7: About Educational Indicators: Statistics on the Conditions and Trends in Education

In the early 1960s the National Aeronautics and Space Administration granted funds to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to study the societal impact of the space program. A major product of that grant was a book entitled Social Indicators (Bauer, 1966), now acknowledged to be the cornerstone of the social indicators movement (Sheldon, 1975). In the decade since Bauer's work appeared, hundreds of published and presented papers and dozens of books have been produced on social indicators (Frisbie, 1975; Magura & Ball-Rokeach, 1975; Meile & Haese, 1969; Myers & Guttman, 1974), indicators of life quality (Holz & Glitter, 1975; Skogan, 1974; Stetson & Wright, 1975), health indicators (Derogatis, Yevzeroff, & Wittelsberger, 1975; Siegler, 1974; Taylor, Aday & Anderson, 1975; Tissue, 1972), environmental indicators (Dye, 1975), indicators of social mobility (Duncan, 1968), employment indicators (Berkowitz, 1973; Dillman & Christenson, 1974), religious indicators (Finner, 1970), welfare indicators (Angrist, 1974; Flax, 1971; Merriam, 1968), leisure indicators (Ennis, 1968; Noe, 1972; Room, 1972), and, yes, educational indicators (Beyer & Snipper, 1974; Duncan, 1968; Glitter & Peterson, 1970; Irvine, 1968; Swift, 1967). Despite the voluminous literature on indicators, or perhaps because of it, indicators are not clearly distinguished from statistics. They hold no exalted place. Further, the literature contains much discussion of their potential application but little evidence of their utility. Finally, although the label may be newly rediscovered, the existence of educational indicators can be traced throughout history (Goody, 1968; Impara, 1977; Lockridge, 1974; MacManus, 1944).