Welcome to the National Forum on Education Statistics. The Forum is sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education and is committed to improving the quality, comparability, and usefulness of elementary and secondary education data, while remaining sensitive to data burden concerns. Forum members include representatives from state education agencies, local education agencies, the federal government, and other organizations with an interest in education data. Our purpose is to plan, recommend, and implement strategies for building an education data system that will support local, state, and national efforts to improve public and private education throughout the United States.
Publications of the National Forum on Education Statistics do not undergo the formal review required for products of the National Center for Education Statistics. The information and opinions published here are the product of the National Forum on Education Statistics and do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the U.S. Department of Education or the National Center for Education Statistics.
Highlights
The Summer 2009 Forum Meeting will be held in Bethesda, Maryland on July 27-29, 2009, followed by the NCES Summer Data Conference (July 29-31, 2009).
The Winter 2009 Forum Meeting was held in Seattle, Washington on February 16-17, 2009, followed by the 2009 MIS Conference (February 18-20). See meeting notes.
The Education Data Model Version 1 (PK-12) is a catalogue of the data used in PK-12 education and a description of the relationships among those data. The Data Model website includes supporting documents, usage vignettes, a web-based tool for browsing the Data Model, and links to open source tools that can be used for viewing, exploring, and applying the model.
SIFA University is now offering a free online course based on the Forum Curriculum for Improving Education Data. Visit SIFA University to take Improving Education Data Part I – Creating a Culture of Quality Data.
Recent Publications
February 3, 2009:
Every School Day Counts. The Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance DataThis Forum guide offers best practice suggestions on collecting and using student attendance data to improve performance.
October 1, 2008:
Handbooks Online - Version 6.0Handbooks Online - Version 6.0 is a searchable web tool that provides access to the NCES Data Handbooks for elementary, secondary, and early childhood education.
