This Task Force was convened in the fall of 1996 "...to study the quality control procedures for NCES publications and determine if there are ways to improve the current procedures in a cost effective manner." The first phase of this Task Force included a review of current procedures and resulted in a set of nine findings and twenty recommendations that were included in an April 1997 NCES Working Paper. The findings and recommendations are focused on five areas: spread existing skills within NCES, improve documentation and communication, improve uses of computer systems for checking key results, improve the review process, and improve contract procedures.
The Quality Systems Task Force established Quality Improvement Teams to address the subset of recommendations that were identified " in the April 1997 report "...as being the most viable." One QIT addressed the issue of increasing the number of personnel available to conduct reviews. Another QIT revised the set of guidelines for tabular presentations. There were also QITS that worked on specifications for improved communications between NCES staff and programmers and on specifications for the review of electronic data products. The efforts and products of each of these QITS contributed to the 2002 revision of the NCES Statistical Standards.
