1. Development of Concepts and Methods
   (572 KB, PDF)
2. Planning and Design of Surveys
   (337 KB, PDF)
3. Collection of Data
   (285 KB, PDF)
4. Processing and Editing of Data
   (363 KB, PDF)
5. Analysis of Data / Production of Estimates or Projections
   (325 KB, PDF)
6. Establishment of Review Procedures
   (290 KB, PDF)
7. Dissemination of Data
   (453 KB, PDF)
8. Glossary
   (374 KB, PDF)
9. Appendix A: Imputation
   (current Appendix B)
10. Appendix B: Tabular Guidelines
    (current Appendix C)

2012 Revision of NCES Statistical Standards: Final

This website contains the 2012 revised statistical standards and guidelines for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the principal statistical agency within the U.S. Department of Education. These standards represent modest revisions relative to the 2002 NCES Statistical Standards. The revisions are intended to align the NCES Statistical Standards with the 2006 OMB Standards and Guidelines for Statistical Surveys and to incorporate methodological and procedural changes that have occurred over the last decade. NCES would like to thank all who submitted comments on the draft set of NCES Statistical Standards. We are posting the final Standards here as an interim measure while the Standards website is redesigned.

These standards are intended to assist NCES in fulfilling the goal of providing public policy decision makers and the general public informative statistical information that is: high quality, reliable, and useful. In keeping with this goal, the NCES Statistical Standards and guidelines are intended for use by NCES staff and contractors to guide them in their data collection, analysis, and dissemination activities.

These standards and guidelines are also intended to present a clear statement for data users regarding how data should be collected in NCES surveys, and the limits of acceptable applications and use. Beyond these immediate uses, we hope that other organizations involved in similar public endeavors will find the contents of some of these standards and guidelines useful in their work as well.