicators, representing a consensusof professional judgment on the most significant national measures of thecondition and progress of education. Indicators are grouped according tothe following topics:

• Access, participation, and progress;
• Achievement, attainment, and curriculum;
• Economic and other outcomes of education;
• Size growth, and output of educational institutions;
• Climate, classrooms, and diversity in educational institutions;and
• Human and financial resources of educational institutions.

For each indicator, the book highlights noticeable trends,provides background information and advice for interpreting the indicator,and supplemental tables and full references.

The Digest of Education Statistics is anannual compendium of educational data, drawing from across all NCES activityareas and from outside sources as well. It addresses the areas of enrollment,teachers, educational outcomes, and finance.

Projections of Education Statistics is anannual report that provides projections for key education statistics. Itincludes statistics on enrollment, graduates, classroom teachers, and expendituresin elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education.This year’s edition features data on enrollment, teachers, graduates, andexpenditures for the past 14 years and projections to the year 2008.

When we talk about publications, most of us think immediatelyof paper copies of books, reports, issue briefs, etc. The growth of theWorld Wide Web, however, is changing our conception of what the word "publication"means. Because NCES’s goal is to provide information to all those who seekit, and because we are unconcerned with generating revenue from sales ofpublications, the Web offers an ideal medium for presenting our research.For us, the Web allows us to present our research and data to far morepeople at a relatively small cost. For our customers, the Web allows ourcustomers immediate access to hundreds of our publications at no extracost, including the flagship publications mentioned above, and allows themto search across publications and databases for particular topics and data.They can download an entire publication, or search or browse online tofind particular pieces of information. If you have not already done so,I invite to explore our Website at http://nces.ed.gov.

III. The Role of NCES in Education Policy Making
The amount and variety of information assembled by NCESis truly an academic’s dream, as it could fuel potentially hundreds ofdissertations and research papers. But what drives NCES activity, and whathas given rise to this virtual ocean of data, goes beyond purely academicresearch: the obligation to provide the leaders in our government and inour education system with information they can use to make appropriatepolicy decisions.

Education statistics have always been a valuable toolin government planning and budgeting. For example, Congress uses them toplan federal education programs and to apportion federal funds among thestates. Federal agencies, such as the Departments of Defense, Labor, andCommerce, and the National Science Foundation are concerned with the supplyof trained manpower coming out of our schools and colleges and also withthe subjects being taught there. And state and local officials are concernedwith issues such as the supply of teachers and expected populations ofstudents.

But the appetite for education statistics is growing.Increasingly, education is being seen as the key to a wider range of socialand economic issues. During this past election season, several nationalpolls indicated that education was the number one priority in the mindsof voters. As a result of this increased attention, proposals for educationreform abound, some calling for radical changes in response to supposedcrises in our education system. With this heightened importance of educationpolicy comes a need not only for more information, but also for informationthat is targeted toward specific policy questions. Following are just afew of the current policy discussions where NCES data are used:

• Are U.S. students acquiring the appropriate skills and knowledgein the core academic subject areas?
• What effect does early childhood education have on futureeducational achievement?
• Are funds for education distributed equitably?
• What is the relationship of spending on education to educationaloutcomes and economic productivity?
• What is the relationship of school governance structures(e.g. schools of choice, charter schools, and ability grouping in classesand programs) to educational outcomes?
• What constitutes quality in curriculum and instruction andwhat is their relationship to educational outcomes?
• Do all types of students have an equal opportunity to learn?
• Are our schools preparing students to be economically competitivein the global economy?
• Are high school graduates gaining access and choice in theirpursuit of higher education, and are they persisting and completing theirprograms?

In thinking about NCES’s role in addressing these types ofpolicy questions, I cannot over-emphasize the fact that we do not necessarilyprovide the answers. This is because NCES does not suggest or advocatepolicy solutions. We can and do provide information used in formulatingopinions, but our publications themselves contain no such opinions. Todo so would compromise the integrity of our data and go against our organizationalmission.

Thus, our role is one of providing policy-relevant information.We do this in several ways. In some cases, we can pull together existingdata from several sources and present it in a focused fashion. We do thisoften in the form of short issue briefs. For our longer term data agenda,however, decisions regarding the topics to address and the methods to addressthem become more complex. In some cases, we are directed by Congress toconduct research and present data on specific topics and in a specificfashion. Such is the case with the National Assessment of Educational Progressand our relationship with the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB)that oversees the NAEP program. The majority of our national data, however,is developed within NCES, taking into consideration what we should doand what we can do.

Regarding what we should do, one important factor is ofcourse the potential benefit to our customers. Our data agenda shouldbe relevant to current high-priority policy discussions and should providedata and information that either has not yet been collected or that updatesexisting knowledge. We gauge the potential benefit to customers based oninput from customer satisfaction surveys, the national advisory panels,our own staff expertise, and other, more informal techniques. Another importantfactor is whether the data agenda is appropriate with NCES’slegislated responsibilities. As a statistical agency, our focus ison collecting and reporting data using sound scientific methods and doingso in an objective manner. If the potential project is not data-based,or cannot be addressed in an objective and methodologically sound manner,then it is not particularly appropriate for our agency. Finally, we mustconsider whether the research can be more efficiently done by anotherorganization.

