BACCALAUREATE AND BEYOND LONGITUDINAL STUDY, 2001 (B&B 2000/01)

The estimates and statistics reported in the tables and figures of this report are based on data from the 2001 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:2000/01), a spring 2001 followup of bachelor's degree recipients from the 1999–2000 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:2000), conducted by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. NPSAS:2000 is based on a nationally representative sample of all students in postsecondary education institutions, including undergraduate, graduate, and first-professional students. For NPSAS:2000, information was obtained from more than 900 postsecondary institutions on approximately 50,000 undergraduate, 9,000 graduate, and 3,000 first-professional students. They represented nearly 17 million undergraduates, 2.4 million graduate students, and 300,000 first-professional students who were enrolled at some time between July 1, 1999 and June 30, 2000. For B&B:2000/01, those members of the NPSAS:2000 sample who completed a bachelor's degree between July 1, 1999 and June 30, 2000 were identified and contacted for a follow-up interview.¹ The weighted overall response rate for the B&B:2000/01 interview was 74 percent, reflecting an institution response rate of 90 percent and a student response rate of 82 percent. (Because the B&B:2000/01 study includes a subsample of NPSAS:2000 nonrespondents, the overall study response rate is the product of the NPSAS:2000 institution-level response rate and the B&B:2000/01 student-level response rate.)

The B&B:2000/01 data provide a profile of the 1999–2000 cohort of college graduates, including degree recipients who have enrolled sporadically over time as well as those who went to college right after completing high school. The data set contains comprehensive data on enrollment, attendance, and student demographic characteristics and provides a unique opportunity to understand the immediate transitions of college students into work, graduate school, or other endeavors. Further information about B&B 2000/01 is available at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/b&b/

BEGINNING POSTSECONDARY STUDENTS (BPS) LONGITUDINAL STUDY

BPS collects data related to persistence in and completion of postsecondary education programs; relationships between work and education efforts; and the effect of postsecondary education on the lives of individuals. The first BPS followed NPSAS:90 beginning students starting in 1992. About 8,000 students who began postsecondary education in the 1989–90 academic year responded to NPSAS:90 and were included in the first BPS (BPS:90/92) in the spring of 1992 and the second BPS (BPS: 90/94) in the spring of 1994. NPSAS:90 collected data for over 6,000 parents of those students. In addition, BPS collected postsecondary financial aid records covering the entire undergraduate period to provide complete information on progress and persistence. A second BPS cohort was based on NPSAS:96, with the first BPS followup conducted in 1998 and the second in 2001.

Indicators 19, 20, and 23 use data from the BPS. Further information about BPS is available at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/bps/

COMMON CORE OF DATA (CCD)

CCD is the Department of Education's primary database on public elementary and secondary education in the United States. CCD is a comprehensive, annual, national statistical database of information concerning all public elementary and secondary schools (approximately 91,000) and school districts (approximately 16,000). The CCD consists of five surveys completed annually by state education departments from their administrative records. The database includes a general description of schools and school districts; data on students and staff, including demographics; and fiscal data, including revenues and current expenditures.

Indicators 1, 3, 39, and 41 use data from the CCD. Further information about the CCD is available at http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/

EARLY CHILDHOOD LONGITUDINAL STUDY, KINDERGARTEN CLASS OF 1998–99 (ECLS–K)

Indicators 9, 36, and the special analysis on kindergarten and first-grade students are based on the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS–K), an ongoing effort by the NCES. Launched in fall 1998, the study follows a nationally representative sample of children from kindergarten through 5th grade. The purpose of the ECLS–K is twofold: to be both descriptive and analytic. First, the ECLS–K provides descriptive data on a national basis of (1) children's status at entry into school; (2) children's transition into school; and (3) their progression through 5th grade. Second, the ECLS–K provides a rich data set that enables researchers to study how a wide range of family, school, community, and individual variables affect early success in school.

A nationally representative sample of 21,260 children enrolled in 1,277 kindergarten programs participated in the initial survey during the 1998–99 school year. These children were selected from both public and private kindergartens, offering full- and half-day programs. The sample consists of children from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds and includes an oversample of Asian/Pacific Islander children. All kindergarten children within the sampled schools were eligible for the sampling process, including language minority and special education students. The sample design for the ECLS–K is a dual-frame, multistage sample. First, 100 Primary Sampling Units (PSUs), which are counties or groups of counties, were selected. Schools within the PSUs were then selected—public schools from a public school frame and private schools from a private school frame, which oversampled private kindergartens. In fall 1998, approximately 23 kindergartners were selected within each of the sampled schools.

Data on the kindergarten cohort were collected in the fall and spring of the kindergarten year from the children, their parents, and their teachers. In addition, information was collected from their schools and school districts in the spring of the kindergarten year. During the 1999–2000 school year, when most of the cohort moved to the 1st grade, data were again collected from a 30 percent subsample of the cohort in the fall and from the full sample in the spring.

