Education Division and across Federal agencies, to the proposed interagency effort to assess the current status of education statistics, determine priority needs to be met, and establish intra- and interagency responsibilities for the collection of needed data. Provision should be made to obtain systematic input from analysts and users regarding data needs; to establish mechanisms to determine priority needs and/or users to be served; and to conduct objective periodic external assessments of the education statistics program. The operation of improved data planning and coordination mechanisms should result in:

Assignment of adequate staff for planning to systematically surface user needs and investigate alternative methodologies for meeting demands; Systematic review of existing data collection activities, including quantitative assessment of the use made of data currently obtained, to serve as input to the streamlining or elimination of ongoing programs;

Increased coordination with other Federal agencies to ensure that data producers and users capitalize on existing surveys and that data gaps are filled in the most expeditious manner; and

Expansion of data analysis activities, to capitalize on data collected and gain improved insight for recommending changes in the education statistics program.

Important Gaps in Education Statistics

Despite the seeming expansiveness of the current and planned education statistics program at the Federal level, important gaps exist which must be filled if the system is to serve policy and planning needs at the national level. To meet these needs, there must be a systematic effort to design and implement a program of Federal education statistics which studies educational inputs, processes and outcomes.

Five gaps which have been identified are discussed below. While this list is clearly not exhaustive, it will serve to illustrate some of the shortcomings of current Federal education statistics.

Assessment of Alternative Educational Treatments

A disproportionate level of effort is currently being expended on the collection of data concerning inputs to the educational process. Few resources are currently being devoted to the collection of information on the specific services delivered to students, the alternatives they may select, or the effects of exposure (or lack of exposure) to varying

types of educational processes or treatments. While program development is primarily the responsibility of local and State administrators, the Federal Government should devote more resources to obtaining information needed to structure and fund effective educational interventions.

Educational Outcomes Data

Coupled with the lack of educational process data is the dearth of information on the outcomes of participation in the educational system. The National Assessment of Educational Progress and the National Longitudinal Study represent modest efforts to measure the knowledge of the population and educational outcomes for selected samples of students. The investigation of outcomes, based on individual data rather than institutional information, must be substantially strengthened if any national policy is to be made concerning the relative costs and payoffs for alternative educational experiences. Similarly, population data must be strengthened to ascertain the unmet needs of the out-of-school population, including both those who have been excluded from participation by virtue of physical, mental or socioeconomically handicapping conditions as well as those who have rejected the opportunities offered by "dropping-out" of the educational system.

Cost of Education and the Financial Health of
Education Agencies and Institutions

Given current and anticipated economic trends, the costs of education and the sources of support for the student and for the education agencies and institutions must be more thoroughly examined. The relationship of sources and amounts of funds available to the students and the schools and school systems to the patterns of educational expenditures should be assessed as a basis for determining Federal policy with respect to the funding of education at the elementary-secondary and postsecondary levels.

Role of Private Industry in Education

Increasingly, private industry is becoming involved in the provision of education and training through direct support for students' attendance at institutions as well as through the conduct of industry-sponsored training programs. As a starting point, base line statistics should be gathered on the extent to which private industry is supporting various kinds of educational experiences. In particular, the types of courses being sponsored by industry, and the reasons for the establishment of such training programs as alternatives to the services provided through public and private institutions, should be examined. These

data are needed to assess perceived weaknesses in the relevance of institutional education and training and to formulate possible recommendations for change.

Occupational Demand-Education Supply Analysis

Much of the data needed to address the issue of the "fit" between the products of the educational system and the demand for individuals trained in various occupations already exists. Increased effort should be devoted, however, to improved coordination of this information, and to the analysis of the information to suggest needed changes in emphasis, particularly in the area of noncollegiate postsecondary education. In the absence of such analyses, there can be little expectation that the educational system will be responsive to the needs of the economy.

Statistical Resource Allocation

Over the past decade, the Federal agencies have concentrated on the collection and processing of education satistics. Despite the fact that more data must be obtained, and will continue to be needed, there must be a shift in the balance of statistical resource allocation from data collection to data standards implementation, data analysis, and data dissemination. If the current neglect of these statistical support activities continues, the education statistics activity of the Federal Government, which rests in large part on the voluntary cooperation of its respondents, will continue to cause concern for both the producers and the users. Staff and financial resources must be diverted from data collection activities to planning, coordination, technical assistance, analysis, and dissemination efforts, at the expense of amassing less information, but in the interest of building and maintaining a viable, usable and used, program of Federal education statistics.

Summary

Recommendations for changes to the education statistics programs have been offered throughout the body of this chapter. These recommendations are summarized briefly below.

Modifications to Existing Programs

As an integral part of the development of the Elementary-Secondary Common Core of Data, NCES should design methods to ensure interstate comparability of data, and provide the assistance necessary for the improvement and standardization of recordkeeping systems at the State and local levels. Following implementation and analysis of the Federal core data, NCES should study the impact of

collecting the information on a sample basis rather than on a complete census basis, and on a periodic basis less frequently than annually.

