CFK reports from: The Sumner School
Event: A briefing on the Condition of Education 2005
Organized by: The National Center for Education Statistics
Where/When: Washington, D.C, June 1, 2005
Report by Tameka Patterson
On June 1, 2005, The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), held a briefing to release its annual collection of education statistics, The Condition of Education 2005. Grover J. Whitehurst, the Director of Institute of Education Sciences, and Acting Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics presented the report, which is mandated by congress and is due June 1, of every year.
This year the report presents 40 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis of the mobility of elementary and secondary school teachers. Of these 40 indicators, only 24 are new, while the others have been updated over previous years.
Some highlights:
- Enrollment. By the year 2014, public elementary and secondary enrollment is expected to increase from 48.3 million to 50 million. This record enrollment figure is attributable to two factors: childbearing among the baby boom generation, and immigration.
- Student achievement. Since the 1990s, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been used to assess the reading and math performance of public and private school students in 4th and 8th grades. The new report shows an increase in reading scores for 8th graders between 1992 and 2003. However, there was no difference in the scores for 4th graders. In math, the average scores in 2003 were higher than in all other previous assessment for 4th and 8th graders.
- More advanced coursework. Between 1982 and 2000, there has been an increase in the percentage of high school graduates who had completed advanced courses in science and mathematics, from 13 percent to 34 percent. Meanwhile, the percentages of high school graduates who had completed advanced academic levels of English and foreign language study doubled.
- Teacher turnover. Teachers in high-poverty public schools were twice as likely as their counterparts in low-poverty public schools to move to a new school in the 1999-2000 school year. Overall teacher turnover was 16 percent at the end of 1999-2000 school year, compared to 14 percent in previous years.
- Per pupil spending. In 1999-2000, the national average per pupil expenditure was $8,085, up from $6,794 in 1989-1990. Per pupil spending was highest in the most affluent school districts, and second-highest in the least affluent school districts, with middle-income districts falling at the bottom.
More information is available on the NCES website [1].