Trained evaluators assessed children in their schools and collected information from parents over the telephone. Teachers and school administrators were contacted in their school and asked to complete questionnaires. The children, their families, their teachers, and their schools provided information on children's cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. Information was also collected on the children's home environment, home educational practices, school and classroom environments, curricula, and teacher qualifications. Additional surveys of the sampled children occurred in spring 2002 (3rd grade) and are planned for spring 2004 (5th grade).

Indicator 9 discusses the relative importance of the gain in reading and mathematics average scale scores across grades in terms of standard deviations. A standard deviation shows the dispersion of scores from the mean. In a normal distribution, approximately 68 percent of the scores are within plus or minus one standard deviation from the mean. Ninety-five percent of the scores are within plus or minus two standard deviations from the mean. In simpler terms, the standard deviation informs the reader about the "normal" range of variation in student scores, or a high and low score between which two-thirds of the scores of all students fall. A difference in the average scores between two sub-populations, such as Asians and Hispanics, or any other population characteristic being measured, can be then expressed as a ratio of this difference to the standard deviation of the population values. If this ratio is large, say .5 or more, readers are alerted that there is an appreciable difference between the two means, rather than simply a statistically significant difference. If the ratio is small, say less than .1, then readers are alerted that the difference between the two sub-populations is not very appreciable. The ECLS–K scale scores ranged from 0–64 for mathematics and from 0–72 for reading.

Further information about the ECLS–K is available at http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/

FAST RESPONSE SURVEY SYSTEM (FRSS)

FRSS was established in 1975 to collect and report data on key education issues at the elementary and secondary level quickly and with minimum response burden. FRSS was designed to meet the data needs of the Department of Education's analysts, planners, and decisionmakers when information cannot be collected quickly through traditional NCES surveys. Data collected through FRSS surveys are representative at the national level, drawing from a universe that is appropriate for each study. FRSS collects data from state education agencies and national samples of other educational organizations and participants, including local education agencies; public and private elementary and secondary schools; elementary and secondary school teachers and principals; and public and school libraries.

Indicator 27 uses data from the FRSS "District Survey of Alternative Schools and Programs" in 2001. Further information about FRSS is available at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/

INTEGRATED POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION DATA SYSTEM (IPEDS)

IPEDS is NCES's core program for the collection of data on postsecondary education (prior to IPEDS some of the same information was collected by the Higher Education General Information Survey). IPEDS is a single, comprehensive system that encompasses all identified institutions whose primary purpose is to provide postsecondary education.

IPEDS consists of institution-level data that can be used to describe trends in postsecondary education at the institution, state, and/or national levels. For example, researchers can use IPEDS to analyze information on 1) enrollments of undergraduates, first-time freshmen, and graduate and first-professional students by race/ethnicity and gender; 2) institutional revenue and expenditure patterns by source of income and type of expense; 3) salaries of full-time instructional faculty by academic rank and tenure status; 4) completions (awards) by type of program, level of award, race/ethnicity, and gender; 5) characteristics of postsecondary institutions, including tuition, room and board charges, calendar systems, and so on; 6) status of postsecondary vocational education programs; and 7) other issues of interest.

Data are collected from approximately 9,900 postsecondary institutions, including the following: baccalaureate or higher degree-granting institutions, 2-year award institutions, and less-than-2-year institutions (i.e., institutions whose awards usually result in terminal occupational awards or are creditable toward a formal 2-year or higher award). Each of these three categories is further disaggregated by control (public, private not-for-profit, private for-profit) resulting in nine institutional categories or sectors.

The completion of all IPEDS surveys is mandatory for all institutions that participate or are applicants for participation in any federal financial assistance program authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

Indicators 5, 7, and 33 use data from the IPEDS. Further information about IPEDS is available at http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ (the institutional categories used in IPEDS are described in supplemental note 8).

NATIONAL EDUCATION LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF 1988 (NELS)

NELS:88 is the third major secondary school student longitudinal study sponsored by NCES. The two studies that preceded NELS:88, the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS72) and High School and Beyond (HS&B) in 1980, surveyed high school seniors (and sophomores in HS&B) through high school, postsecondary education, and work and family formation experiences. Unlike its predecessors, NELS:88 begins with a cohort of 8th-grade students. In 1988, some 25,000 8th-graders, their parents, their teachers, and their school principals were surveyed. Followups were conducted in 1990, 1992, and 1994, when a majority of these students were in 10th and 12th grades, and then 2 years after their scheduled high school graduation. A fourth followup was conducted in 2000.

NELS:88 is designed to provide trend data about critical transitions experienced by young people as they develop, attend school, and embark on their careers. It complements and strengthens state and local efforts by furnishing new information on how school policies, teacher practices, and family involvement affect student educational outcomes (i.e., academic achievement, persistence in school, and participation in postsecondary education). For the base year, NELS:88 includes a multifaceted student questionnaire, four cognitive tests, a parent questionnaire, a teacher questionnaire, and a school questionnaire.

