• Introduction
• Target Population and Sample Design
• Data Collection Design and Outcomes
• Institutional Contacting
• Institutional Record Abstraction
• Student Locating and Interviewing
• Study Respondents
• Evaluation of Operations and Data Quality
• Data Files
• Products

The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), a comprehensive study of financial aid among postsecondary education students in the United States and Puerto Rico, provides information on trends in financial aid and on the ways in which families pay for postsecondary education. NPSAS represents students attending all types and levels of institutions, including public, private for-profit, private not-for-profit, less-than-2-year, 2-year, and 4-year institutions. The NPSAS data are part of the comprehensive information that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) provides on student financial aid receipt and other characteristics of those enrolled in postsecondary education.

NPSAS also serves as the base-year survey for longitudinal studies of postsecondary students. Thus, the 1999–2000 NPSAS (NPSAS:2000) was the base-year survey for a sample of baccalaureate degree recipients who were interviewed again in 2001.

This report describes the methods and procedures used for NPSAS:2000. The NPSAS:2000 sample design and collection procedures included notable changes from those used for previous NPSAS cycles. For example, NPSAS:2000 was the first to restrict institutional sampling to institutions having Title IV Program Participation Agreements with the U.S. Department of Education. It was also the first to employ a Web-based instrument for collection of institutional records. However, sufficient comparability in survey design and instrumentation was maintained to ensure that important comparisons with data from previous NPSAS cycles could be made.

The target population for NPSAS:2000 consisted of all students who were enrolled in postsecondary institutions in the United States or Puerto Rico that had Title IV Program Participation Agreements with the Department of Education at any time between July 1, 1999, and June 30, 2000 (defined as the NPSAS:2000 year).

The institutional sampling frame for NPSAS:2000 was constructed from the 1998–99 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Institutional Characteristics (IC) file and, because NPSAS:2000 also served as the base-year survey for a longitudinal study of baccalaureate recipients, the 1996–97 IPEDS Completions file. Eligible institutions were partitioned into 22 institutional strata based on institutional control, highest level of offering, and percentage of baccalaureate degrees awarded in education. Approximately 1,100 institutions were initially selected for NPSAS:2000, and all but 10 of these institutions were found to be eligible. Sampling frames for selecting students consisted of enrollment lists or data files provided by the institutions for those students enrolled during the NPSAS:2000 year.

The desired number of sample students was determined by accounting for expected rates of nonresponse and ineligibility among sample students in different strata and rates of misclassification of baccalaureate recipients (as determined from NPSAS:93 and the NPSAS:2000 field test). These sampling procedures resulted in the selection of about 70,200 students for NPSAS:2000, including 16,600 potential baccalaureate recipients. Almost 6,000 of these sample members were determined to be ineligible for NPSAS:2000 during various phases of data collection, resulting in a final eligible sample of about 64,500 students.

NPSAS:2000 involved a multistage effort to collect information related to student aid. All student sample members were first matched to the Department of Education's Central Processing System (CPS) to collect an electronic student aid report (Institutional Student Information Report, or ISIR) for each federal financial aid applicant. The second stage involved abstracting information from the student's records at the sampled postsecondary institution, using a Web-based computer-assisted data entry (CADE) system. Interviews were then conducted with sampled students, primarily using a computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) procedure. To help reduce the level of nonresponse to CATI, computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) procedures using field interviewers were also used for the first time on a NPSAS study.

Over the course of data collection, some data were obtained from the Department of Education's National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), the ACT, and the Educational Testing Service. These additional data sources provided information that was not collected from the institutions or the students and provided a way to "fill in" institutional record abstraction (CADE) data or student interview (CATI) data that were missing for individual sample members (e.g., demographic characteristics). The additional data sources also provided a way to check or confirm information obtained from student records or the interview.

Once institutions were sampled, attempts were made to contact the chief administrator of the selected institutions to verify institutional eligibility, solicit participation of eligible institutions, and request appointment of an Institutional Coordinator. Coordinators were asked to provide lists or data files of all eligible students enrolled in any term within the NPSAS:2000 year. Several checks on quality and completeness of student lists were implemented before the sample students were selected. For applicable schools, separate checks were made for baccalaureate recipients, undergraduate students, graduate students, and first-professional students. Of the nearly 1,100 eligible institutions, 1,000 provided a student enrollment list or data file that could be used for sample selection, for an overall weighted institutional participation rate of 95 percent.

A CADE software system was developed for use in collecting data from student records. Institutions could choose either to enter the data themselves using a Web-based instrument or to have a field data collector enter the data. The CADE instrument was structured into eight sections: locating (telephone and address) information, demographic characteristics, admissions testing, enrollment, tuition data, financial aid awards, need analysis, and—for those students not previously matched successfully to the CPS, but who had applied for federal financial aid for the study year—ISIR.

The CADE record abstraction process began when a student sample had been selected from an institution's list and transmitted to the CPS for obtaining financial aid application data. Upon completion of the CPS matching, a number of data elements were preloaded into the CADE database, thus initializing the CADE system. In addition, the system was customized for each institution by preloading the names of up to 10 institution financial aid programs and up to 10 state financial aid programs. Once CADE was initialized for a particular institution, the Institutional Coordinator was notified by telephone that the CADE data collection could begin. Institutions that had chosen field data collection were also notified by telephone of CADE initialization, at which time an appointment was made for a field data collector to visit the institution.

