Overview
The National Center for Educational Achievement (NCEA) is a non-profit, non-partisan ACT organization whose mission is to help K-12 students reach College and Career Readiness (CCR). Reaching CCR requires rigorous academic preparation that should begin early during students’ K-12 education. NCEA carries out data analysis, research, advocacy, and program development that promote high academic standards and student achievement throughout K-12 to help more students reach college and career readiness.
NCEA focuses on the following areas to grow our knowledge about what it takes to foster higher academic outcomes for all students:
- Promoting college and career readiness goals and standards
- Monitoring and closing academic preparation gaps
- Identifying higher performing schools and districts
- Learning core practices of higher performing schools
- Building the capacity to improve education
NCEA uses the knowledge gained from these areas of focus to promote the critical transfer of knowledge from schools that are succeeding in raising academic standards and student achievement to the many schools and districts that strive to improve their academic results.
NCEA is also a founding and managing partner of the Data Quality Campaign (DQC). The campaign is a national, collaborative effort to encourage and support state policymakers to improve the availability and use of high-quality education data to improve student achievement. DQC provides tools and resources that help states implement and use longitudinal data systems, while providing a national forum for reducing duplication of effort and promoting greater coordination and consensus among the organizations focused on improving data quality, access and use.
NCEA's professional staff has training and expertise in school and district leadership, research, psychometrics, statistics, program evaluation, computer science, educational policy, and the humanities.
Senior Management
Angela Hall Watkins, Assistant Vice President and Managing Director
Jean Rutherford, Assistant Vice President and Director of Educational Initiatives
Chrys Dougherty, Senior Research Scientist
Wesley L. Boykin, Director of Research
Efrain Mercado, Director of Outreach
Roxana L. Galan, Chief Financial Officer
Partners and Supporters
ACT, Inc.
American Institutes for Research
Casey Family Programs
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Horchow Charitable Trust
Lumina Foundation
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
Texas High School Project