In 1990, when the students were in 10th grade, the students, school dropouts, their teachers, and their school principals were surveyed. The 1988 survey of parents was not a part of the 1990 followup. In 1992, when most of the students were in 12th grade, the second followup conducted surveys of students, dropouts, parents, teachers, and school principals. Also, information from the students' transcripts were collected.

Further information about NELS is available at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/nels88/

NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD EDUCATION SURVEYS PROGRAM (NHES)

NHES, conducted in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999, and 2001, collects data on education issues that cannot be addressed by collecting data on a school level. Each survey collects data from households on at least two topics, such as adult education, civic involvement, parental involvement in education, and before- and after-school activities.

NHES surveys the civilian, non-institutionalized U.S. population in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Interviews are conducted using computer-assisted telephone interviewing. NHES collects data from adults as well as children. Data on young children are collected primarily by interviewing parents or guardians of children, and only infrequently by interviewing the children themselves. When such children are sampled to participate in NHES, the parent or guardian most knowledgeable about the child's care and education is interviewed.

Although NHES is conducted primarily in English, provisions are made to interview persons who speak only Spanish. Questionnaires are translated into Spanish, and bilingual interviewers, who are trained to complete the interview in either English or Spanish, are employed.

Indicators 8, 37, 38, and 44 use data from NHES. Further information about NHES is available at http://nces.ed.gov/nhes/

NATIONAL POSTSECONDARY STUDENT AID STUDY (NPSAS)

NPSAS is a comprehensive nationwide study designed to determine how students and their families pay for postsecondary education and to describe some demographic and other characteristics of those enrolled. The study is based on a nationally representative sample of students in postsecondary educational institutions, including undergraduate, graduate, and first-professional students. Students attending all types and levels of institutions are represented, including public and private not-for-profit and for-profit institutions, and less-than-2-year institutions, community colleges, and 4-year colleges and universities.

To be eligible for inclusion in the institutional sample, an institution must have satisfied the following conditions: 1) offers an education program designed for persons who have completed secondary education; 2) offers an academic, occupational, or vocational program of study lasting 3 months or longer; 3) offers access to the general public; 4) offers more than just correspondence courses; and 5) is located in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico.

Part-time and full-time students enrolled in academic or vocational courses or programs at these institutions, and not concurrently enrolled in a high school completion program, are eligible for inclusion in NPSAS. The first NPSAS, in 1986–87, sampled students enrolled in the fall of 1986. Since the NPSAS in 1989–90, students enrolled at any time during the year are eligible for inclusion in the survey. This design change provides the data necessary to estimate full-year financial aid awards.

Each NPSAS survey provides information on the cost of postsecondary education, the distribution of financial aid, and the characteristics of both aided and nonaided students and their families. Following each survey, NCES publishes three major reports, Undergraduate Financing of Postsecondary Education, Student Financing of Graduate and Professional Education, and Profile of Undergraduates in U.S Postsecondary Education Institutions.

Indicators 6, 32, 34, 42, and 43 use data from NPSAS. Further information about NPSAS is available at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/npsas/

NATIONAL STUDY OF POSTSECONDARY FACULTY (NSOPF)

Indicator 35 uses data collected for the NSOPF, which NCES sponsors. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation, NSOPF:93 included a sample of 974 public and private, not-for-profit degree-granting postsecondary institutions and 31,354 faculty and instructional staff. NSOPF:99 was designed to provide a national profile of faculty, including data on their professional backgrounds, responsibilities, workloads, salaries, benefits, and attitudes. NSOPF:99, which collected data in 1998–99, included 960 degree-granting postsecondary institutions and an initial sample of 28,704 faculty and instructional staff from these institutions.

Further information about NSOPF is available at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/nsopf/

SCHOOLS AND STAFFING SURVEY (SASS)

SASS is the nation's largest sample survey of America's elementary and secondary schools. First conducted in 1987–88, SASS periodically surveys:

• public schools and collects data on school districts, schools, principals, teachers, and library media centers;
• private schools and collects data on schools, principals, teachers, and library media centers;
• schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and collects data on schools, principals, teachers, and library media centers; and
• public charter schools and collects data on schools, principals, teachers, and library media centers.

To ensure that the samples contain sufficient numbers for estimates, SASS uses a stratified probability sample design. Public and private schools are oversampled into groups based on certain characteristics. After schools are stratified and sampled, teachers within the schools are also stratified and sampled based on their characteristics. Due to the relatively few numbers of these schools, all charter schools under state supervision that were in existence during the 1998–99 school year and all schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs or American Indian/Alaska Native tribes were included in the 1999–2000 SASS.

Indicators 28, 29, and 30 use data from SASS. Further information about SASS is available at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass/

Notes

¹For more information on the B&B study, consult U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Methodology Report for the 2001 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (NCES 2003–156) (Washington, DC: 2002). (back to text)