Records for about 59,300 students (92 percent of the eligible students) were abstracted, with almost 70 percent of these abstracted by the institutions themselves using the NPSAS CADE Web Site.

Using information provided by CADE, sample members were traced to their current location prior to conducting the interview using the CATI system. The most current information for the student and any other contacts was preloaded into the CATI system to assist the interviewers in locating sample members. Cases that were not located during the CATI locating process were submitted to the tracing operations unit for intensive locating. Overall, 81 percent of the eligible sample members were located.

The CATI system developed for NPSAS:2000 presented interviewers with screens of questions to be asked of the respondents, with the software guiding the interviewer and respondent through the interview. The student interview consisted of seven sections administered sequentially, namely: eligibility, enrollment, financial aid, employment, education experiences and expectations, disabilities, and locating information. To reduce interview burden and to guide the interview, information collected from CADE and other sources was preloaded before the interviews. Online coding programs developed by NCES (for industry/occupation, IPEDS, and field of study coding) were embedded in the overall interview administration system.

Student interviews were conducted primarily by CATI. A paper-copy mail questionnaire or an "abbreviated" telephone interview was also available. All students finalized as "unlocatable" in CATI were eligible for field locating and/or CAPI. Nonresponding and unlocatable cases falling within predetermined geographic clusters were assigned to field staff for CAPI. CAPI procedures included attempts to locate, gain cooperation from, and interview sample members either by telephone or in person. Similar cases not in an identified cluster were assigned to field locators. Field locators then attempted to locate the students and convince them to call an 800 number to complete the interview in CATI.

Of the eligible sample members located, about 44,500 (87 percent) were interviewed. Adjusting for institution nonresponse, the overall weighted CATI response rate was 66 percent. Ninety-one percent of those interviewed completed the full interview.

Students included in the final NPSAS:2000 analysis file were those students with completed institutional records (CADE) data and/or completed student interview (CAPI or CATI) data. Using this definition, about 61,800 of the 64,500 eligible sample students were classified as study respondents, for an unweighted student yield of 96 percent. After adjusting for institutional nonresponse and for attendance at more than one institution, the overall weighted study response rate was 89 percent.

Evaluations of NPSAS:2000 operations and procedures focused on the time line for data collection, the effectiveness of student tracing and locating procedures, refusal conversion efforts, the use of incentives for selected respondent groups, and the length of the student interview. Evaluations of data quality included analysis of non-response bias, examination of items with high rates of "don't know" and "refusal" responses, interviewer use of online help text, item coding and administration errors, quality control procedures, and analysis of the stability of item responses over time.

Data are available for the 61,800 study respondents, including about 49,900 undergraduate students, 10,600 graduate students, and 1,200 first-professional students. Statistical analysis weights adjusting for unequal sampling rates and differential propensities to respond were computed for respondents.

NPSAS:2000 reports or data products that have been or will be published include the following:

National Postsecondary Student Aid Study: Student Financial Aid Estimates for 1999–2000 (NCES 2001–209). Available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001209, this report briefly describes key findings from NPSAS:2000.

Profile of Undergraduates in U.S. Postsecondary Education Institutions: 1999–2000 (NCES 2002–168). Available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002168, this report contains detailed tables on the characteristics of undergraduates enrolled during 1999–2000, including age, race/ethnicity, gender, income, financial aid receipt, community service, veteran status, and more. It also includes an essay on the diversity of undergraduate students.

Student Financing of Undergraduate Education: 1999–2000 (NCES 2002–167). Available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002167, this report focuses on how undergraduate students enrolled during 1999–2000 financed their education, providing detailed tables on the distribution and average amounts of grants, loans, and work-study funds received by students from federal, state, institutional, and private sources. These data are shown by selected student characteristics, such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, income, and attendance status for the various types of institutions. Information includes tuition, total student budgets, and the net price of attendance by type of institution. The report also includes an essay on students who borrow at the federal loan limits.

Student Financing of Graduate and First-Professional Education: 1999–2000 (NCES 2002–166). Available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002166, this report describes the characteristics of graduate and first-professional students enrolled during 1999–2000, including age, race, gender, income, financial aid receipt, community service, veteran status, and more. It also describes those graduate and first-professional students who received financial aid—including grants, loans, and work-study—from federal, state, institutional, or other sources, by selected student characteristics. In addition, the report includes an essay on graduate students with assistantships.

NPSAS:2000 Undergraduate and Graduate/First-Professional Data Analysis Systems. These Windows-based software applications provide public access to the NPSAS:2000 survey data. Users can generate tables of percentages, means, or correlation coefficients by choosing the Data Analysis System variables of interest and specifying what function should be used.

NPSAS:2000 Restricted-Use Electronic Codebook and Data Files. This data product provides the complete data obtained through NPSAS:2000, documented by the electronic codebook. It is available only to researchers who have applied for and received authorization from NCES to access restricted-use research files. Contact Cynthia Barton, Data Security Officer, at 202-502-7307, or e-mail cynthia.barton@ed.gov.