The 1998 edition of this Education Week (discussed in the September 13, 1996 Scout Report) special report focuses on the failings and challenges of education in America's urban areas. The analysis makes use of previously unpublished data from the federal government and a survey of 74 large city districts, conducted in collaboration with the Council of the Great City Schools. At the site users will...

On April 6, 2001, two important educational assessment reports were issued, both based on data collected by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The second report, produced by the National Education Goals Panel, discusses this gap in reading ability, but also finds that math skills improved slightly in the 1990s. The report analyzes NAEP state data to identity state trends in...

The Division of Science Resources Studies of the NSF in 1996 made this statistical compendium available. The bulk of the site is made up of statistical charts and tables (15 charts, and 38 tables). Tables, unfortunately, are available in Microsoft Excel format only, while charts are available as .gifs. Charts are also available in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format for Degrees by Race/Ethnicity. There...

The Division of Science Resources Studies of the NSF in 1996 made this statistical compendium available. The bulk of the site is made up of statistical charts and tables (15 charts, and 63 tables). Tables, unfortunately, are available in Microsoft Excel format only, while charts are available as .gifs. Data for Science and Engineering Degrees include mathematics, psychology, political science, and...

The very title of this website would perhaps draw only hushed whispers from those commentators in the world of education policy, and that’s probably not a bad reaction. The site makes good on the promise of its title, as it offers the casual and seasoned visitor a wide variety of indicators in the forms of tables and charts, including total enrollments in grades K-12, trends in half-day...

Organized and researched by John Wirt, Susan Choy, Stephen Provasnik, Patrick Rooney, Anindita Sen, and Richard Tobin at the National Center for Education Statistics, this annual report (whose production and publication is required by federal law) offers a broad and thorough inquiry into the current state of education in the United States. Drawing a number of massive data sets, the 327-page report...

Retrieved from the Education Policy Analysis Archives, this paper, authored by Ildiko Laczko-Kerr and Professor David Berliner of Arizona State University, offers a critical analytical examination of the academic achievements of students instructed by under-certified primary school teachers (including those participating in the Teach For America program). The study compares the performance on a...

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1999 released results of their 1998 National Assessment of Civics. The assessment tested over 22,000 students in the fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades using multiple-choice and open-ended questions to assess civics knowledge and skills. The assessment found that "about two-thirds of students at each grade performed at or above the "Basic"...

The White House Web site has made access to current U.S. social data much easier by establishing the Social Statistics Briefing Room. The power of this site is that it not only offers brief statistics and charts, but that it also links to the agency that is responsible for the data, allowing interested users to obtain much more detailed data when available. The Social Briefing Room contains data...

In 1999 the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released this statistical analysis report. What Happens in Classrooms?, provides data on the pedagogical methodology of K-12 teachers in the US. The 220-page report focuses on four instructional practice areas: the role of the teacher in the classroom, the technologies and materials used for instruction, the learning tasks conducted by...