DOCUMENT 'RESUME 1ED 274 713 TM 860 592 AUTHOR Jones, Calvin; And Others TITLE Postsecondary Education Transcript Study Data File User's Manual. National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. INSTITUTION National Opinion Researc:1 Center, Ctiicago, Ill. SPONS AGENCY Center for Statistics (OERI/ED), Washington, DC. REPORT NO CS-86-221 PUB DATE Aug 86 CONTRACT 0E-300-83-0288 NOTE 525p. AVAILABLE FROMSuperintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. PUB TYPE Guides - Non-Classroom Use (055) EDRS PRICE MF02/PC21 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Academic Records; Cohort Analysis; *Databases; *Data Collection; Educational Research; Graduate Surveys; *Longitudinal Studies; *National -urveys; Postsecondary Education IDENTIFIERS *National Longitudinal Study High School Class 1972 ABSTRACT 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 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 five chapters include: (1) introduction to the longitudinal studies program; (2) summary of the procedures used to collect transcripts; (3) description of the Computer Assisted Data Entry program; (4) basic technical information required for use of data files; And (5) description of the procedures used to construct sampling weights for use in computing population estimates. A codebook offers reproductions of records for these levels: student, transcript, term, and course. The appendices include a list of schools, postsecondary school codes in numerical and alphabetical order, course subject codes in numerical order, data file record layout, and frequency distributions for student-level, transcript-level, term-level, and course-level variables. (JAZ) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** zN, c, Contractor Report National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 Postsecondary Education Transcript Study Data File User's Manual U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office o f EthiCational Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION Research and Imprarement CENTER (ERIC) ....S.4This document has been reproduced as US. Department d Educatice received from the person or organization originating it. O Minor changes have beed made to improve Center for Statistics reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this docu- ment do not necessarily represent officisl OERI position or policy. BESTCOPYAVAILABLE National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 Postsecondary Education Transcdpt Study Data File User' M5nua1 National Opinion Research Center Chicago, Illinois Calvin Jones Reginald Baker Robert Borchers Roan Garcia-Quintana Project Officer Center for Statistics Prepared ror the Center for Statistics under contract 0E-300-83-0288 with the U.S. Department of Educa- tion. Contractors undertaking such projects are encouraged to express freely their professional judgment. This report, therefore, does not necessarily represent positions or policies 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 3 Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank all those persons 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 Information Resources Center. We would like to thank SPSS, Inc. for the use of the source code for thc frequencies procedures of release 9. This made it possible to generate a codebook with weights applied only to the column of valid percentages. Special recognition is extended to Diane Bagues for her assistance in coordinating the production activities. Finally, we would also like to thank those members of the CS staff who have worked closely with us on this project: Roan Garcia-Quintana, Project Officer; C. Dennis Carroll, Chief of the Longitudinal Studies Branch; Jeffrey Owings, Statistician; Helen MacArthur and Carl Schmitt. 4 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 following outline provides a general guide to the zontents 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 and scope 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 transcripts were 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 construct sam- pling weights for use in computing population estimates. *** CAUTION *** The Postsecondary Education Transcript Study data files are not conventional rectangular datasets but are organized in an efficient, complex hierarchical structure. Data users are strongly urged to consult Chapters 4 and 5 before attempting to use the public release data tapes to avoid the frustration and expense of abnormal termina- tions and other errors in their computer jobs. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview 1 1 1.1.1 The CS Longitudinal StudiesProgram 1.2 History of the National Longitudinal Studyof the High School Class of 1972 4 1.2.1 Background 4 1.2.2 The Base Year Survey 4 1.2.3 The First Follow-Up Survey 4 1.2.4 The Second Follow-Up Survey 4 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 5 7 2. DATA COLLECTION 2.1 Data Collection Objectives 7 2.2 Mailout of Transcript Requests to Institutions 8 2.3 Data Collection Results 9 2.3.1 The School-Level Respons; Rate 10 2.3.2 The Transcript-Level Rerr.onse Rate 11 2.3.3 Student-Level Data Collection Results 15 17 3. DATA PREPARATION 17 3.1 Data Preparation Objectives 3.2 Data Organization 18 3.3 The Computer Assisted Data Entry (CADE) System 19 3.3.1 The CADE Concept ]9 3.3.2 Computer Hardware and Software Used 21 3.4 Coder Training 25 3.5 Quality Control 25 4. DAT/. PROCESSING 27 27 4.1 Machine Editing 28 4.2 Organization and Content of the DataFile 30 4.2.1 The Student Record 4.2.2 The Transcript Record 35 4.2.3 The Term Record 43 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 Credits and Grades Data in the Postsecondary Transcripts Database 50 4.5 Datafiles Included on Public Release Tapes 54 5. SAMPLE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION 55 5.1 Base Year Sample Design 55 5.2 The Postsecondary Education Transcript Study Sample 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 7 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. 50C) Frequency Distributions for Course-Level Variables (p. 515) * * * * NOTE * * * * Appendices are available in hardcopy form only 1. INTRODUCTION The National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72) Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (PETS), conducted during 1984-85, involved the collection and processing of school transcripts for all members of the NLS-72 cohort who had attended any form of postsecondary institution since leaving high school. Tran- scripts were requested from each school reported by sample members in their responses to the NLS-72 first through fourth follow-up surveys. Records were obtained from all types of postsecondary institutions, ranging from short-term vocational or occupational programs through major universities with graduate programs and professional schools. Information from the transcripts, including terms of attendance, fields of study, specific courses taken, and grades and credits earned, were coded and processed into a system of data files designed to be merged with NLS-72 questionnaire data files. On the same schedule and using