Archived Commissioner’s Remarks - Before 2010
December 4, 2007
NCES Statement on PISA 2006 – Today the National Center for Education Statistics is releasing results on the performance of students in the United States on an international study, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA is a system of international assessments that measures 15-year-old students’ performance in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy every 3 years. PISA, first implemented in 2000, is sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization of 30 member countries.
November 23, 2007
Response to the “Validity Study of the NAEP Mathematics Assessment: Grades 4 and 8” Nowhere is NCES’s commitment to excellence more important than in NAEP, the “Nation’s Report Card.” As part of the continued pursuit of excellence, Mark Schneider, the Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), asked the NAEP Validity Studies (NVS) Panel to undertake a study to examine the quality of the NAEP Mathematics Assessments at grades 4 and 8.
November 15, 2007
Trial Urban District Assessment: 2007 Reading & Mathematics – Today I am releasing the results of the 2007 reading and mathematics assessments from the National Assessment of Educational Progress for 11 urban school districts. We call these Trial Urban District Assessments, or TUDAs. These assessments were given earlier this year to 4th- and 8th-grade students at the same time as the national- and state-level assessments.
September 25, 2007
Commissioner’s Remarks - The Nation’s Report Card: Reading 2007 & The Nation’s Report Card: Mathematics 2007 – Today I am releasing the results of the 2007 reading and mathematics assessments from the National Assessment of Educational Progress-the NAEP Report Cards in these subjects for 2007. These assessments were given earlier this year to 4th- and 8th-grade students across the country.
August 8, 2007
Commissioner’s Remarks - The Nation’s Report Card: Economics 2006 – Good morning. I would like to share with you the results of the 12th Grade Economics Assessment, conducted in 2006 as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. This was the first NAEP economics assessment and was added in response to the growing emphasis on economics instruction at the high school level. In 2006, close to two-thirds of students reported that they had taken either an advanced or a general economics course. For this assessment, we had a national sample of over 11,000 twelfth-graders in 590 schools.
June 20, 2007
New Initiatives � National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Symposium on Data Issues in Teacher Supply and Demand – On March 26, 2007, NCES held a 1-day symposium on data issues in the study of teacher supply and demand. Researchers presented commissioned papers describing the current knowledge base on teacher supply and demand and data needs for improving and expanding the knowledge base. Synopses of the papers are included in this document; the papers are available from the authors. After presenting their papers, the participants responded to questions and comments from NCES staff and the public. Included in the link is a summary of primary concerns and recommendations offered by the researchers, synopses of the papers with author contact information, and the symposium’s agenda.
June 7, 2007
Mapping 2005 State Proficiency Standards onto the NAEP Scales – Today I am releasing the results of a study that uses NAEP as a basis for comparing state-level proficiency standards. To do so, NCES developed a methodology that uses NAEP as a common yardstick.
This methodology is based on locating the proficiency standard each state has developed for its own state test on the NAEP scale. There are many nuances in estimation, weighting and error estimation, but the crux of the comparison is quite simple.
May 31, 2007
Commissioner’s Remarks - The Condition of Education 2007 – This year’s report presents indicators of important developments and trends in U.S. education. These indicators focus on participation and persistence in education, student performance and other measures of achievement, the environment for learning, and resources for education. In addition, this year’s volume contains a special analysis that examines changes in student coursetaking in high school using national transcript data from 1982 to 2005. While the analysis focuses on the credit accrual of high school graduates, it also takes a special look at the coursework of high school dropouts and courses taken for college credit.
May 16, 2007
National Assessment of Educational Progress The Nation’s Report Card: Civics 2006; The Nation’s Report Card: U.S. History 2006 – Good morning. I am here today to share with you the results from two reports on the academic performance of America’s students-The Nation’s Report Card: Civics 2006 and The Nation’s Report Card: U.S. History 2006. The U.S. history assessment was our first since 2001 and the civics assessment was the first since 1998.
March 29, 2007
The Nation’s Report Card: Mathematics 2003 and 2005 Performance in Puerto Rico-Highlights; The Nation’s Report Card: Mathematics 2005 Performance in Puerto Rico-Focus on the Content Areas – I am here today to present the mathematics results for Puerto Rico from the 2003 and 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. I am releasing two reports�The Nation’s Report Card: Mathematics 2003 and 2005 Performance in Puerto Rico�Highlights and The Nation’s Report Card: Mathematics 2005 Performance in Puerto Rico�Focus on the Content Areas.
March 29, 2007
The Nation’s Report Card: Matem�ticas 2003 y 2005: Rendimiento en Puerto Rico-Aspectos Sobresalientes; The Nation’s Report Card: Matem�ticas 2005: Rendimiento en Puerto Rico-Enfoque en las �reas de Contenido – Estoy aqu� hoy para presentarles los resultados de matem�ticas de Puerto Rico de la Evaluaci�n Nacional del Progreso Educativo (o NAEP, por sus siglas en ingl�s) de 2003 y 2005. Tenemos dos informes: The Nation’s Report Card: Matem�ticas 2003 y 2005: Rendimiento en Puerto Rico�Aspectos Sobresalientes y The Nation’s Report Card: Matem�ticas 2005: Rendimiento en Puerto Rico�Enfoque en las �reas de Contenido.
February 22, 2007
The Nation’s Report Card: 12th-Grade Reading and Mathematics 2005 - America’s High School Graduates: Results from the 2005 NAEP High School Transcript Study – Good morning. My name is Mark Schneider, Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. I am here today to share with you the results of two reports on the academic performance of America’s twelfth-graders-The Nation’s Report Card: 12th-Grade Reading and Mathematics 2005 and America’s High School Graduates: Results from the 2005 NAEP High School Transcript Study.
February 9, 2007
Presentation on NCES’s High School Transcript Studies, 1982-2004: Summary of Findings – Good morning. I am here today to share with you results from transcript studies that have been conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.
I am pleased to speak with you about this, because the transcript studies conducted by NCES have provided a wealth of information about the courses that students take in high school, the grades they get in those courses, and how the courses taken by the students are related to their achievement. These high school transcript studies have been conducted every 3-5 years back to 1982.
As a result, they provide important information about change in the U.S. high school curriculum and they may provide you with questions for the kinds of research that you do and may provide a national framework for some of the data you are seeing from schools in your region.
Return to the NCES Commissioner’s Page