Regarding what we can do, we are of course limited bythe costs of the project. Costs need to be examined not only interms of financial resources, but staff resources as well. We also lookat the cost of the burden we place on those who would be the subjects ofour data collection activities, such as the teacher or administrator respondingto the questionnaire or the student participating in the assessment. Weare also limited by the feasibility of the project, both in termsof time necessary to complete it, and our capacity to collect and processthe data and disseminate the results.

Given these criteria for our national data agenda, I wouldlike to provide just a few examples of how NCES has had a role in policydiscussions and how NCES has altered its research agenda to better addresspolicy issues.

Curriculum Design and Instructional Practice

Although the most widely publicized data from the ThirdInternational Mathematics and Science Study were perhaps the achievementdata, NCES, in conjunction with the National Science Foundation, activelysought to explore two other factors related to achievement: curriculumand instruction. In the curriculum study, researchers examined mathematicsand science textbooks and curriculum frameworks of the countries participatingin TIMSS. One of the key findings was that textbooks and curriculum frameworksin the United States tend to have more topics than those in other countries.This conclusion has led to examinations at the state, district, and schoollevels into whether our emphasis on breadth of coverage comprises in-depthunderstanding of key topics. In the videotape study of age 13 or eighth-grademathematics instruction in Germany, Japan, and the United States, researchersfound that the predominant teaching strategy in Japanese classrooms isto involve students in developing a concept, whereas U.S. teachers werefar more likely to simply state the concept. Again, this has led to manydiscussions at all levels regarding quality educational practices. In neitherof these cases did NCES suggest a solution, but in both of these cases,our data has advanced discussions of educational policy.

Assessments of Students with Special Disabilities

NCES is working to improve assessments for special populationswho historically have been difficult to assess and sometimes have beenentirely excluded from NCES surveys, such as students with disabilitiesand students with limited English proficiency. We have established thatas many as 5% of all students are excluded from national assessments basedon a disabling condition and as many as 2% are excluded based on theirlimited English proficiency.

NCES has addressed these issues recently by:

• Changing the criteria that local schools use for includingstudents in our surveys and experimenting with ways to encourage schoolofficials to include more students; and
• Experimenting with providing accommodations for some studentssuch as providing translations of test items and extending time for completingthe assessments.

School Violence

Unfortunately, over the past few years in the United States,there have been several tragic incidents of violence at schools committedby students. These events received a great deal of attention in the pressand caused many to conclude that school violence is on the rise. Naturally,there were debates regarding appropriate policy responses. To help informthese debates, NCES, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice,developed an Annual Report on School Safety. The first report, issued justthis past October, provides a comprehensive view of existing data and showedthat overall, school crime is declining, serious violent crime is neitherincreasing nor decreasing, and that the number of students carrying weaponsto school is decreasing. For example, 100% of the serious crime in Americanpublic schools is isolated in 10% of the public schools; 90% had no incidenceof serious crime in 1997. At the same time, it found evidence of a growinggang presence in schools and noted that more students today are fearfulin schools than in the past. Because these data provide a detailed pictureof the extent and nature of the problem, they allow policymakers to formulatetargeted responses to specific aspects of the problem, such as the recentlyannounced federal initiative aimed at curbing school violence.

Development of Longitudinal Survey Designs to MeasureSchool Effectiveness

For NCES, the challenge of measuring school effectivenesshas resulted in efforts to improve the design of longitudinal surveys.Traditionally, studies which follow students over time have resulted ininadequate numbers of students within classrooms or schools for the purposesof estimating school effects, while at the same time providing nationallyrepresentative data.

To minimize the limitations and still provide measuresof both student and school change, NCES incorporated a number of innovationsin the design of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) including:

• Adding additional students in successive waves so that thesample remains representative for each wave;
• Surveying base-year ineligible students and bringing base-yearexcluded students back into the sample;
• Sampling during follow-ups to uncover differences from thetarget sample and potential sample bias;
• Developing new ways to represent unique populations whichadd to the data’s accuracy in asking specific questions for populationsubgroups; and
• Augmenting students and teachers within the 30 largest statisticalmetropolitan areas to researchers a more analytically powerful database.

Improvements in Our Data Agenda

Based on growing interest in instructional practices andvarious reform proposals, our School and Staffing Survey is being redesignedsignificantly to focus specifically on issues of instructional practiceand school reform. It will also include more detailed resource data toenable policymakers to analyze the relationships between fiscal attributesand school, teacher, and student characteristics. A special supplementalcomponent will also study the universe of charter schools in the U.S. Ournew data agenda also calls for two major new longitudinal data collectionsto address the growing interest in early childhood education. The "BirthCohort" study will include 1000 children born each month in the year 2000and follow them from birth through age 6. The "Kindergarten Cohort" study,which begins this fall, is focusing on some 20,00 students in 1000 publicand private schools across the country as they enter kindergarten and followthem through grade five.

