Dear ASA Community,
The ASA NCES project team is pleased to share that Tuesday morning we released, A Vision and Strategy for Remaking the National Center for Education Statistics. Please have a look and let us know what you think. As the report states, it is intended as a "basis for building a community ready to improve and advance this vision and strategy, and to support the development and implementation of a roadmap." The report and other resources are at the project page: http://bit.ly/Re-EnvisioningNCES. The report was written by Shelly Martinez and Stephen Provasnik and supported by other team members: Gail Mulligan, Michelle Crosby, and me. We are grateful to former NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr and James "Lynn" Woodworth who are advising the project as well as our funders: William T. Grant Foundation and Lumina Foundation.
The key take-aways are the following (as pasted from the press release):
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Broad consensus on NCES's value: Stakeholders across sectors and the political spectrum agree NCES is uniquely positioned to play an essential and trusted federal role that cannot be replicated by states or the private sector alone in producing objective, comparable education statistics and anchoring the nation's education data ecosystem. Indeed, the crowded field of information produced or released in the ecosystem-composed of states, universities, businesses, and others-makes NCES's role so critical because the wealth of education data lacks established quality and public accountability needed for high-stakes decision-making.
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The pre-2025 model was not working well enough: Even before last year's disruption, NCES's in-house capacity was insufficient for its mandated portfolio, and stakeholders agreed its products needed to be more timely and accessible and its data silos with other statistical agencies needed to be broken down to better inform policies like those around education to workforce transitions.
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A rare opportunity for change: Rebuilding NCES with its former structure and operations would recreate the same structural weaknesses that left the agency vulnerable. The report calls for a fundamentally different approach.
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Real costs to reduced capacity: With NCES's statistical work and its partnerships with states and other data users largely stalled, the report warns that gaps in the nation's education data infrastructure will become increasingly apparent the longer the disruption continues.
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The keys to modernizing are well within reach. NCES's distinct combination of responsibilities positions it at the intersection of two sets of critical infrastructure: the vertical education data system and the horizontal federal statistical system. It is therefore well positioned to bring the assets of one system to inform and advance the other, and to use them to improve statistics on the condition and progress of education in the United States. Therefore, if NCES pursues its three sets of responsibilities in an integrative and comprehensive manner, it has the potential to significantly elevate its value to the nation and the public good.
I also highlight these supporting materials that Gail wrote or coauthored:
In the coming weeks, we will be organizing presentations and discussions on the paper and hope you can join one of those. In the meantime, please use the form or email us to let us know what you think.
We look forward to your thoughts.
Best Wishes,
Steve
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Steve Pierson
Director of Science Policy
American Statistical Association
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