NCSES resources

The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the National Science Foundation (NSF) has a wealth of information on the U.S. science and engineering enterprise, including data on students, degree recipients, and research and development activity and expenditures: https://ncses.nsf.gov.

Included on the NCSES website are reports, data tables, and survey information. In addition, two interactive data tools allow for creating tables from NCSES data. The NCSES interactive tool (https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/home) provides access to data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) and the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS), along with data from other surveys. NCSES’s Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT) (https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/sestat/sestat.html) provides access to data from the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) and the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR).

NCSES has a Web page on its Skilled Technical Workforce (STW) Initiative containing statistics, a working definition of the STW, and other resources: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/stw/skilled-technical-workforce.cfm.

NSF’s National Science Board produces Science and Engineering Indicators, which offers a comprehensive look at the U.S. science and engineering enterprise, including education, demographics, employment, research and development expenditures, science and technology capabilities, and public attitudes and understanding about science. The most recent report is Science and Engineering Indicators 2020: https://ncses.nsf.gov/indicators.

Other federal government resources

Note: Links were correct at the time of release but may no longer be active as a result of changes at the referenced organization's website.

Department of Education

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Department of Education, collects and analyzes data related to education, focusing on K–12 education: https://nces.ed.gov/.

The NCES report The Condition of Education provides key indicators on education in the United States covering prekindergarten through postsecondary education: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/.

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Department of Education, supports programs that service children, youth, and adults with disabilities. In addition, they provide data, research, and reports on students with disabilities: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/index.html.

The Office for Civil Rights, Department of Education, provides lists of postsecondary institutions enrolling populations with significant percentages of undergraduate minority students: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/edlite-minorityinst.html.

Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

The Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, collects and analyzes population data, including data on income and education level, as well as demographic characteristics: https://www.census.gov/.

The American Community Survey provides population information at detailed geographical levels: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/.

Census Bureau data can be accessed through their data tools: https://data.census.gov/cedsci/.

The Census Bureau’s population projections provide estimates of the future U.S. population by a variety of characteristics, including sex, race, and Hispanic origin: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popproj.html.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Department of Labor, measures labor market activity and is a source of information on employment and earnings by education levels and by occupation: https://stats.bls.gov/home.htm.

The BLS Current Population Survey is an important source of labor market information and provides data on the labor force, employment, unemployment, hours of work, and earnings by demographic characteristics, including education level, sex, ethnicity, and race. https://stats.bls.gov/cps/.

Office of Personnel Management

The Office of Personnel Management collects and provides data on the 2 million federal civilian employees by occupation and other characteristics: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/federal-employment-reports/.

Nongovernment resources

Note: Links were correct at the time of release but may no longer be active as a result of changes at the referenced organization's website.

U.S. organizations

The National Academy of Sciences provides analysis and recommendations on matters related to science and technology: http://www.nasonline.org/. The National Academies Press (https://www.nap.edu/) has published a variety of reports and has a section on women and minorities: https://www.nap.edu/topic/309/behavioral-and-social-sciences/women-and-minorities.

The American Council on Education is a coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities and provides issue briefs on topics such as educational outcomes for minorities, minority-serving institutions, gender equity, and accessibility: https://www.acenet.edu/Pages/default.aspx.

The College Board undertakes research using their SAT and other test score data on academic achievement, career readiness, college majors, and racial and ethnic differences, as well as publishing reports on trends in college price and student aid: https://research.collegeboard.org/topics.

The American Institutes for Research has produced research and evaluation reports on a number of higher education topics, including educational access, labor market outcomes, gender differences, and student debt: https://www.air.org/topic/education/higher-education.

The Brookings Institution does in-depth research on public policy topics, including gender (https://www.brookings.edu/topic/gender/) and race (https://www.brookings.edu/topic/race-in-american-public-policy/).

International organizations

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development produces an annual indicators report, Education at a Glance, as a source for information on the state of education around the world: http://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance/.

The World Bank provides the Gender Statistics database, which includes information on education: https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/dataset/gender-statistics.