The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) is the official 
federal source of educational statistics and projections at the national 
level. NCES produces several major publications annually which enjoy
wide circulation.  Three of these are: The Condition of Education, 
Digest of Education Statistics, and Projections of Education Statistics.  
These publications present statistics on a wide array of
education topics.  They are used in a number of diverse ways by
policymakers, researchers, and the general public. To reach the online 
versions of these NCES publications, follow this path:

http://www.ed.gov/

or

gopher to gopher.ed.gov
  choose Educational Research, Improvement & Statistics (OERI & 
  NCES)
    choose National Center for Educational Statistics
      choose NCES Publications and Reports
         choose Major NCES Publications

  or

ftp.ed.gov (logon anonymous)

Of course, should you encounter any difficulty in the process
of downloading or unzipping desired files from the NCES databases,
then you could always use the print version of any of these resources
at your local academic or public library.

If you require further assistance with the data sets which you find in 
any of the above resources, then you may contact the National Data 
Resource Center of the NCES at the following e-mail address or telephone 
number:

          e-mail:             <ndrc#064;inet.ed.gov>
          telephone:          202-219-1642