The National Center for Education Statistics Releases The Condition of Education 2013 Report

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released its annual report, The Condition of Education. This year’s report presents 42 indicators of important developments and trends in U.S. education. These indicators focus on population characteristics, participation in education, elementary and secondary education, and postsecondary education.
Reports like these that crunch data and utilize statistics to provide a snapshot or several snapshots of education are popular and often fuel comparisons between the United States and other countries or individual districts/schools and other locations in the United States.
Often the information and findings presented are either the “positive” reports that include statements such as “enrollment in full-day preschool increased” and the simple statement associated with this such as  “In 2011, almost two-thirds of three to five year olds were enrolled in preschool, and nearly 60 percent of these children were in full-day programs.”  The other side of the coin is the “negative” or where we are falling short statements that are made such as the point about more schools being classified as high poverty schools with a finding that states “At the elementary and secondary level, about one in five public schools was considered high poverty in 2011, meaning that 75 percent or more of the students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch. This number was closer to 1 in 8 in 2000.”
So, the questions at hand for this discussion are “what do you think of this report?” Is it useful, what type of information will you personally use from it? How will it be interpreted from media in your local area?  Will it be examined by your district?