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Appendix A

NCES Authorization Legislation

Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA 

2002), 20 U.S.C., Section 9543

Prepared by:

National Center for Education Statistics

U.S. Department of Education

Washington, DC

May 16, 2013
20 U.S.C. 

United States Code, 2011 Edition

Title 20 - EDUCATION

CHAPTER 76 - EDUCATION RESEARCH, STATISTICS, EVALUATION, INFORMATION, AND 

DISSEMINATION

SUBCHAPTER I - EDUCATION SCIENCES REFORM

Part C - National Center for Education Statistics

Sec. 9543 - Duties

From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov

§9543. Duties

(a) General duties

The Statistics Center shall collect, report, analyze, and disseminate statistical data related to education in 

the United States and in other nations, including—

(1) collecting, acquiring, compiling (where appropriate, on a State-by-State basis), and disseminating full 

and complete statistics (disaggregated by the population characteristics described in paragraph (3)) on the 

condition and progress of education, at the preschool, elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and adult 

levels in the United States, including data on—

(A) State and local education reform activities;

(B) State and local early childhood school readiness activities;

(C) student achievement in, at a minimum, the core academic areas of reading, mathematics, and science 

at all levels of education;

(D) secondary school completions, dropouts, and adult literacy and reading skills;

(E) access to, and opportunity for, postsecondary education, including data on financial aid to 

postsecondary students;

(F) teaching, including—

(i) data on in-service professional development, including a comparison of courses taken in the core 

academic areas of reading, mathematics, and science with courses in noncore academic areas, including 

technology courses; and

(ii) the percentage of teachers who are highly qualified (as such term is defined in section 9101 of the 

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801)) in each State and, where feasible, in 

each local educational agency and school;

(G) instruction, the conditions of the education workplace, and the supply of, and demand for, teachers;

(H) the incidence, frequency, seriousness, and nature of violence affecting students, school personnel, and 

other individuals participating in school activities, as well as other indices of school safety, including 

information regarding—

(i) the relationship between victims and perpetrators;

(ii) demographic characteristics of the victims and perpetrators; and

(iii) the type of weapons used in incidents, as classified in the Uniform Crime Reports of the Federal 

Bureau of Investigation;
(I) the financing and management of education, including data on revenues and expenditures;

(J) the social and economic status of children, including their academic achievement;

(K) the existence and use of educational technology and access to the Internet by students and teachers in 

elementary schools and secondary schools;

(L) access to, and opportunity for, early childhood education;

(M) the availability of, and access to, before-school and after-school programs (including such programs 

during school recesses);

(N) student participation in and completion of secondary and postsecondary vocational and technical 

education programs by specific program area; and

(O) the existence and use of school libraries;

(2) conducting and publishing reports on the meaning and significance of the statistics described in 

paragraph (1);

(3) collecting, analyzing, cross-tabulating, and reporting, to the extent feasible, information by gender, 

race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, limited English proficiency, mobility, disability, urban, rural, 

suburban districts, and other population characteristics, when such disaggregated information will 

facilitate educational and policy decisionmaking;

(4) assisting public and private educational agencies, organizations, and institutions in improving and 

automating statistical and data collection activities, which may include assisting State educational 

agencies and local educational agencies with the disaggregation of data and with the development of 

longitudinal student data systems;

(5) determining voluntary standards and guidelines to assist State educational agencies in developing 

statewide longitudinal data systems that link individual student data consistent with the requirements of 

the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.), promote linkages across 

States, and protect student privacy consistent with section 9573 of this title, to improve student academic 

achievement and close achievement gaps;

(6) acquiring and disseminating data on educational activities and student achievement (such as the Third 

International Math and Science Study) in the United States compared with foreign nations;

(7) conducting longitudinal and special data collections necessary to report on the condition and progress 

of education;

(8) assisting the Director in the preparation of a biennial report, as described in section 9519 of this title; 

and

(9) determining, in consultation with the National Research Council of the National Academies, 

methodology by which States may accurately measure graduation rates (defined as the percentage of 

students who graduate from secondary school with a regular diploma in the standard number of years), 

school completion rates, and dropout rates.

(b) Training program

The Statistics Commissioner may establish a program to train employees of public and private 

educational agencies, organizations, and institutions in the use of standard statistical procedures and 

concepts, and may establish a fellowship program to appoint such employees as temporary fellows at the 

Statistics Center, in order to assist the Statistics Center in carrying out its duties.

(Pub. L. 107–279, title I, §153, Nov. 5, 2002, 116 Stat. 1958.)
References in Text

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, referred to in subsec. (a)(5), is Pub. L. 89–10, 

Apr. 11, 1965, 79 Stat. 27, as amended, which is classified generally to chapter 70 (§6301 et seq.) of this 

title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 6301 of 

this title and Tables.

Study by National Center for Education Statistics Respecting Condition of Education for Hispanic 

Americans

Pub. L. 98–211, §24(b), Dec. 8, 1983, 97 Stat. 1419, provided that: “The National Center for Education 

Statistics shall not terminate the study of the condition of education for Hispanic Americans unless 

specifically required or authorized to do so by law.”