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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 313 399 TM 014 165 AUTHOR Jones, Calvin; And Others TITLE National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. Postsecondary Education Transcript Study Data File User's Manual. Contractor Report. INSTITUTION National Opinion, Research Center, Chicago, Ill. SPONS AGENCY National Center for Education Statistics (ED), Washington, DC. REPORT NO CS-86-221 PUB DATE Aug 86 CONTRACT 300-83-0288 NOTE 525p.; For the data file, see TM 014 166. PUB TYPE Guides Non-Classroom Use (055) -- Statistical Data (110) EDRS PRICE MF02/PC21 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Academic Records; College Credits; *College Students; Courses; Databases; Degrees ,.-"ademic); Enrollment; Grades (Scholastic); *High ScLool Graduates; *Longitudinal Studies; Majors (Students); *National Surveys; Online Systems; Postsecondary Education; Statistical Surveys IDENTIFIERS National Longitudinal Study High School Class 1972; Postsecondary Education Transcript Study ABSTRACT The codebook for the Postsecondary Education Transcript File of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72), which is a machine-readable data file containing information on transcripts from NLS-72 senior cohort members who reported attending a postsecondary institution after high school, is presented. Records were obtained from all types of educational institutions and programs. A total of 19,033 transcripts reflecting the educational activities of 14,759 sample members are included. Information includes: (1) major and minor fields of study; (2) periods of enrollment; (3) courses taken; (4) credits earned; and (5) grades received and credentials earned at 2-year and 4-year institutions. Data are organized at the student, transcript, term, and course levels. This user's manual documents the procedures used to collect this information and provides researchers with the technical information necessary to use the public release data files. Data editing procedures are discussed, and the organization and content of the files are described. Procedures used to construct sampling weights for use in computing population estimates are reviewed. Lists of the endorsing institutions, postsecondary school codes in numerical order, postsecondary school codes in alphabetical order, and course subject codes in numerical order are provided. The data file record layout and frequency distributions are tabulated. (SLD) *******************X**********************************X**************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. **************************************************************At******* /41 "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 3: /1 i9u e lbw/g- A alisdocument has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes hive been made to improve reproduction Quality TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Contractor Report Points of 'hew or opinions stat ed in this docu- . INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." ment do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 Postsecondary Education Transcript Study Data File User's Manual "e"Ri Office of Educational Research and Improvement US. Department of Education Center for Statistics BEST COPY AVAILAi3LE 2 National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 Postsecondary Education Transcript Study Data File User's Manual National Opinion Research Center Chicago, Illinois Calvin Jones Reginald Baker Robert Borchers Roan GarciaQuintana Project Officer Center for Statistics Prepared for the Center for Statistics under contract OE-300.83-0288 with the U.S. Department of Educa- tion. Contractors undertaking such projectsare encouraged to express freely their professional judgment. This report, therefore, does not necessarily represent positions or polic'^, of the Government, and no official endorsement should be inferred. This report is released as received from the contractor. August 1986 CS 86-221 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S.Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank all thosepersons who contributed to the production of this manual. For their considerable effort we would like to thank Christine Beard, Tucker Landy,Hymen Bern and Peggy Vevers in the InformationResources Center. We would like to thank SPSS, Inc. for theuse of the source code for the frequencies procedures of release 9. This made it possible to generate a codebook with weights applied only tothe column of valid percentages. Special recognition is extended to Diane Bagues for her assistance in coordinating theproduction activities. Finally, we would also like to thankthose members of the CS staff who have worked closely withus on this project: Roan Garcia-Quintana, Project Officer; C. DennisCarroll, Chief of the Longitudinal Studies Branch; JeffreyOwings, Statistician; Helen MacArthur and Carl Schmitt. PREFACE The purpose of this user's manual is to document the procedures used to collect and process postsecondary school transcripts for members of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72) who had attended any postsecondary institutions since leaving high school. In addition, this manual will provide researchers with the technical information necessary for using the public release data files containing transcript and other data. The fclJowing outline provides a general guide to the contents of the manual. * Chapter 1 contains an introduction to the longitudinal studies program administered by the Center for Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education andscope of the transcript study. * Chapter 2 summarizes the procedures used to collect tran- script data from educational institutions. * Chapter 3 describes the Computer Assisted Data Entry (CADE) program with which transcriptsrere coded and con- verted to machine readable form. * Chapter 4 contains basic technical information required for use of the data files. It includes a discussion of data editing procedures and explains the organization and contents of the data files. * Chapter 5 describes the procedures used to constructsam- pling weights for use in computing population estimates. *** CAUTION *** The Postsecondary Education Transcript Study data filesare not conventional rectangular datasets but are organized inan efficient, complex hierarchical structure. Data users are strongly urged to consult Chapters 4 and 5 before attempting touse the public release data tapes to avoid the frustration andexpense of abnormal termina- tions and other errors in their computer jobs. iJ ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Overview 1 1.1.1 The CS LongitudinalStudies Program 1.2 History of the National LongitudinalStudy of the High School Class of 1972 4 4 1.2.1 Background The Base Year Survey 4 1.2.2 4 1.2.3 The First Follow-Up Survey 4 1.2.4 The Sccond Follow-Up Survey 5 1.2.5 The Third Follow-Up Survey 5 1.2.6 The Fourth Follow-Up Survey 5 1.3 Scope of the PostsecondaryEducation Transcript Study 7 2. DATA COLLECTION 7 2.1 Data Collection Objectives 8 2,2 Mailout of Transcript Requests toInstitutions 2.3 Data Collection Results 9 10 2.3.1 The School-Level Response Rate The Transcript-Level Response Rate 11 2.3.2 15 2.3.3 Student-Level Data Collection Results 17 3. DATA PREPARATION 17 3.1 Data Preparation Objectives 18 3.2 Data Organization 19 3.3 The Computer Assisted Data Entry(CADE) System 19 3.3.1 The CADE Concept 21 3.3.2 Computer Hardware and Software Used 25 3.4 Coder Training ..25 3.5 Quality Control 27 4. DATA PROCESSING 27 4.1 Machine Editing 28 4.2 Organization and Content of the DataFile The Student Record 30 4.2.1 35 4.2.2 The Transcript Record, 43 4.2.3 The Term Record ;", iii TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Page 4.2.4 The Course Record 47 4.3 Merging Records 50 4.4 A Cautionary Note on the Use of Creditsand Grades Data in the Postsecondary Transcripts Database 50 4.5 Datafiles Included on Public ReleaseTapes 54 5. SAMPLE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION 55 5.1 Base Year Sample Design 55 5.2 The Postsecondary Education Transcript StudySample 56 5.3 Sample Weights 57 5.4 Standard Errors and Design Effects 64 6. CODEBOOK 67 Student-Level Record 68 Transcript-Level Record 87 Term-Level Record 90 Course-Level Record 92 st iv APPENDICES Appendix A: List of Endorsing Institutions 93 Appendix B: Postsecondary School Codes in Numerical Order 97 Appendix C: Postsecondary School Codes in Alphabetical Order 177 Appendix D: Course Subject Codes in Numerical Order 257 Appendix E: Data File Record Layout 323 Appendix F: Frequency Distributions Frequency Distributions for Student-Level Variables (p. 335) Frequency Distributions for Transcript-Level Variables (p. 375) Frequency Distributions for Term-Level Variables (p. 506) Frequency Distributions for Course-Level Variables (p. 515) * * * * NOTE * * * * Appendices are available in hardcopy form only 1. INTRODUCTION The National Longitudinal Studyof the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72) Postsecondary EducationTranscript Study (PETS), conducted during 1984-85, involved the collectionand processing of school transcripts for all members of neNLS-72 cohort who had attendedany form of postsecondary institutionsince leaving high school. Tran- scripts were requested from eachschool reported by sample members in their responses to the NLS-72first through fourth follow-upsurveys.