Key National Education Indicators: A Workshop

An ad hoc steering committee will plan and hold a two-day public workshop on the topic of key national education indicators. The workshop will take place as part of preparatory activities for the implementation of a Key National Indicator System authorized, but not yet funded, to be carried out by the Congressional Commission on Key National Indicators. The workshop will be informed by the related work conducted by the IOM on key national health indicators. The workshop audience will include individuals who will likely be involved with the anticipated work for the Commission on Key National Indicators.

The committee will develop the workshop agenda, select and invite speakers and discussants, and moderate the discussions. The topics to be addressed at the workshop will be defined to help scope the domain for a small set of indicators that describe the state of education in the country. The indicators chosen should reflect current research and should address the interests of practitioners, policy makers, parents and the public at large. In preparation for the event, the steering committee will commission one or more papers on prospective frameworks that could guide the development and implementation of a set of key national education indicators to serve the needs of this broad range of audiences. The framework(s) should include a candidate list of key national education indicators to use in the initial implementation. The framework(s) may include, as appropriate, indicators related to the social, economic, and other determinants of education outcomes, as well as outcomes in other sectors that are in turn affected by education.

The participants at the workshop will discuss the proposed indicator framework(s) and other presented material, identify issues that need to be resolved, and consider the design of a one-year process that could resolve the outstanding issues and reach consensus on an initial set of indicators to recommend for implementation. The discussions at the workshop will be described in an individually-authored summary document written by a designated rapporteur.

Membership

David W. Breneman, chair, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
Elaine Allensworth, Consortium on Chicago School Research, University of Chicago
Henry Braun, Lynch School of Education, Boston College
Allan Collins, Northwestern University
Mark Dynarski, Chesapeake Research Associates
Lisa Lynch, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
Diana Pullin, School of Education, Boston College
Ana Sol Gutierrez, Maryland House of Delegates
Robert Warren, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota

Staff

Stuart Elliott, Director, Board on Testing and Assessment
Judy Koenig, Study Director, Senior Program Officer
Alix Beatty, Senior Program Officer
Kelly Iverson, Senior Program Assistant

Meetings

Workshop: January 27-28, 2011, NAS Keck Center, Washington DC

Agenda