DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36423.v1
title: High School Longitudinal Study, 2009-2013 [United States]
title: Version 1

description: The High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) is nationally representative, longitudinal study of 9th graders who were followed through their secondary and postsecondary years, with an emphasis on understanding students' trajectories from the beginning of high school into postsecondary education, the workforce, and beyond. What students decide to pursue when, why, and how are crucial questions for HSLS:09. 
The HSLS:09 focuses on answering the following questions:

How do parents, teachers, counselors, and students construct choice sets for students, and how are these related to students' characteristics, attitudes, and behavior?
How do students select among secondary school courses, postsecondary institutions, and possible careers?
How do parents and students plan financing for postsecondary experiences? What sources inform these plans?
What factors influence students' decisions about taking STEM courses and following through with STEM college majors? Why are some students underrepresented in STEM courses and college majors?
How students' plans vary over the course of high school and how decisions in 9th grade impact students' high school trajectories. When students are followed up in the spring of 11th grade and later, their planning and decision-making in 9th grade may be linked to subsequent behavior.
This data collection also provides data for some arts-related topics, including the following: student participation in outside of schools arts activities; credit hours of arts classes taken; GPA from arts classes; and parent-led arts experiences.
For the public-use file, a total of 23,503 students responded from over 900 high schools both public and private.
description: The purpose of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) is to monitor the transition of national samples of young people from their high school experiences through their postsecondary years, including further education, participation in the work force, and the assumption of other adult roles. The core research questions for HSLS:09 explore secondary to postsecondary transition plans and the evolution of those plans; the paths into and out of science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics; and the educational and social experiences that affect these shifts.
description: The data collection for HSLS:09 base year took place in the 2009-10 school year, with a randomly selected sample of fall-term 9th-graders in more than 900 public and private high schools with both a 9th and an 11th grade. Students took a mathematics assessment and survey online. Students' parents, principals, and mathematics and science teachers and the school's lead counselor completed surveys on the phone or on the Web.
The first follow-up of HSLS:09 took place in the spring of 2012 when most sample members were in the spring of their 11th grade. Dropouts and transfer students were followed, as well as those who remain in the base-year school. 
A postsecondary update took place in the summer of 2013, to learn about the cohort's postsecondary plans and decisions. High school transcripts were collected in the fall of 2013.
Subsequent data collections are planned to occur three years after the expected graduation year (in 2016) to learn about students' postsecondary experiences, and again in 2021 to learn about participants' choices, decisions, attainment, and experiences in adulthood.
description: Arts related variables include:
Student participation in outside of schools arts activities; credit hours of arts classes taken; GPA from arts classes; and parent led arts experiences
Other variables in this study by respondent type cover the following topics:
Student: Interests and goals in regards to school generally and to STEM specifically; identity formation; academic behavior (e.g., attendance, study habits); attitudes and beliefs (e.g., self-efficacy); social and cultural experiences; exposure to STEM through school or home activities; negative school and STEM experiences
Parents: Demographics; sources and quality of information re: college planning and financing; educational expectations; discussions about courses, postsecondary options, careers; support and resources for academic pursuits at home; school involvement
Teachers: Demographics; professional preparation and experience; perceptions of parental involvement; perceptions of educational leadership; math and science richness to school; work-related attitudes (e.g., efficacy)
Administrators: Outreach and transition programs for 8th graders; course availability and selection processes; planning for transition to postsecondary
Counselors: Caseload; duties; how students enter pathways for postsecondary education and/or the workforce; course placement and advising; supports for struggling and excelling students
description: Analytic weights are used in combination with software that accounts for HSLS:09 complex survey design to produce estimates for the target population, with appropriate standard errors. Five sets of analytic weights were computed for HSLS:09: a school-level weight, a student-level weight, two student-level weights associated with contextual data from science and mathematics courses, and a student-level weight for use with parent-supplied family and home contextual data.
The school-level weight can be used for school-level analyses involving the school administrator and counselor questionnaires. The student-level weight is used with student-level analyses. Because of the comparatively low unit response rates for parents and teachers, three
special student weights -- adjusted for parent, mathematics teacher, and science teacher nonresponse, respectively -- were also produced. These weights presuppose that parents and teachers provide contextual data for participating students, and that the student is the unit of analysis.
Variance estimation is provided through two means: BRR (Balanced Repeated Replication) provided on both public- and restricted-use files and a Taylor series linearization (available on the restricted-use file). The BRR approach to calculating HSLS:09 standard errors is recommended, although both methods give similar results.
description: Response Rates: There were 1,889 eligible schools, a total of 944 of these schools participated in the study. The resulting response rate was 55.5 percent weighted and 50.0 percent unweighted. In the base year the 944 schools had 25,206 eligible students, 21,444 of those students responded for a response rate of 85.1 percent weighted and 85.1 percent unweighted. Please see the Response Rates sections in the User Guide for further information on response rates.
description: In the base-year survey of HSLS:09, students were sampled through a two-stage process. First, stratified random sampling and school recruitment resulted in the identification of 1,889 eligible schools. A total of 944 of these schools participated in the study, resulting in a 55.5 percent (weighted) or 50.0 percent unweighted response rate. In the second stage of sampling, students were randomly sampled from school ninth-grade enrollment lists, with 25,206 eligible selections (or about 27 per school). Please see user guide for further details.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Base Year School File
DS2: Base Year, First Year Follow-up and 2013 Update Student File
description: Students, parents, math teachers, science teachers and school administrators in public and private high schools in the United States. Smallest Geographic Unit: Region
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI); on-site questionnaire; telephone interview; web-based surveyThese data were acquired from
The National Center for Education Statistics.
NCES does all it can to assure that the identity of data subjects cannot be disclosed. All direct identifiers, as well as any characteristics that might lead to identification, are omitted or modified in the dataset to protect the true characteristics of individual cases. Any intentional identification or disclosure of a person or institution violates the assurances of confidentiality given to the providers of the information.
Before using the data, users must read the Data Disclosure Warning section of the User Guide.Before using the data, users are strongly encouraged to read all documentation including sampling, sampling errors, weights, and imputation prior to analyzing the data. Documentation is available for download with this collection.Subsequent data collections for the HSLS:09 are planned to occur three years after the expected graduation year (in 2016) to learn about students' postsecondary experiences, and again in 2021 to learn about participants' choices, decisions, attainment, and experiences in adulthood.For data confidentiality reasons, some variables have been suppressed by the data producers. These data are coded '-5 "Data suppressed"'.Restricted-use data may be obtained from The National Center for Education Statistics. Users must apply for a restricted-use data license through the NCES website. To apply for this license, you must swear to adhere to all regulations, rules, guidelines, policies, etc. that govern the use of HSLS:09 restricted-use data.According to the data producers, cases for variables PSU (primary sampling unit)and STRAT_ID (stratum) are suppressed for data confidentiality reasons. To get the most accurate variance and standard error estimations, users must use the BRR (Balanced Repeated Replication) weights provided in the data files.Due to the limit in the number of allowable columns of 256 in Excel 97-2003 (file ending, xls), the Excel files being distributed with this collection are in the later version of Excel (file ending of xlsx).Users are encouraged to refer to the Codebook Notes section of the ICPSR-produced Codebook for further information about the data.