Description

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The 2010 edition of the Digest of Education Statistics is the 46th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The Digest has been issued annually, except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest includes a selection of data from many sources, both government and private, and draws especially on the results of surveys and activities carried out by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). To qualify for inclusion in the Digest, material must be nationwide in scope and of current interest and value. The publication contains information on a variety of subjects in the field of education statistics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to data on educational attainment, finances, federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons. Supplemental information on population trends, attitudes on education, education characteristics of the labor force, government finances, and economic trends provides background for evaluating education data. Although the Digest contains important information on federal education funding, more detailed information on federal activities is available from federal education program offices. In addition to updating many of the statistics that have appeared in previous years, this edition contains new material, including: children's reading, mathematics, and fine motor scale scores at kindergarten entry, but age of child and selected characteristics; average number of Carnegie units earned by high school graduates in advanced mathematics and advanced science and engineering courses, and percentage distribution of graduates by number of units earned, by selected student and school characteristics; total fall enrollment in private for-profit degree-granting institutions, by attendance status, sex, and state or jurisdiction; retention of first-time degree-seeking undergraduates at degree-granting institutions, by attendance status, control, and type of institution; percentage of the population 25 to 64 years old who completed high school, by age group and country; and percentage of the population 25 to 64 years old who attained selected levels of postsecondary education, by age group and country.