A Vision and Roadmap for Education Statistics (2022) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 79-92
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From page 79... ...
; • Education practitioners, such as teachers and education administrators; • Education consumers, such as students, parents, families, and employers; • Congress and the President; • Other federal agencies, especially the principal statistical agencies; • Other data-holding agencies and organizations; • State and local policy makers and the policy community; • The civil rights-monitoring community; • Advisory boards and professional associations; and • Researchers and academia.
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From page 80... ...
NCES also produces population-level statistics on education for the nation, and the panel suggests that this core role continue. This chapter addresses methods by which NCES could increase its impact through engagement with stakeholders; incorporating user feedback into products and services; expanding its role in data governance and facilitating data access; enabling SEAs to build data-linkage infrastructure; and promoting and delivering products that are accessible, actionable, and timely.
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From page 81... ...
FIGURE 4-1 NCES stakeholders map. SOURCE: Peggy Carr, NCES, presentation at the Association of Public Data Users, October 21, 2021.
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From page 82... ...
territories, and over 13,000 school districts. The National Postsecondary Education Cooperative is charged with developing a research and development agenda focusing primarily on the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
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RECOMMENDATION 4-1: NCES should deepen and broaden its engagement with current and potential data users, to gather continu ing feedback about their needs and ways that NCES can meet those needs more effectively. This feedback will help NCES shape its efforts to develop and disseminate standards, provide technical assistance, and strengthen its user community.
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From page 84... ...
represents a best practice.10 The ACS Office solicits feedback and questions from all users via email and phone, and it partners with the Population Reference Bureau, which hosts the ACS Data Users Group -- a community that shares information, materials, and events.11 Agencies comparable in size to NCES have developed methods for receiving broad user feedback and/or communicating directly with users via topical webinars or emails announcing product releases, for instance. NCES may consider creating a data-user advisory group to direct the Center's outreach efforts.12 NCES can also extend its use of technical review panels, such as its Technical Review Panel for IPEDS, which obtains input on IPEDS-related project plans and products and fosters communications with potential data users (RTI International, 2021)
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From page 85... ...
RECOMMENDATION 4-2: NCES should actively collaborate with other data-holding federal agencies and organizations to develop useful products and processes, including those that utilize data from alterna tive sources, to provide timely, policy-relevant insights. NCES is connected with other federal statistical agencies through the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, but it could more fully leverage those relationships to advance education statistics and insights.
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From page 86... ...
The National Student Clearinghouse, the Manufacturing Institute, Child Trends, and Data Quality Campaign are 16 U.S. Census Bureau document provided to the panel, "Evidence Building Projects." 17 U.S.
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In the panel's opinion, NCES can and should expand its network to support creative evidence building and increase its mission impact. Receive and Use the Help of an External Review Body In addition to engaging broadly, the panel recommends that NCES routinely receive recommendations from experts and address those recommendations.
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From page 88... ...
The panel believes that NCES could benefit greatly from a review body focused solely on reinforcing NCES's strategic goals and helping the Center to meet them. RECOMMENDATION 4-3: NCES should explore and establish cre ative models for a nimble, ongoing consulting body, supplemented by a pool of ad hoc consultants, to help NCES innovate and be accountable for progress on strategic goals.
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From page 89... ...
, and handles "statistical methodology and other technical matters related to the collection, tabulation, and analysis of federal economic statistics."21 BEA also works well with its BEA Advisory Committee, which focuses on "the development and improvement of BEA's national, regional, industry, and international economic accounts, especially in areas of new and rapidly growing economic activities arising from innovative and advancing technologies."22 In the panel's opinion, the BEA Advisory Committee has been instrumental in supporting BEA's exploration of alternative data sources for measuring new and emerging economic topics. The NCHS Board of Scientific Counselors, although subject to FACA, is a particularly good example of a successful advisory committee.
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EXPAND NCES'S ROLE ENABLING DATA ACCESS TO SERVE AND ENGAGE STAKEHOLDERS Facilitate Data Access and Use The panel finds that NCES focuses heavily on its primary data collections and products to achieve mission impact. However, as discussed above, NCES can expand the value of existing data products by providing key services that have high return on investment of effort.
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From page 91... ...
By increasing data access, more external analysts can participate in evidence building for decision making. Moreover, by setting standards for data and governance processes, NCES can better manage data quality and transparency in data design and provenance -- two of NCES's strengths.
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From page 92... ...
LEAs need data access and technical assistance. To address these gaps, NCES could award SLDS grants for states to share data with LEAs, facilitate LEAs' access to data for evidence building, and provide technical assistance.
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