The NOAA Education Council collects and reports monitoring data on an annual basis. This page outlines the processes used by Council members to collect and report monitoring data, as well as resources to support programs with consistent data collection.

Common measures definitions

The Office of Education collects information on outputs and outcomes from education programs across NOAA using a set of common measures. To ensure that programs are reporting data that can be aggregated, we worked with programs to create shared definitions of our measures. Check out the definitions on these pages: 

• Educators
• PreK-12 students
• Postsecondary students
• Youth and adults
• Visitor attendance
• Institutions with increased educational capacity
• Website visitors
• Environmental actions
• Stewardship

Unified Data Call

The Unified Data Call (UDC) is an annual data collection from Education Council members. Programs report on one or more of the common measures based on participants and activities in the previous federal fiscal year. Each Education Council member manages their own data collection systems used to report to the UDC.

Accomplishments reporting

The Education Council compiles the highlights, reach, progress, and impacts of NOAA educational efforts for each federal fiscal year. The communication products developed include the annual accomplishments report and a storymap. 

Check out the NOAA Education accomplishments reports page.

Implementation planning and reporting

The NOAA Education community develops implementation plans to supplement the NOAA Education Strategic Plan. Implementation planning is an annual process that allows programs to identify which actions and strategies they will use to carry out NOAA Education’s goals. The implementation planning cycle provides an opportunity to evaluate the NOAA Education portfolio on an ongoing basis, while allowing us to respond to immediate needs, opportunities, and resources.

Impacts

Several individual NOAA programs host their own web pages that share their program's impact data:

• Aquaculture Literacy impacts
• Bay Watershed Education and Training impacts
• Environmental Literacy Program impacts
• Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship impacts
• José E. Serrano Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions impacts
• National Estuarine Research Reserve System Education Infographics 2022
• Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Education Infographic 2022 (pdf) offsite link 
• Sea Grant Program: Environmental Literacy and Workforce Development impacts
• Teacher at Sea Program evaluation