The State of Qatar enacted a decree in November of 2002 to establish a new K-12 education system.  The impetus for the educational development project is the realization that the current school system is not adequately preparing students to compete in the 21st century global economy. To support this effort, the Supreme Education Council (SEC) contracted with NORC to design and implement an integrated system of data collection, management, and analysis to evaluate the education reform project.

In 2003, NORC designed and implemented a comprehensive system of data collection, management, analysis, and dissemination that is used to evaluate the reform longitudinally.  NORC developed a sophisticated system to collect data nationwide about schools, students, school staff, and parents.  NORC also developed, and built systems to administer and manage, surveys for all students, teachers, principals, and parents to capture quantitative and qualitative data about the education environment.  Finally, NORC developed sophisticated systems to administer and manage student assessments at all grade levels, and to disseminate the reform results using portal technology. 

Since 2003, NORC has played an integral part in an education reform that is the first of its kind in the Middle East.  In addition to helping the country of Qatar gather and analyze data, NORC has also played a big role in building local capacity to manage the systems. 

Last but not least, NORC is also playing a key role conducting education research studies on the data collected to help policymakers and the public gain more insight into the state of education in the country.