NLSY97 High School School Transcripts Collection

In the spring of 2000, high school transcripts were collected for NLSY97 respondents born in 1980 and 1981 who provided written permission to contact their schools. A second phase of collecting high school transcripts began in 2004 and included respondents born in 1982 through 1984 who had provided written permission to contact their schools. Transcripts also were collected during the second phase for some respondents born in 1980 and 1981 whose transcripts were not obtained during the first phase. The high schools, both public and private, were asked to provide the respondent's transcript, along with course descriptions and information about the school's grading scale. Transcript information was coded using the Classification of Secondary School Coding system.

The collection and coding of high school transcripts concluded in the spring of 2005, and transcript information is available on the NLSY97 data file for 6,232 respondents, or about 69 percent of the 8,984 respondents who participated in the initial round of the NLSY97. The respondents for whom transcripts were not obtained mainly include those who did not sign written consent forms to contact their schools, respondents whose schools would not or could not provide transcripts, and respondents who were home-schooled and thus did not have transcripts.

Information obtained from the transcripts includes the timing and content of courses taken. To facilitate the coding of courses into the Revised Secondary School Taxonomy, schools were asked to provide course catalogs. Schools also were asked to provide information about grading scales, absences, standardized test scores, participation in special education and gifted and talented programs, and high school graduation status.

For more information about the NLSY97 high school transcripts collection, please see:

• NLS News No. 06-123 (Now Available, two waves of transcript data) (PDF 232KB)
• NLSY97 User's Guide Chapter 4, Education: School and Transcript surveys

Last Modified Date: September 14, 2006

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