Reference Book of the Week: Digest of Education Statistics

Welcome to another edition of Reference Book of the Week at The Patriot Spot. This week we are featuring a resource for education: the Digest of Education Statistics. This resource is a compilation of statistical information in the field of American education. It covers from prekindergarten to graduate school, and it features data from government and private sources. The digest especially draws data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). If readers wish to know what sources are used to compile the digest, the book features an appendix with a "Guide to Sources" that lists sources used. A description of the various sources and how they are used is provided as well. What are some of the questions you can answer with this resource?

• Numbers on elementary and secondary education enrollment.
• Number of instructional faculty in degree-granting institutions. In other words, how many are full-time versus how many adjuncts.
• Appropriations from state and local governments for public degree-granting institutions, by state or jurisdiction. Basically, this is one way to see how your state funds (or not) their public universities and colleges.

The volume is arranged into seven chapters. It features an index of tables arranged by topic, so you can find the facts you need. Please note that the numbers on this index refer to the table number, not the page number in the book. You can use the NCES website to find much of the information in the digest, but the digest is handy and convenient. At times, it can be easier to look it up in this book than running a search on the NCES site. Readers can always try both options and compare. The library receives this volume annually. The latest year available in the library as of this post is 2009, and it can be found in the Reference stacks. Previous years are available in the library's General Collection on the third floor. The call number is L 111 .A6. Note that you can also get this resource online. The latest edition, the 2009 edition, is available online at this link. At the site, you can download and read the book by chapters in PDF.