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"The Condition of Education 2018" is a congressionally mandated annual report summarizing the latest data on education in the United States. This report is designed to help policymakers and the public monitor educational progress. This report contains indicators on the state of education in the United States, from prekindergarten through postsecondary education, as well as labor force outcomes and international comparisons. This year's report includes 47 indicators on topics ranging from prekindergarten through postsecondary education, as well as labor force outcomes and international comparisons. In addition to the regularly updated annual indicators, this year's spotlight indicators highlight new findings from recent the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) surveys: (1) The first spotlight indicator examines the choices and costs that families face as they select early childhood care arrangements; (2) The second spotlight describes the characteristics of teachers who entered the teaching profession through an alternative route to certification program; and (3) The third spotlight presents data on average student loan balances for students completing graduate degrees. "The Condition" includes an "At a Glance section," which allows readers to quickly make comparisons within and across indicators, and a "Highlights" section, which captures key findings from each indicator. The report contains a "Reader's Guide," a "Glossary," and a "Guide to Sources" that provide additional background information. Each indicator provides links to the source "data tables" used to produce the analyses. As new data are released throughout the year, indicators will be updated and made available on "The Condition of Education" website. [For the 2017 report, "The Condition of Education 2017. NCES 2017-144," see ED574257.]

"The Condition of Education 2017" is a congressionally mandated annual report summarizing the latest data on education in the United States. This report is designed to help policymakers and the public monitor educational progress. This year's report includes 50 indicators on topics ranging from prekindergarten through postsecondary education, as well as labor force outcomes and international comparisons. "The Condition" includes an "At a Glance" section, which allows readers to quickly make comparisons within and across indicators, and a "Highlights" section, which captures a key finding or set of findings from each indicator. The report contains a "Reader's Guide," a "Glossary," and a "Guide to Data Sources" that provide additional information to help place the indicators in context. In addition, each indicator references the data tables that were used to produce the indicator, most of which are in the "Digest of Education Statistics." In addition to the regularly updated annual indicators, this year's report highlights innovative data collections and analyses from across the Center: (1) The first spotlight indicator examines the relationship between student risk factors at kindergarten entry (poverty and low parent educational attainment) and academic achievement in early elementary school; (2) The second spotlight indicator draws on administrative data from the Center's EDFacts data collection and finds that 2.5 percent of students in U.S. public elementary and secondary schools were reported as homeless in 2014-15; (3) The third spotlight indicator draws on longitudinal data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Study to examine the rates at which first-time college students persist toward completion of a degree or certificate; and (4) The fourth spotlight indicator examines how disability rates for U.S. adults vary by educational attainment, finding that 16 percent of 25- to 64-year-olds who had not completed high school had one or more disabilities in 2015, compared to 4 percent of those who had completed a bachelor's degree and 3 percent of those who had completed a master's or higher degree. In addition, two indicators provide insights from the Center's recent work on technology in education. The first previews key findings from the Center's upcoming report, "Student Access to Digital Learning Resources Outside of the Classroom." The second presents findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress's 8th-grade Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL) assessment. [For the 2016 report: "The Condition of Education 2016. NCES 2016-144," see ED565888.]

