Improving the Capacity of the National Education Data System to Address Equity Issues

by National Forum on Education Statistics (U.S.). National Education Statistics Agenda Committee

1995

"A Guide to Improving the National Education Data System" (1990) makes 36 recommendations for improving data collection in the areas of student/background characteristics, education resources, school processes, and student outcomes. This paper uses the framework of the "Guide" to review issues raised in "Education Counts," a recent examination of the nation's capacity to measure and monitor educational change, focusing specifically on data needed to address issues of educational equity with respect to student populations. The first section discusses current equity and at-risk policy issues and the data needed to address them. The second section looks more closely at the data currently available to address these items. The third section examines limitations in current data collections for addressing equity issues, and a fourth section provides specific recommendations for ways to improve the national data system to address equity issues. Recommendations center on the creation of student-based record systems, the linkage of elementary and secondary systems, the development of new measures and indicators, and the reporting of data according to student characteristics. (Contains 10 figures, 2 appendixes, and 60 references.) (SLD)

Evaluation of the Achievement Levels for Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress

by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Board on Testing and Assessment, Committee on National Statistics, Committee on the Evaluation of NAEP Achievement Levels for Mathematics and Reading

2017 · National Academies Press

Since 1969, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been providing policymakers, educators, and the public with reports on academic performance and progress of the nation's students. The assessment is given periodically in a variety of subjects: mathematics, reading, writing, science, the arts, civics, economics, geography, U.S. history, and technology and engineering literacy. NAEP is given to representative samples of students across the U.S. to assess the educational progress of the nation as a whole. Since 1992, NAEP results have been reported in relation to three achievement levels: basic, proficient, and advanced. However, the use of achievement levels has provoked controversy and disagreement, and evaluators have identified numerous concerns. This publication evaluates the NAEP student achievement levels in reading and mathematics in grades 4, 8, and 12 to determine whether the achievement levels are reasonable, reliable, valid, and informative to the public, and recommends ways that the setting and use of achievement levels can be improved.

Investigating the Influence of Standards

by National Research Council, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Center for Education, Committee on Understanding the Influence of Standards in K-12 Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education

2001 · National Academies Press

Since 1989, with the publication of Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for Mathematics by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, standards have been at the forefront of the education reform movement in the United States. The mathematics standards, which were revised in 2000, have been joined by standards in many subjects, including the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards published in 1996 and the Standards for Technical Literacy issued by the International Technology Education Association in 2000. There is no doubt that standards have begun to influence the education system. The question remains, however, what the nature of that influence is and, most importantly, whether standards truly improve student learning. To answer those questions, one must begin to examine the ways in which components of the system have been influenced by the standards. Investigating the Influence of Standards provides a framework to guide the design, conduct, and interpretation of research regarding the influences of nationally promulgated standards in mathematics, science, and technology education on student learning. Researchers and consumers of research such as teachers, teacher educators, and administrators will find the framework useful as they work toward developing an understanding of the influence of standards.