Government Reports on Education
The following government reports were selected by GovSpot.com editors as meaningful or noteworthy:
Financial Aid
The Department of Education released this report that explains federal financial assistance for college. The
Student Guide 2008-2009 includes descriptions of the loans and grants that are available and instructions on applying. The report is also available in Spanish and in PDF format.
International Comparisons
Did you ever wonder how the education system in our country stacks up against the other G-8 nations? This study from the National Center for Education Statistics shows how the United States compares to Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom in terms of indicators in five subjects: population and student enrollment; academic performance; context for learning; expenditure for education; and education returns or educational attainment and income.
Homeschooled Children
Approximately 1 million students nationwide, about 2.2 percent of children ages 5 to 17, were homeschooled in the spring of 2003. A Department of Education report, Homeschooling in the United States (February 2006), found that homeschooled children are more likely than other students to live with siblings in a two-parent family, with only one parent working outside the home.
School Internet Access
The National Center for Education Statistics provides analysis of how the information age is reaching public schools.
Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-2003 includes information on the ratio of students to computers and the types of Internet connection used.
Condition of Education
The annual Condition of Education (2005) report details how American students are learning and how they compare to international students. This year the report found that while more students are taking advanced math and science courses, there are still gaps in educational performance that need to be closed.
Reading Skills
The National Center for Education Statistics released this report, Reading 2007, an assessment of fourth graders' through eighth graders' reading skills. The report discusses trends in reading, such as the gender gap and improvements in skills between 1992 and 2007.
Higher Education
The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education released this report,
Measuring Up 2000, which evalutes colleges and universities nationwide. Each state received a grade in the areas of preparation, participation, affordability, completion and benefits. The report found that the benefits of higher education in the United States are distributed unevenly and often unfairly.
School Safety
In 2003, teenage students were the victims of 740,000 serious violent crimes at school, including 17 homicides. The National Center for Education Statistics released this report, Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2005, which reveals that despite the increasing frequency of school shootings, the rate of school crime decreased between 1992 and 2003.
Testing Education Reform
While most legislators and educators agree that the American educational system needs reform, no one can agree on the best method to improve it. This RAND report, Improving Mathematics and Science Education (2006), takes a hard look at the relationship between reform-oriented instruction and student achievement.
Valuable Technical Degrees
College graduates with engineering degrees earn the highest monthly salary, while those with education degrees earn the lowest, according to this Census Bureau press release (4/10/01). The findings are part of a report,
What's it Worth? Field of Training and Economic Status, that shows the earnings potential of college degrees.
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