Summary

Our role in informing policy discussions is at the heartof our mission. To fulfill it, we must be responsive to the needs of policymakersand our other customers, but also be independent enough to maintain theintegrity of our work and chart a research agenda that is feasible andwill remain relevant for the long term.

IV. Possibilities for Cooperation between Taiwan andthe United States in Education Statistics
As you here in Taiwan pursue a similar mission and conductsimilar research, I believe our two countries have much to gain from increasedcollaboration in the area of educational statistics.

I am committed to learning from each other’s experiencesthrough participation in cooperative international data strategies. Manypeople dismiss the usefulness of international education comparisons becauseof differences between systems in terms of structure and practices. Whilethese differences may make achievement data difficult to compare, manyother types of research are made possible because of these differences.For example, the data from TIMSS on Japanese curriculum and instructionalpractice has been of immense value to educators in the United States. Byproviding information on alternate ways of doing things, these data havesparked deep reflection on and reexamination of current practice throughoutthe U.S. and will no doubt result in policy revisions in some districtsand States. From other international data, we can observe patterns of achievementin countries where secondary school students pursue specialized programsof study, a practice which is relatively less common in the United States.These data have been useful to policymakers as they have considered variousproposals for secondary school reform.

I am certain that data from Taiwan, coupled with moreinformation on educational practices, can be useful to researchers in theUnited States. In fact, there is already an interest in Taiwanese education,based in part on the research of Harold Stevenson and James Stiegler. Similarly—ifI may humbly suggest—I believe that data on the United States educationsystem, with its wide variety of programs and practices, can be of useto researchers and policymakers in Taiwan.

I also believe we both can benefit from sharing researchand methodological advancements. Despite the differences between our educationalsystems, cultures, and political and bureaucratic environments, I believeour experiences in conducting educational research and large-scale statisticalstudies can be highly instructive for one another. We can share technicalinformation, such as the methodology used to measure a particular aspectof the education system. A set of indicators or a format for reportingdata used by one of us might serve as models for the other. Or, one ofus might benefit from the other’s experience in trying to present complexdata and analyses to audiences interested in clear and uncomplicated answers.

Thus, I hope that in the future there will be increasedexchanges between our two countries, including regularly scheduled visits,staff exchanges and increased participation in international studies andconferences.

V. Potential Benefits to Taiwan’s Education Systemfrom Participation in International Education Research Projects
Just as I believe Taiwan has much to gain from workingwith the United States, I believe it has even more to gain from participationin multinational research projects. The collaborative process involvedin these studies provides an opportunity not only to learn from the experiencesof a much broader range of researchers, institutions, and education systems,but also to be a part of cutting edge research. It would of course be possibleto learn from this process even without participating, by simply readingthe reports and technical manuals, but the lessons would be far more limitedand far less enriching.

One major benefit of participation is that these internationalassessments can sometimes fill important gaps in individual countries’own assessment and research strategies. Participation in ongoing internationalassessments such as TIMSS provides a reliable source of high-quality datathat can be compared over time and used to establish valuable internationalbenchmarks. This is extremely useful for those countries that may not conducttheir own assessments of particular subjects, at particular grade levels,or using particular types of questions. Similarly, the background informationincluded in the assessments may create a new source of useful data forparticipating countries. Even with our numerous research activities withinthe United States, one of our best sources for data on student achievementand background characteristics continues to be our data from these internationalassessments.

The benefits only increase as innovations in researchdesign evolve with each study. For example, the research into school processestypified by the TIMSS curriculum and videotape studies will become morecommon in future international educational research. It will be a significantpart of TIMSS-R, as well as future OECD efforts. Again, while the resultswill be valuable to education systems that only observe the results, thebenefits will be far greater to those systems that participate, simplybecause the results will be far more relevant.

Just as international comparative research is beginningto look beyond achievement, it is also moving toward a more sophisticateddefinition of achievement. One of the goals of the PISA project of theOECD is to develop mechanisms for measuring achievement in broad, cross-curricularareas. These indicators will be valuable to anyone who believes successin life depends on more than subject-specific academic knowledge. Thosecountries participating will be able to assess their own students on theseinnovative measures, resulting in information that would not be availableotherwise, which will provide valuable supplements to ongoing nationalassessment programs in the individual countries.

VI. Conclusion
As I mentioned at the beginning of my speech, internationaleducation research has progressed far beyond the "horse race" climate thatcharacterized previous projects. The international research community ismoving ahead with explorations of achievement in a wider variety of subjectsand using a wider variety of methodologies. It is also moving toward abroader definition of achievement and is becoming more focused on influenceson achievement. Each country participating stands to benefit from not onlyassessing its students on these cutting edge measures, but also from learningof the experiences of others in tackling many of the same challenges itmay be facing in its own research activities.

I have shared with you today an overview of my organization’sresearch activities and data agenda. It is a data agenda that has in partbeen influenced by what we have learned and are continuing to learn fromother countries through our participation in international research activities.It is my hope that the future will bring more sharing between our two countries;specifically, sharing of data, ideas, and experiences. In this way, notonly will we as researchers benefit, but so will the students of both ournations.