Education Data Atlas

A Guide to Federal Datasets, Grant Funding Formulas, and Policy Questions

Every year, billions of federal dollars flow to more than 13,000 school districts based on a complex mix of demographic and financial data. The Education Data Atlas is your guide to these essential datasets. Built for researchers, education leaders, and policy analysts, the Atlas maps out the federal K-12 dataset landscape, explains how they answer key policy questions, and shapes the resources available to school districts and students.

How to use the Atlas

How to use the Atlas

The Education Data Atlas provides three distinct ways to navigate complex federal K-12 data depending on your goals. You can explore Individual Datasets, start with Policy Questions to find the exact data files that answer them, or trace how administrative data calculates major Federal Grants.

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Explore Federal K-12 Datasets

Federal education data is collected across various agencies and administrative programs, making it difficult to see how the pieces fit together. The Atlas organizes these collections into a clear, unified guide. From school-level characteristics in the Common Core of Data (CCD) to rapid-response insights in the School Pulse Panel (SPP) and equity metrics in the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), you can explore detailed profiles that explain why each dataset is collected, how they connect to other datasets, and why they are vital to K-12 policy.

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Find Datasets by the Questions They Answer

We built the Atlas by starting with the questions that matter most to researchers, journalists and policymakers. Select from standard inquiries about school finances, staffing characteristics, student demographics, or academic performance. By mapping these common inquiries directly to their respective federal data sources, the Atlas helps you understand the analytical value of each dataset, showing you how they connect to real-world policy issues.

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Trace the Data Driving Federal Formula Grants

Federal education grants depend on an underlying framework of demographic, geographic, and economic statistics to distribute funding to states. This interactive pathway reveals those direct connections. Trace how Title I relies on SAIPE poverty estimates, how IDEA allocations are linked to population estimates (PEP), and how Perkins V is shaped by BEA per-capita income data. By mapping how administrative data flows into federal formulas, the Atlas highlights the real-world significance of these collections.