DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06448.v1
title: National Education Longitudinal Study, 1988: Second Follow-Up (1992)
title: Version 1

description: This data collection presents second follow-up data for the 
 NATIONAL EDUCATION LONGITUDINAL STUDY, 1988 (ICPSR 9389). The base-year 
 study, which collected information from student surveys and tests and 
 from surveys of parents, school administrators, and teachers, was 
 designed to provide trend data about critical transitions experienced 
 by students as they leave elementary school and progress through high 
 school and postsecondary institutions or the work force. The first 
 follow-up, NATIONAL EDUCATION LONGITUDINAL STUDY, 1988: FIRST FOLLOW-UP 
 (1990) (ICPSR 9859), provided the first opportunity for longitudinal 
 measurement of the 1988 baseline samples. It also provided a point of 
 comparison with high school sophomores from ten years before, as 
 studied in HIGH SCHOOL AND BEYOND, 1980: A LONGITUDINAL SURVEY OF 
 STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES (ICPSR 7896). Further, the study captured 
 the population of early dropouts (those who leave school prior to the 
 end of the tenth grade), while monitoring the transition of the student 
 population into secondary schooling. The second follow-up provides a 
 cumulative measurement of learning in the course of secondary school, 
 and also supplies information that will facilitate investigation of the 
 transition into the labor force and postsecondary education after high 
 school. The 1992 student component collected basic background 
 information about students' school and home environments, participation 
 in classes and extracurricular activities, current jobs, and their 
 goals, aspirations, and opinions about themselves. The student 
 component also gathered data about the family decision-making structure 
 during the critical transition from secondary school to postsecondary 
 education or the work environment. The 1992 school component solicited 
 general descriptive information about the educational setting and 
 environment in which surveyed students were enrolled. These data, which 
 were collected from the chief administrator of each base-year school 
 with sample members still in attendance, cover school, student, and 
 teacher characteristics, school politics and programs, and school 
 governance and climate. The 1992 teacher component was administered to 
 teachers of second follow-up students in one of two basic subject 
 areas: mathematics or science. The questionnaire elicited teacher 
 evaluations of student characteristics and performance in the 
 classroom, curriculum information about the classes taught, teacher 
 demographic and professional characteristics, information about 
 parent-teacher interactions, time spent on various tasks, and 
 perceptions of school climate and culture. The dropout component 
 provides data on the process of dropping out of school as it occurs 
 from eighth grade on. Variables include school attendance, determinants 
 of leaving school, self-perceptions and attitudes, work history, and 
 relationships with school personnel, peers, and family. The parent 
 component provides information about the factors that influence 
 educational attainment and participation, including family background, 
 socioeconomic conditions, and character of the home educational system. 
 This component was present in the base-year survey but not in the first 
follow-up.
description: Two-stage sampling involving the selection of a core group 
 of students who were in the tenth-grade sample in 1990 distributed 
 across 1,500 schools. In order for this to be a valid probability 
 sample of all students currently enrolled in the twelfth grade in the 
 1991-1992 school year, the sample was "freshened" with students who 
 were twelfth-graders in 1992 but who were not in the tenth grade during 
 the 1989-1990 school year. First follow-up students who had dropped out 
of school between 1990 and 1992 were subsampled with certainty.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Student Data (Part 1)
DS2: SAS Data Definition Statements for Student Data (Part 1)
DS3: Student Data (Part 2)
DS4: SAS Data Definition Statements for Student Data (Part 2)
DS5: School Data
DS6: SAS Data Definition Statements for School Data
DS7: Dropout Data
DS8: SAS Data Definition Statements for Dropout Data
DS9: Teacher Data
DS10: SAS Data Definition Statements for Teacher Data
DS11: Parent Data
DS12: SAS Data Definition Statements for Parent Data
description: All twelfth-grade students in the United States during the 
1991-1992 school year.
description: Due to maximum variable restrictions of the SPSS 
 software package, the student data are provided in two parts with 
 differing record lengths. Separate SPSS and SAS data definition 
statements are provided for each.