The Federal/national policy uses and users of the National Assessment data should be ascertained, and should form the basis for adjustments to the NAEP program. Consideration should be given to placing a higher priority on the assessment of functional abilities, particularly in the out-of-school population.

Year-to-year changes in the data reported should be analyzed as a basis for determining the needed coverage and periodicity of surveys of postsecondary institutions. An analysis of information users and uses should be conducted to determine changes which should be made in postsecondary data sets. The possibility of collecting individual rather than institution based data on faculty in alternate years should be evaluated.

Requirements for the collection of data under the newly mandated Vocational Education Data System must be carefully coordinated with other generalpurpose and program statistical activities at the Federal level. Data to be transmitted to the Federal Government should be limited to information required for national planning and management purposes.

The new longitudinal cohort proposed by NCES should be studied to examine the impact of economic changes and alternative forms of education on the postsecondary population.

The benefits of combining selected data from the National Assessment and the National Longitudinal Study should continue to be assessed.

Studies of the supply and demand for postsecondary teaching personnel should be incorporated in the NCES program of Education Manpower Statistics.

The users and uses of library statistics should be analyzed as a basis for determining the appropriate frequency for surveying various sectors of the library community and the types of data items to be collected by NCES on library facilities and services.

Adequate resources should be devoted to the design of population-based studies and to the analysis of the resulting data.

The requirements of Federal program applications and administrative reports should be reviewed and analyzed to determine the core elements required of applicants and beneficiaries. A consolidated data base for Federal program information should be developed.

Consideration should be given to shifting a portion of the Federal evaluation effort from national survey activities to experimentally designed assessments of specific program interventions. Efforts should be undertaken to better integrate Federal program evaluation studies with similar State level requirements.

Improvement of Statistical Planning and Coordination

The Advisory Council on Education Statistics should provide guidance concerning appropriate roles and priorities among alternatives for NCES.

An interagency focal point for the planning and coordination of Federal education statistics activities should be established to identify Federal education informational needs and priorities on a recurring basis.

Activities of the Education Data Acquisition Council should be systematically coordinated with the proposed effort to establish education information needs.

Education data collection systems sponsored by agencies outside the Education Division of DHEW should be carefully coordinated during the planning and design stages with appropriate units of the Education Division to ensure that compatible and nonredundant products are developed.

The Education Data Acquisition Council should serve as a clearinghouse to review all federally sponsored data collection activities which are directed primarily to education respondents.

Adequate resources should be devoted to assessing the status of education statistics, determining priorities, and establishing interagency agreements and mechanisms for data collection.

Development of New Systems to Fill Gaps

A greater proportion of available resources should be devoted to determining the impact and effectiveness of specific educational program interventions. NIE, and the Office of Planning, Budgeting. and Evaluation within OE, should provide leadership in these activities.

Educational outcomes data should be strengthened.

Population data should be collected to ascertain the needs of out-of-school youth and adults.

A study of the sources and amounts of funds available for the funding of elementary-secondary and postsecondary education in relation to patterns of educational expenditures should be conducted.

Base line data should be collected on the contributions of private industry to postsecondary education and training. Development of an adequate classification of the types of education and training supported or operated by private industry must precede the collection of data.

Measurements of the relationship between the outputs of the educational system and the needs of industry for trained personnel should be developed.

Needed statistical resources should be shifted from data collection to standards implementation, data analysis and information dissemination.

Introduction and Overview

The need for information on energy derives largely from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo and subsequent price increases which made explicit our dependence on foreign sources of energy, principally oil. The Federal Energy Office, later the Federal Energy Administration (FEA), was established as the focal point for policy analysis and determination. The activities of the Atomic Energy Commission were reorganized, and the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) was created to enhance our ability to develop new sources of energy and to conserve their use. Recently the creation of a Department of Energy (DOE) combined the Federal Energy Administration, Energy Research and Development Administration, Federal Power Commission (FPC), and certain parts of the Department of the Interior such as the Bureau of Mines. In the President's April 20, 1977 address on energy made to a joint session of Congress, he specifically proposed improved collection of data on energy reserves and finances of the petroleum industry. He also stated a need for an emergency energy information system.

Major data needs stemming from this recent activity derive from a need to know more about the process of finding, supplying, processing, transporting, and using energy. These needs for data are more urgent now than before 1973, but were not unknown to the more established agencies before the embargo. The Department of the Interior has long had extensive knowledge of coal and oil reserves, resources, anproduction through the statistical programs of the Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.). The Bureau of the Census has collected data on energy exploration, production, and consumption through its surveys and censuses. The Federal Power Commission regulated the interstate price of natural gas using data on reserves and production costs.

The new environment has led also to increased regulation of the energy industry including import fees, allocation of imported crude oil, price

regulations, and other aspects of the energy industry. Information is needed to determine the need for regulation, to monitor its implementation and to evaluate its effect. As the regulatory activities increased, additional data requirements have been levied on the public.

