Former NCES leaders explain how chronic staffing, contracting, and bureaucratic barriers undermined the agency’s ability to produce timely education statistics. They offer practical recommendations for rebuilding a stronger, more agile NCES.
NCES
Fourth ASA Survey of Bachelor’s Graduates Tracks Rapidly Evolving Job Market
With the emergence of data science, machine learning, and AI, much has changed in the job market since the American Statistical Association’s first follow-up survey of bachelor’s graduates in 2017. This fourth survey of the graduating class of 2023 covers many changes, as well as considerable consistency.
Data Science, Analytics Degrees See Explosive Growth
This summer’s release of the 2023 degree completion data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows incremental to solid growth for statistics and biostatistics degrees and doubling and tripling for data science and analytics degrees.
Administration Releases FY23 Budget Request as Congress Finalizes FY22 Budget
Congress wrapped up its funding for the federal government for fiscal year 2022 in March, the sixth month of the fiscal year. With the Biden administration releasing its fiscal year 2023 within a few weeks, Congress had to almost immediately start the process again. The National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation both received 4 percent increases. Several statistical agencies also received 3–6 percent increases.
Meet Peggy Carr, Commissioner for Education Statistics
On August 24, 2021, President Joe Biden announced the appointment of Peggy G. Carr as commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics in the Institute of Education Sciences at the US Department of Education.
Undergraduate Statistics Degrees Up 474% Since 2010
The increase in the number of universities granting statistics and biostatistics degrees also continues steadily.
State of the Education Data Infrastructure: What Three Experts Have to Say About the National Center for Education Statistics
For the state of the data infrastructure series, the ASA Count on Stats team spoke with three experts on the National Center for Education Statistics: James L. Woodworth, Jack Buckley, and Felice J. Levine.
Biden Administration’s First Budget Request Favors NIH, NSF; Flat Funds Education, Energy, Health, Justice Statistics
The Biden administration’s fiscal year 2022 (FY22) budget request sends a strong signal for its support of research funding, proposing 20 percent increases for the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. Many of the federal statistical agencies also see strong support through increases of 5–10 percent.
FY21 Federal Budget Finalized
![Figure 1 shows the budgets of the seven mid-sized statistical agencies normalized to their FY09 levels, along with the GDP deflator to account for inflation. Budget restructuring for ERS in FY15 and ORES in FY19 are accounted for in the graph to allow for comparison over this time period. One-time moving costs in FY16 for BEA are also omitted. [Key: BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis; BJS, Bureau of Justice Statistics; BTS, Bureau of Transportation Statistics; ERS, USDA Economic Research Service; NCSES, NSF National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; ORES, Social Security Administration Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics; SOI, IRS Statistics of Income Division]](https://magazine.amstat.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FY_Figure1_-150x150.jpg)
The NIH, NSF, and several federal statistical agencies received increases, but many are facing fiscal challenges after years of purchasing power loss.
National Center for Education Statistics Faces Program Cuts
The National Center for Education Statistics is facing a staffing and budget crisis. Important programs may be cut unless Congress and the Department of Education intervene.