DOI: 10.3886/icpsr33341
title: Project Talent, Base Year Data, 1960
title: Archival Version

description: Project Talent is a nationally representative longitudinal study of men and women who were in high school in 1960 and who are currently in their 60s. Project Talent began as a major national effort to assess the aspirations and abilities of America's young men and women. Initiated in 1957, with support from the United States Office of Education and several other government agencies, Project Talent collected extensive information on characteristics and cognitive abilities of approximately 377,000 individuals in 1960 when they were in high school and in subsequent follow-up studies through age 30. Project Talent's large sample size, extensive background questionnaire, and cognitive measures, make it a premier study for social science research, combining aspects of multiple disciplines in a largely seamless research framework. Project Talent is uniquely suited to help inform lifecourse outcomes with a nationally representative sample and the power to unpack disparities in health and other characteristics and abilities.
description: The purpose of the study was to find out why some students learn and others do not; why some students go on to college and others do not. This study tried to find out about students interests, career plans and whether the courses they took matched the goals they had set for themselves. It was an attempt to find out how much human potential was lost and what educators and parents can do to stop that loss.
description: In 1960, roughly 5 percent of American high school students participated in the Project Talent study. Approximately 440,000 students were selected to represent all 9th through 12th grade students throughout the country.
description: Response Rates: 1,063 public, private, and parochial senior high schools were asked to participate in Project Talent. Of these schools, 987 (93 percent) agreed to take part. With the exception of New York City and Chicago schools, every student in a participating school became part of the study. All 9th-graders in the junior high schools associated with participating senior high schools were also included. 238 junior high schools were part of Project Talent, bringing the total number of randomly selected schools to 1,225. In addition, 128 schools asked to participate in the study as "volunteer" schools, bringing the total number of schools in Project Talent to 1,353.
description: Comprehensive sampling of United States high school students, using a 5 percent survey (a survey of 5 percent of the total population of high school students in 1960). Sophisticated sampling was used to identify 1,353 public, private, and parochial schools of all sizes and geographic locations in the United States.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Freshman class
DS2: Sophomore class
DS3: Junior class
DS4: Senior class
DS5: Combined classes
description: Public, private, and parochial senior high schools in the United States. Smallest Geographic Unit: schools
description: face-to-face interview; mail questionnaire; self-enumerated questionnaire; on-site questionnairePlease visit the Project Talent project site for additional details.