2010 Condition of Education available

"The National Center for Education Statistics today released The Condition of Education, a Congressionally mandated report to the nation on education in America today. It covers all aspects of education, with 49 indicators that include findings on enrollment trends, demographics, and outcomes.

The report projects that public school enrollment will rise from 49 million in 2008 to 52 million by 2019, with the largest increase expected in the South. Over the past decade, more students attended both charter schools and high-poverty schools (those in which more than 75 percent of the students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch). One in six U.S. students attends a high-poverty school; and the number of charter school students has tripled since 1999."

The report is also linked under the Statistics and Demographics tab on the Education subject guide.

Common Core Data for Elementary/Secondary Schools, 2007-08

This First Look presents national and state level data on student enrollment by grade and by race/ethnicity within grade, the numbers of teachers and other education staff, and several student/staff ratios for the 2007-08 school year.

New report on post-secondary education

New NCES report focuses on the cost of getting a college degree. Tables include profiles of post-secondary institutions which include data on tuition, degrees awarded, demographics of students. Link to full report is here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009165

Interactive data charts available from Google

Still somewhat limited in their coverage but great fun to play with, you can now find population or unemployment data for states and counties and then interact with the data (do comparisons across counties, states, to the whole U.S., etc.). This is a Google search tool imposed on Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Centus data. Go to Google's regular search screen (Google.com) and enter, for example, population nevada or unemployment rate clark county
Here are some sample graphs:

• http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usunemployment&met=unemployment_rate&idim=county:CN320230:CN320030

• http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=uspopulation&met=population&idim=state:32000&idim=county:32003:32023:06001

Google's blog entry is here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/adding-search-power-to-public-data.html

Thanks to librarian Michael Yunkin for bringing this to my attention! I'll add this to the "Statistics and Demographics" tab of the Education subject guide, too.

New data on post-secondary students

The National Center for Education Statistics has released the first round of results from the 2008 National Student Postsecondary Aid Study (NPSAS:08). This nationally representative study provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive look at postsecondary student characteristics and student financial aid for the 2007-08 academic year.

NPSAS:08 data are a rich source of information on student demographics, family background, education and work experiences, and student financial aid, including federal, state, institutional, and other sources. The NPSAS:08 study contains a sample of 128,000 students which represent 21 million undergraduates and 3 million graduate students enrolled in postsecondary education anytime between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.

Selected NPSAS:08 Findings.

* Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) of all undergraduates received some type of financial aid. For those receiving any aid, the total average amount was $9,100.

* About one-half (52 percent) of all undergraduates received grant aid, and more than one-third (38 percent) obtained student loans. The average grant amount was $4,900, and the average loan amount was $7,100.

* Nearly one-half (47 percent) of all undergraduates received some type of federal student aid. About one-fourth (28 percent) received an average of $2,800 in federal Pell grants, and about one-third (35 percent) obtained an average of $5,100 in federal student loans.

* Among undergraduates financially dependent on their parents, 28 percent came from families with incomes under $40,000 and another 28 percent from families with incomes of $100,000 or more.

* Three-fourths (74 percent) of all graduate students received some type of financial aid, with an average amount of $17,600. Forty-three percent took out an average of $18,500 in student loans, and about one-fifth (22 percent) received tuition aid from their employers.

To view, download and print the report as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009166

To Use the Data Analysis System (DAS) online, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/dasol/

Demographic trends continue

"A new report, “Building Tomorrow’s Workforce,” highlights the roles of community colleges and employers in educating Latino immigrants and preparing them for better jobs. A key statistic reflects the report’s theme that immigrant populations are a key part of the workforce, regardless of whether some politicians like to criticize them. The statistic: During the next decade, one in every four new workers in the United States will be an immigrant from Latin America." (from Inside Higher Ed: Quick Takes, Jan 22, 2009)

NCES Descriptive summary of beginning post-secondary students

This NCES report provides a description of the characteristics and enrollment patterns of a nationally representative sample of students who began postsecondary education for the first time during the 2003-04 academic year. Using data from the 2004/06 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, the report describes the background, academic preparation, and experience of these beginning students over three academic years, from July 2003 to June 2006, and provides information about rates of persistence, program completion, transfer, and attrition. The focus is on differences among students beginning at either 4-year, 2-year, or less-than-2-year institutions.
Report is available for viewing/download here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008174