High school and beyond, 1980

Conducted by the National Opinion Research Center on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics, this survey is the first wave of data for a major longitudinal study of American youth. Data were collected from 58,270 high school students (28,240 seniors and 30,030 sophomores) and 1,015 secondary schools. Many items overlap with the NCES 1972 high school senior cohort study, which now has five waves of data. Surveys administered to students in the spring of 1980 provided data for the Student file. Included are questionnaire responses on family and religious background, perceptions of self and others, personal values, extracurricular activities, type of high school program, and educational expectations and aspirations. Also supplied are scores on a battery of tests, including vocabulary, reading, mathematics, science, writing, civics, spatial orientation, and visualization. The School file, which contains data from questionnaires completed by high school principals, outlines various school attributes and programs. The data file is supplemented by a machine-readable SPSS codebook and SPSS control cards. The Language file provides information on each student who reported some non-English language experience, with data on past and current exposure to and use of languages. Additional files contain SPSS control cards, SAS cards, and frequencies. The Teacher Comment files contain responses from 14,103 teachers on 18,291 students from 616 schools. Teachers had the opportunity to express knowledge or opinions of High School and Beyond students who had been in their classes. Students were evaluated by an average of four different teachers. An SPSS/SAS information file accompanies these data files. The Twin and Sibling file contains data from students in the sample who had twins, triplets, or other siblings who were also surveyed by HSB. Of the 1,348 families included, 524 had twins or triplets only, 810 contained non-twin siblings only, and the remaining 14 contained both types of siblings. The Friends file contains records representing the same 30,030 sophomores and 28,240 seniors that are in the Student file. The file contains four variables: Student Case ID, First Choice Friend, Second Choice Friend, and Third Choice Friend. The Parent file provided with the collection is a revision that includes 22 variables imputed by NCES from the original survey data. The new data are concerned primarily with the areas of family income, liabilities, and assets. A sub-sample of students participating in the Student survey was chosen for the Parent survey, with parents of 3,367 sophomores and 3,197 seniors responding. The data include numerous parent opinions and projections concerning the educational future of the student, anticipated financial aid, student's plans after high school, expected ages for student's marriage and childbearing, estimated costs of post-secondary education, and government financial aid policies. Also supplied are data on family size, value of property and other assets, home financing, family income and debts, and the age, sex, marital and employment status of parents, plus current income and expenses for the student. Other files provided with the dataset include a machine-readable codebook and SAS control cards.