National Center for Education Statistics

NCES logo

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States. It also conducts international comparisons of education statistics and provides leadership in developing and promoting the use of standardized terminology and definitions for the collection of those statistics. Stuart Kerachsky is the acting Commissioner for Education Statistics. On July 9, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Jack Buckley to the Senate to be the next Commissioner, and he was confirmed in the Senate December 23, 2010 for a term expiring June 21, 2015.

Services

NCES runs the following systems:

• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The core postsecondary education data collection program. IPEDS data on postsecondary institutions from is available via the College Navigator.
• The Common Core of Data which annually collects fiscal and non-fiscal data about all public schools, public school districts and state education agencies in the United States. This data is available online and includes number of classroom teachers, total students, student/teacher ratios, and school population by grade and race/ethnicity.
• National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide assessment of achievement among primary and secondary students.

External links

• Official website
• Institute for Education Sciences

NCES links for researchers

• Find a Public School
• Find a Private School
• Build a Table
• NCES Handbooks On-Line
• National Center for Education Statistics comparing private to public schools
• Search the National Archives Archival Research Catalog (ARC) for "National Center for Education Statistics" to identify historical NCES data and records