Since its inception, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has been committed to the practice of documenting its statistical methods for its customers and of seeking to avoid misinterpretation of its published data. The reason for this policy is to assure customers that proper statistical standards and techniques have been observed, to guide them in the appropriate use of information from NCES, and to make them aware of the known limitations of NCES data. This second edition of the "NCES Handbook of Survey Methods" continues this commitment by presenting descriptions of how each survey program in NCES obtains and prepares the data it publishes. This handbook aims to provide users of NCES data with the most current information necessary to evaluate the suitability of the statistics for their needs, with a focus on the methodologies for survey design, data collection, and data processing. It is intended to be used as a companion report to "Programs and Plans of the National Center for Education Statistics," which provides a summary description of the type of data collected by each program at the Center. Appended are: (1) Glossary of Statistical Terms; (2) Ordering NCES Publications and Data Files; (3) Web-based and Standalone Tools for Use with NCES Survey Data; (4) NCES Survey Web Site Addresses; and (5) Index. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 25 tables.) [For the companion report, "Programs and Plans of the National Center for Education Statistics. 2005 Edition. NCES 2005-113," see ED485373.]