[Libs-Or] America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009 Released Online

[Ann Reed]

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009 Released Online

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has released "America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009."  This report continues a series of annual reports to the Nation on conditions affecting children in the United States.  The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences, in cooperation with 21 other federal agencies, contributes indicators to the report and supports its production.  

According to the report's section on education, performance of 4th and 8th graders in mathematics is at an all time high and performance in reading improved between 2005 and 2007.  Not all the report's findings were positive, however; the percentage of children ages 3-5 who were read to every day in the last week by a family member declined, from 60 percent in 2005, to 55 percent in 2007.  The report noted that this percentage is slightly higher than the proportion of 53 percent in 1993, but the rate has fluctuated in intervening years.

The report has three demographic background measures and 40 selected indicators to describe the population of children and depict child well-being in the areas of family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health. This year's report has a special feature on children with special health care needs.

You can view, download, and print the report at http://childstats.gov/

To obtain hard copy of many IES products as well as hard copy and
electronic versions of hundreds of other U.S. Department of Education
products please visit http://www.edpubs.org or call 1-877-433-7827 (877-4-EDPUBS).



Ann Reed, Federal Programs Coordinator
Library Development Services
Oregon State Library
250 Winter St.
Salem, OR 97301
(503) 378-5027
fax (503) 378-6439
ann.reed at state.or.us
http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/LD/