Young children experience various types of early care and education environments the year before they enter kindergarten. Some children attend center-based arrangements such as preschools, childcare centers, or Head Start programs, while others are cared for in relatives' or nonrelatives' homes or are normally cared for only by their parents. Prior research indicates that children's participation rates in specific types of primary care arrangements and their knowledge and skills at kindergarten entry differ in relation to certain characteristics of children and their families, including age at kindergarten entry, race/ethnicity, primary home language, and mother's educational attainment. This Statistical Analysis Report builds upon prior work by using the most recently available data to explore relationships between children's primary care and education arrangements the year before kindergarten and their academic skills and learning behaviors at kindergarten entry, after accounting for child and family background characteristics. In the report, ECE arrangements are classified into five groups: (1) center-based care (including day care centers, Head Start programs, preschools, prekindergartens, and other early childhood programs); (2) home-based relative care; (3) home-based nonrelative care; (4) multiple arrangements (i.e., children who spent an equal amount of time in each of two or more types of arrangements); and (5) no ECE arrangement on a regular basis (i.e., children who had no regularly scheduled care arrangement and mainly received care only from their parents). Information for this report comes from the nationally representative National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011) data collections. Data from the NHES cross-sectional sample survey are used to describe trends in participation in ECE arrangements that children experience prior to kindergarten entry. The NHES Early Childhood Program Participation (ECPP) surveys gather information on children's participation in ECE programs and the characteristics of these arrangements. Parents reported information on their child's participation in different types of ECE arrangements in 1995, 2001, 2005, and 2012. This report compares estimates of 4- and 5-year-old children's primary ECE arrangements prior to kindergarten entry in 1995 and 2012. Estimates are presented overall and by children's race/ethnicity, their family's poverty status, and their mother's educational attainment. Data from the ECLS-K:2011 longitudinal sample survey are used to explore relationships between primary ECE arrangements the year before kindergarten and academic skills and learning behaviors at kindergarten entry. The ECLS-K:2011 collects detailed information on the school achievement and experiences of students from the 2010-11 kindergarten school year through the spring of 2016, when most of them are expected to be in fifth grade. In the fall of 2010 and spring of 2011, parents reported information on child and family characteristics and their child's participation in ECE settings the year before kindergarten; children were assessed in reading, mathematics, and cognitive flexibility; and kindergarten teachers reported on children's approaches to learning. The report describes the distribution of primary ECE arrangements that first-time kindergartners attended in the year before entering kindergarten in the fall of 2010, including differences in primary ECE arrangements by characteristics of children and their families. The report also describes differences in first-time kindergartners' academic knowledge, skills, and learning behaviors at kindergarten entry relative to their primary ECE arrangement, after accounting for children's sex, age at kindergarten entry, race/ethnicity, family type, primary home language, and socioeconomic status (SES). The following are appended: (1) Reference tables; and (2) Technical Notes and Methodology: (a) National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES); (b) Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011); and (c) Statistical Procedures.

The U.S. Congress has mandated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report to help inform policymakers about the progress of education in the United States. Using data from across the center and from other sources of education data, "The Condition of Education 2015" presents 42 key indicators on important topics and trends in U.S. education. These indicators focus on population characteristics, such as educational attainment and economic outcomes, participation in education at all levels, as well as aspects of elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education, including international comparisons. New to the report this year are three spotlight indicators that describe approaches to learning behaviors for first-time kindergartners, disparities in educational outcomes among male youth of color, and differences in postsecondary degree completion by socioeconomic status. This report also includes a new feature--The At a Glance--that allows readers to quickly make comparisons within and across indicators. This year's Condition shows that 91 percent of young adults ages 25 to 29 had a high school diploma or its equivalent in 2014, and that 34 percent had a bachelor's or higher degree. As in previous years, median earnings were higher for 25- to 34-year-olds with higher levels of education in 2013. Also, in 2014, the unemployment rate was generally lower for those with higher levels of education. A glossary of terms is included. ["The Condition of Education 2014. NCES 2014-083" can be viewed in ERIC at ED545122.]

As computers become more prevalent and computer skills more necessary, there continues to be a "digital divide" between those with computer access and skills and those without. These differences are less pronounced in skills where children's access to computers and the Internet are more prevalent. Noting that few studies have focused exclusively on kindergartners' and first-graders' access to and use of computers in different settings, this report details examination of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) to assess children's access to and use of computers in their schools, classrooms, and homes as they begin formal schooling. Data were drawn upon to answer 10 questions pertaining to access to and use of computer resources. Findings indicated that almost all young children had access to computers, either at home or in their classrooms, and schools. However, kindergartners' access differed by the types of school they attended: public schoolers had greater access to school and classroom resources, whereas private school children had greater access to home computer resources. For the most part, young children's access to school computer resources did not differ greatly by child and family characteristics. However, in kindergarten some minority children and those from lower-SES families were less likely to attend schools that provided Internet access. In first grade, children from the lowest SES group continued to have less access to the Internet in comparison to first-graders in the highest SES group. Kindergartners and first-graders in the lowest SES group were also less likely to have a computer area in their classroom. Socioeconomic status also predicted access to computers at home. Findings related to children's use of computers indicated that the majority of young children in public schools were in classrooms where computers were used for instructional purposes on a weekly basis. The most frequent classroom uses were to learn reading, writing, and spelling; to learn math; and for fun. Public school children with access to home computers used them an average of 3 to 4 days a week; frequency of use did not tend to differ by child or family characteristics. Over 86 percent used them for educational purposes. Finally, young children's classroom computer use in public schools did not differ based on whether children had home access. The report concludes by suggesting additional analyses and future research. The report's two appendices include standard error tables for the main text and supplementary tables and standard errors. (Contains 13 references.) (HTH)