It is especially difficult to organize and plan for a national data collection system when regulatory and statistical functions are so thoroughly interrelated. Regulatory data are frequently inflexible since the statute and regulation being implemented may be changed only by Congress or by the need for significant administrative action, and the collection of such data is difficult because the analytical and statistical information is not typically a high priority of the lawmakers or regulators. The Energy Conservation and Production Act of 1976 provides for the establishment of an Office of Energy Information and Analysis (OEIA) within FEA. The OEIA had responsibility for developing the National Energy Information System. In the Department of Energy Organization Act, this responsibility was embodied in the Energy Information Administration. These recent legislative activities indicate a significant awareness on the part of Congress of the need for better data. In addition, statistical data are often collected on a voluntary confidential basis from a sample of respondents. Sample data simply are not acceptable for most regulatory programs, and confidentiality as the statisticians know it precludes most regulatory uses of statistical data. Hence, regulation often brings duplicate data collections which are difficult to consolidate with statistical data programs.

Related to the need for improved information for energy policy decisions is the development of energy programs and the concomitant need for information in almost every department and agency. The Federal Reserve Board has an energy-related production index, the Bureau of Economic Analysis has an energy input-output project, the Department of Transportation deals with energy used in moving people and goods, the Environmental Protection Agency has automobile mileage tests and relates energy consumption to environmental concerns in

other ways, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects data on the retail price of gasoline, and this list could go on. The point is that interest in energy problems and solutions have sprung up in many places making it difficult to coordinate the various programs into one or even a few systems.

Major Energy Information Agencies

The creation of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in the Department of Energy provided a lead agency to carry out the primary statistical data gathering, analysis, and energy information dissemination functions of the Department. The EIA was provided with a measure of statutory independence to carry out its function and was given the obligation to develop and publish energy information independent of the energy policies of the Department.

The EIA was formed by consolidating data and information functions of the Federal Energy Administration, the Bureau of Mines, and the Federal Power Commission. The Federal Energy Administration had been the main energy policymaking agency in the Federal Government. It was responsible for developing policy to provide increased independence from foreign energy sources and for regulating prices and supplies of energy. FEA had basic data collection programs in supply and cost of energy, prices of energy, and reserves of oil and natural gas. FEA also had joint data collecting agreements with the Bureau of Mines (for petroleum and for coal), and with the Federal Power Commission, Interior, and Commerce (natural gas curtailments). This agency also established or had under development, models (e.g., Project Independence) and data systems (e.g., consumption, national energy accounts) which required data inputs from other agencies as well as data collected by FEA. FEA coordinated much of the energy data with its National Energy Information Center and Federal Energy Information Locator System, and was the first agency to chair the Federal Interagency Council on Energy Information. FEA used mandatory powers of data collection including subpoena, and authority to conduct audits and other verification procedures. The Energy Conservation and Production Act of 1976 established the Office of Energy Information and Analysis within FEA which had the responsibility to establish, operate, and maintain a National Energy Information System (NEIS) and to coordinate Federal energy information.

The Bureau of Mines (BOM) collected data on reserves, production, distribution and consumption of coal, oil, and gas in their Fuels Availability

System. BOM cooperated with the FEA as the collection agency for the Integrated Petroleum Reporting System. These data bases were quite flexible in their uses to answer policy questions and congressional inquiries. BOM also estimated market demand for coal, gas and petroleum. Except for the joint programs with FEA, BOM collected data on a voluntary basis.

The Federal Power Commission had responsibilities for regulation of the price of interstate transmission of natural gas and nonnuclear electricity generation. The FPC collected data necessary to conduct these activities including reserves of natural gas dedicated to interstate pipelines and data on the cost of producing electrical energy as well as the sales and prices of electricity. The FPC data collection authority does not extend to reserves of natural gas used solely in intrastate markets.

In addition to these data programs transferred into EIA, the U.S. Geological Survey has two main divisions which contribute information on energy. The Conservation Division has regulatory authority over leases on Federal lands, especially offshore. The Geologic Division needs information on reserves to facilitate estimation of resources, namely those deposits of oil and gas which are as yet undiscovered but which will be economical to produce when found. The Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce, traditionally the core of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, has collected data which directly or indirectly relate to energy. This is accomplished through many surveys including the quinquennial census of mineral industries, the annual survey of oil and gas, the annual survey of manufactures, and the foreign trade statistics program which relies on import documents of the U.S. Customs Service. Other Census programs including demographic statistics, the agriculture census, and the transportation statistics shed light on various aspects of energy in a less direct fashion. Censuses and annual surveys are conducted by the Census Bureau on a mandatory basis.

The Energy Research and Development Administration, which was incorporated into other parts of the Department of Energy, was responsible for developing a national plan for research on energy. ERDA had units which were concerned with: conservation, environment and safety, fossil fuels, solar, geothermal and advanced energy systems, nuclear energy, and national security. Reference information on research and development technology was abstracted and maintained by ERDA. ERDA programs are now conducted by environmental and technology program areas in DOE.