American Institutes for Research Experts Play a Key Role in Digest of Education Statistics 2011 Report
Washington, D.C. – A team of experts from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) played a key role in writing and producing the Digest of Education Statistics 2011, which was released by the federal National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on June 13, 2012. The Digest is an annual report that provides a compilation of statistical information covering U.S. education from prekindergarten through graduate school, including both new data and historical trends.
AIR analysts and editorial staff worked with data from complex survey designs and conducted statistical analyses and tests in order to author many of the 440 statistical tables, as well as develop statistical graphs and descriptive text for the volume. AIR staff also designed the tools used for planning the volume, and tracked each of the hundreds of component pieces through all stages of development, quality assurance, review, and production.
Findings from this report show increases in enrollment and educational attainment. Between 1985 and 2011, public elementary enrollment (prekindergarten through grade 8) increased 29 percent, while secondary enrollment increased 17 percent. At the postsecondary level, total college enrollment increased 37 percent between 2000 and 2010, when 21.0 million students were enrolled in college—more than in any previous year. Between 2001 and 2011, the percentage of the adult population 25 years of age and over who had completed high school rose from 84 percent to 88 percent, and the percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree increased from 26 percent to 30 percent.
The number of associate’s degrees was 50 percent higher in 2009-10 than in 1999-2000, the number of bachelor’s degrees was 33 percent higher, the number of master’s degrees was 50 percent higher, and the number of doctor’s degrees was 34 percent higher. Between 2000–01 and 2010–11, prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board at public institutions rose 42 percent, and prices at private not-for-profit institutions rose 31 percent, after adjustment for inflation.
The full report is available at http://nces.ed.gov/Programs/digest/.
About AIR
Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education, and workforce productivity. For more information, visit www.air.org.
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