Toward the Next Generation of U.S. National Longitudinal Surveys - Ideas From Researchers for the National Center for Education Statistics

Oct 15, 2026

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AERA Open 2016 article discusses a 2013 NCES workshop convened to solicit researcher input for the National Center for Education Statistics’ future longitudinal surveys program. It summarizes the workshop’s purpose, emphasizes key findings on new designs, measures, persistent issues, and technologies, and explains how NCES responds under constraints that limit change. The discussion situates longitudinal surveys as crucial infrastructure for education research and informs future directions for designs and data collection practices.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Background to the NAEd-NCES Workshop

Scope and characteristics of NCES longitudinal surveys

Papers and key insights from the workshop

Focus on AERA Open papers

Context of prior researcher input and NCES responses

AERA Open April-June 2016, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 1–8 DOI: 10. 1177/2332858416649176 © The Author(s) 2016. [http://ero.sagepub.com](http://ero.sagepub.com) Toward the Next Generation of U.S. National Longitudinal Surveys: Ideas From Researchers for the National Center for Education Statistics Adam Gamoran William T. Grant Foundation In fall 2013, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) hosted a group of researchers to provide input into its program of longitudinal surveys. Organized by the National Academy of Education with a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, the Workshop to Examine Current and Potential Uses of NCES Longitudinal Surveys by the Education Research Community addressed issues of new designs, new measures, persisting issues, and technologies that could introduce new approaches. Findings from the workshop have appeared in AERA Open and on the National Academy of Education’s website and have been discussed at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting. This paper provides a background to the workshop, highlights key findings, and discusses the responses of NCES to researcher input in the context of constraints that limit NCES’s ability to introduce change. These issues deserve widespread attention in light of the importance of NCES longitudinal surveys as a resource for education research. Keywords: National Center for Education Statistics, longitudinal surveys, education research The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has existed in some form for nearly 150 years, and since the 1970s its longitudinal surveys have provided essential, highquality data to the education research community (Grant, 1993) . Researchers rely on NCES surveys to conduct secondary data analyses and to identify potential policy mechanisms that could be tested in subsequent studies. Research studies that use data from NCES longitudinal studies are published in a variety of journals across a range of disciplines, and their findings are widely applied in policy and practice. A quick Internet search yields thousands of research publications that rely on the NCES longitudinal surveys along with innumerable government reports that use the survey data to monitor trends [in U.S. education](in U.S. education) (e.g., Kena et al., 2015) .1 In the fall of 2013, the National Academy of Education (NAEd) convened a group of researchers to provide input to NCES on the future of its longitudinal studies program. Papers presented at the workshop addressed such topics as new designs for NCES surveys, new measures that NCES surveys should consider, persisting issues that warrant more attention in NCES surveys, and technologies that could introduce new approaches to NCES data collections. Four of the papers presented at the workshop have been published in AERA Open (Espelage, 2015; Moore, Lippman, & Ryberg, 2015; Muller, 2015; Warren, 2015), as well as a fifth paper that emerged in response to the others (Schneider, Saw, & Broda, 2016) . Other papers are available on the NAEd website.2 Table 1 lists the original papers presented at the workshop. My purpose for writing is to discuss key insights from the workshop, focusing primarily on the papers those that have appeared in AERA Open. I will place these insights in the context of past efforts to provide input from researchers to NCES, and I will consider the response from NCES to researcher input. My reflections are based on my experience as a researcher using longitudinal surveys and my role as chair of the NAEd-NCES workshop.3 Background to the NAEd-NCES Workshop The NCES longitudinal survey program consists of more than 20 different surveys, most of which are still active with new surveys planned or currently in the field, ongoing follow-ups, or new waves of existing surveys. The surveys cover all age levels from birth through postsecondary education and beyond, and also include surveys directed at K−12 school and district officials, te

FAQs

What prompted the 2013 NAEd-NCES workshop on longitudinal surveys?

In fall 2013, NCES hosted researchers to provide input into the NCES program of longitudinal surveys, convened by the National Academy of Education with support from the Institute of Education Sciences.

Which topics did the workshop papers cover?

The papers addressed new designs, new measures, persisting issues needing more attention, and technologies that could introduce new approaches to NCES data collections.

How does the article frame NCES’s ability to implement changes?

It discusses NCES responses to researcher input while highlighting constraints that limit NCES’s ability to introduce change, arguing these issues merit broad attention given the importance of NCES longitudinal surveys.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Cart