NCES report

NCES Report

Overview

The NCES Report is used to surface information from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) about U.S.-based public schools and school districts.

Organizations can use the NCES Report to:

Automatically verify that an organization is a public school

Some organizations need to confirm that an applicant or participating entity is recognized as a school in the NCES database. Typically, teams must manually search the NCES website for each organization and review the results individually.

The NCES Report helps streamline this process by returning school data directly from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD).

Support eligibility reviews for education programs

Some customers need to confirm that an organization is an active public school before allowing it to participate in a program, receive funding, or access school-specific benefits.

For example, organizations running education-focused grant programs may require verification that an entity is listed as an operational public school.

Many schools and school districts in the United States operate as governmental entities or nonprofit organizations. As a result, organizations may use the NCES Report alongside the Business Nonprofit Report to validate both the educational status and the organizational status of an entity.

For example:

  • A public school may appear in the NCES dataset
  • A private school or university may instead appear as a registered nonprofit organization

Using both reports together can help organizations more accurately verify education-related entities.


Configuration Options

The minimum input for this report is the NCES School ID.

The NCES School ID is a 12-digit numeric identifier assigned to each public school in the NCES Common Core of Data. This identifier is also referred to as nces_school_id.

**Example input:** 068450007060

The NCES Report takes the NCES School ID and searches against the following data source to return school and district information:

  • NCES Common Core of Data (CCD)

The report can also be configured inside Workflow, with resolvers based on report status and operational status fields.

For assistance configuring this report, please reach out to your Persona account team.


Interpreting the NCES Report

NCES Report

The report returns both:

  • The match status of the organization in the NCES dataset
  • Detailed attributes about the school and its associated school district

Returned Attributes

School

school_name

Name of the school.

school_level

The level of education offered by the school.

school_type

Classification of the type of public school.

Possible values:

  • Regular schools
  • Special education schools
  • Vocational schools
  • Other/alternative schools
  • Reportable program

operational_status

Operational condition of the school in the NCES dataset.

Possible values:

  • Continuing
  • Closed
  • New
  • Added
  • Changed Agency
  • Inactive
  • Future School
  • Reopened

mailing_address

Mailing address of the school.

physical_address

Physical location of the school.

phone

Contact phone number for the school.

website

Website associated with the school.

grade_range

Lowest and highest grade levels offered by the school.

charter_school

Indicates whether the school is designated as a charter school.


School District

district_name

Name of the school district.

nces_district_id

Unique NCES identifier for the school district.

district_type

Classification of the education agency.

Possible values:

  • Regular local school district
  • Component district
  • Supervisory Union
  • Regional education service agency
  • State-operated agency
  • Federal-operated agency
  • Charter agency
  • Other education agency

operational_status

Operational condition of the education agency.

Possible values:

  • Continuing
  • Closed
  • New
  • Added
  • Boundary changed
  • Inactive
  • Future School
  • Reopened

mailing_address

Mailing address of the district office.

physical_address

Physical location of the district office.

phone

Contact phone number for the district.

website

Website associated with the district.

grade_range

Lowest and highest grade levels served by the district.

operational_schools

Number of schools currently operating within the district.


Understanding the Data Source within the NCES Report

Schools and school districts in the United States are tracked across multiple education datasets.

The NCES Report checks the following source:

NCES Common Core of Data (CCD)

The Common Core of Data (CCD) is the primary federal dataset for public elementary and secondary education in the United States.

It includes information on public schools and school districts, such as:

  • School identifiers
  • District identifiers
  • School type
  • Grade levels
  • Charter status
  • Addresses
  • Operational status

The dataset is maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics and is updated periodically.

The NCES Report uses this dataset to:

  • Verify whether an organization is listed as a public school
  • Retrieve information about the associated school district

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