United States Education Data Resources
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
The NCES website provides several different means of access to national level education data- Surveys and Programs, Data Tools, Tables and Figures and Fast Facts. The site provides descriptions of micro-level and summary–level education data, but only provides the summary-level data. For access to the micro-level data, please go to the IQSS Dataverse Network. The summary-level data is pulled from several NCES publications including the Digest of Education Statistics, Condition of Education, National Education Data Research Center (NEDRC) and Education Statistics Quarterly.
US Department of Education
Provides very detailed information about education-related surveys and program areas. Directs users to NCES website for access to most data.
FedStats
A great resource for locating federally collected and disseminated data. Users can search by subject, agency, or geographic area. There is also a “topic links” button that allows users to search for data alphabetically by subject.
Census Bureau
The Census Bureau provides education-related data that can be displayed in both tabular and map format. Education indicators from the Census Bureau include attainment, enrollment, finances and employment in public schools and financial aid. Using the Subjects A-Z link, search for education data under the “Education” heading as well as the “School” heading.
National Education Association (NEA)
Summary-level statistics from NEA published reports. Data typically in .pdf format
Lexis-Nexis Statistical
Lexis-Nexis Statistical indexes statistical publications published by US government agencies. All of the documents within this resource are available at Harvard (Research Services in Lamont, Level B), although the majority are not cataloged in HOLLIS. Tip: Choose “Search Abstracts” for a more thorough search of the publications. This resource does not search the full-text (does search title, subject descriptors and abstracts).
Chronicle of Higher Education
Provides data relating to faculty salaries, enrollment, student activities, demographics of college faculty and presidents, etc.
International Education Data Resources
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
UNESCO is a sub-organization of the United Nations. The main goal of UNESCO is to coordinate communication between member countries with a focus on Education, Natural Science, Social and Human Science, Culture and Communication & Information. The Education statistics available via UNESCO include the UNESCO database (which allows users to build tables of data), pre-formatted statistical tables, country and regional data profiles and “Fast Facts”.
World Education Indicators (WEI)
UNESCO (in collaboration with OECD) also publishes World Education Indicators, a collection of indicators that could be used to guide international education policy decisions. The data is collected from middle-income countries throughout the world.
United Nations (UN) Statistics Division - Demographic and Social Concerns
This United Nations (UN) website provides basic education data including enrollment rates, expenditure and school life expectancy for over 100 countries worldwide.
United Nations (UN) Common Database
This database contains over 25 education and learning indicators (including enrollment, expenditure, levels of illiteracy, and literacy rates) for countries and areas throughout the world.
United Nations (UN) Human Development Report
This website provides the full-text of these reports from 1990-present. These thematic reports focus on issues ranging from health to education to globalization to human rights. The site also provides a link to the Human Development Indicators database.
World Bank
The World Bank produces many different publications relating to education and learning. A few World Bank education-related publications include:
EDStats
This resource is a comprehensive education statistics database. It compiles data from a variety of national and international sources and provides information on key education topics including education expenditure, education attainment, school age population estimates and much more.
Millennium Development Goal (#2)
MDG #2 is to achieve universal primary education. This website allows the user to create charts, maps, and tables for literacy rates, primary school completion rates, and primary school enrollment.
World Development Indicators (WDI Online)
WDI (World Development Indicators) Online contains statistical data from the World Bank for almost 600 development indicators and time series data from 1960 for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. The education series include expenditure on education, literacy rates, school enrollment and completion and more. Results can be scaled, indexed against a particular year, viewed by percentage change, and charted. Data can be exported in Excel.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Statistics from the PISA database (Programme for International Student Assessment). Indicators include personnel and enrollment statistics, detailed expenditure data by country, foreign student enrollment and several indicators that compare # of graduates/demographic data.
Micro-level Data Resources
IQSS Dataverse Network
IQSS Dataverse provides access to Harvard's Murray Research Archive, as well as these other large data collections: ICPSR, NARA (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration), Roper Center, and The DataWeb (U.S. Census Bureau). Numeric Data Services and other smaller collections can also be searched. Data can be downloaded if permissions allow and in some cases subset for analysis.
ICPSR- Child Care and Early Education Research Connections
Research Connections provides researchers, policymakers, policy influencers, and practitioners with one-stop access to a continually updated, comprehensive, and searchable collection of Original Research and related resources including Syntheses, Datasets, Statistics, Instruments and Measures, and comparative State Data Tools. Research Connections' goal is to promote high quality research and the use of that research in policymaking (http://www.childcareresearch.org/discover/index.jsp 4/3/2006, 1:21pm).
ICPSR- International Archive of Education Data (IAED)
The IAED, a project sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics, is an archive that acquires, processes, documents, and disseminates data collected by national, state or provincial, local, and private organizations, pertaining to all levels of education in countries for which data can be made available. Data will encompass the "inputs" to education (funding, personnel, teaching resources, facilities, teacher and student preparation, etc.), the variety of processes by which teaching and learning occur, and the "outputs" of education (graduation and matriculation rates, drop-out rates, test scores, job placements, life histories, life assessments, etc.) (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/IAED/ 4/3/2006, 1:24pm).
Research Guides
Selected Resources for International Education Statistics
This research guide was created and published by the the staff of the Gutman Library Research and Instruction Services. The guide includes many sources of international comparative data.
Selected Resources for United States Education Statistics
This research guide was created and published by the the staff of the Gutman Library Research and Instruction Services to provide researchers with access to United States statistical education resources.