November 2024

On October 31, AERA submitted comments responding to a Request for Information from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for recommendations on improving data user experiences through an inaugural data users conference.

The conference builds on the 2022 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report A Vision and Roadmap for Education Statistics, which included a recommendation for NCES to “deepen and broaden its engagement with current and potential data users, to gather continuing feedback about their needs and ways that NCES can meet those needs more effectively.”

NCES will be holding this virtual conference on February 11–13, 2025, and is currently accepting proposals through December 1. The conference will include three themes:

• Identifying and Closing Learning and Achievement Gaps
• How Are the Pre-K, K–12, and Postsecondary Landscapes Changing?
• Expanding Awareness and Use of Socio-Spatial Data, Data for Rural Areas, and Blended Data to Improve Understanding of Underrepresented Groups

NCES sought input on data needs within these three themes in the RFI.

In the RFI response, AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine encouraged NCES to partner with AERA on outreach for submission of conference proposals and for conference participation. The comments also noted potential topics for each of the three themes:

Identifying and Closing Learning and Achievement Gaps

• Longitudinal Data Linkages
• Development of an Alternative Poverty Measure
• National Assessment of Educational Progress Process Data
• Examining the Ongoing Impact of COVID-19 on Learning and Achievement Gaps

Expanding Awareness and Use of Socio-Spatial Data, Data for Rural Areas, and Blended Data to Improve Understanding of Underrepresented Groups

• School Facilities
• Environmental Equity
• Blended Data and Data Linkages, including through the use of the Common Education Data Standards

Identifying and Explaining Ways That Pre-K, K–12, and Postsecondary Landscapes Are Changing

• Priority on Data for Examining Trends and Research on Postsecondary Faculty

Under the last point, Levine noted the importance of reinstating the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), last conducted in 2004.

“Users of NSOPF, including other federal agencies, appreciated that redesign and transformation would be important, but elimination has taken its toll,” wrote Levine. “Currently, there is no national-level survey of postsecondary faculty that captures changing trends among postsecondary faculty at an individual level.”

Additional information, including the call for proposals for the NCES Data Users Conference, is available on the Institute of Education Sciences website.

This call for proposals is one of several current opportunities featured on Beyond AERA.