• NHES Survey Topics
• Early Childhood Program Participation
• Adult Education
• School Readiness
• School Safety and Discipline
• Parent and Family Involvement in Education and Civic Involvement
• Before- and After-School Programs and Activities
• Household and Library Use
• NHES:2001 Surveys
• Early Childhood Program Participation Survey (ECPP-NHES:2001)
• Before- and After-School Programs and Activities Survey (ASPA-NHES:2001)
• Adult Education and Lifelong Learning Survey (AELL-NHES:2001)

The NHES surveys conducted in 2001 (NHES:2001) included two that had been fielded in previous years, the Early Childhood Program Participation survey (ECPP-NHES:2001) and the Adult Education and Lifelong Learning survey (AELL-NHES:2001). The third NHES:2001 survey was the Before- and After-School Programs and Activities survey (ASPA-NHES:2001); this was the first full-scale NHES survey on this issue, although questions on the topic had been included in previous survey administrations.

The NHES provides data on the populations of special interest to NCES and education researchers as defined by age and/or grade in school for each survey. It targets these populations using specific screening and sampling procedures. Populations of interest include children from birth to 12th grade and civilian adults age 16 and older and not enrolled in 12th grade or below. Specific age or grade ranges for a given survey are determined by the survey topic and the research questions formulated for the specific survey administration.

The NHES provides national cross-sectional estimates for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The NHES design also yields estimates for subgroups of interest for each survey, as defined by age or grade for children, educational participation status for adults, and Black and Hispanic origin for all populations of interest. In addition to providing cross-sectional estimates, the NHES is also designed to provide estimates of change over time in key statistics. The survey instruments are designed to address the selected issues in sufficient detail so that analyses can be performed to help explain the phenomena of interest.

The NHES surveys are random-digit-dial (RDD) telephone surveys of households in the United States. Interviews are administered using computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) technology, which is a data collection methodology specifically designed so that relatively complex questionnaires can be handled smoothly and efficiently. Previous NHES surveys have been conducted in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, and 1999. All surveys were conducted at the same time of the year, winter to early spring. The 2001 administration was conducted by Westat from January 2 through April 14, 2001.

The NHES was intended by NCES to complement its institutional surveys. It also fills a need that existing household surveys, such as the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), cannot satisfy because they are designed to focus primarily on issues other than education. In these other survey systems, data on educational issues are usually collected through supplements to the main household survey, and supplemental surveys have not provided NCES with the level of detail needed for desired analyses.

This section presents the topics that have been addressed in the prior NHES surveys, including those that have been conducted on a recurring basis and one-time surveys. Exhibit 1-1 shows the topics of the NHES surveys from the inception of the program in 1991 through the 2001 administration.

Exhibit 1-1. Surveys conducted under the National Household Education Surveys Program and years administered: NHES

Survey	NHES:1991	NHES:1993	NHES:1995	NHES:1996	NHES:19991	NHES:2001
Early Childhood Program Participation
Adult Education/Lifelong Learning
School Readiness
School Safety and Discipline
Parent and Family Involvement in Education/Civic Involvement
Adult Civic Involvement
Youth Civic Involvement
Before- and After-School Programs and Activities
Household and Library Use

The nonparental care and education of preschool children has been an important recurring topic for the NHES and was the subject of the 1991 Early Childhood Education survey (ECE-NHES:1991) and the Early Childhood Program Participation surveys of 1995 and 2001 (ECPP-NHES:1995 and ECPP-NHES:2001). In addition, selected items about nonparental care were included in the 1999 Parent survey (Parent-NHES:1999). The ECPP surveys have provided cross-sectional, national estimates of participation in early care and education programs for children in varying age groups, depending on the specific research questions addressed in a given survey. Estimates can be computed for White, Black, and Hispanic children for subgroups composed of 2 to 3 years of age or two to three grades in school, depending on the survey year. In addition, the surveys were designed to support the analysis of change in early childhood care and education over time.

In the ECE-NHES:1991, parents of children ages 3 through 8 completed interviews about their children's early childhood education, including participation in nonparental care by relatives, nonrelatives, or in center-based programs (including Head Start). They also answered questions about early school experiences, including delayed kindergarten entry and grade retention, and activities children engaged in with parents and other family members inside and outside the home. For the ECPP-NHES:1995, the population was expanded to include children newborn through third grade. Parents were again asked detailed questions about their children's participation in nonparental care and education programs. Other items captured information about early school experiences of school-age children and home and out-of-home family activities with children. The ECPP-NHES:2001 focused on preschool children from birth through age 6 who were not yet enrolled in kindergarten. In addition to obtaining the same in-depth information on relative care, nonrelative care, center-based program participation, and participation in Early Head Start and Head Start, questions designed to capture continuity of care, parents' perceptions of the quality of care, and reasons for choosing parental over nonparental care were included.

Information on early childhood care and program participation for preschool children was also gathered in the Parent-NHES:1999, which collected data on key indicators that had been measured in previous NHES collections in order to provide the Department of Education with end-of-decade estimates for important education issues. The Parent-NHES:1999 was administered to parents of children from birth through grade 12. Detailed information about children's health and disability status and parent and family characteristics has also been obtained in all NHES ECPP surveys as well as in the Parent-NHES:1999.

Adult educational activities capture the interest of educational researchers and policymakers interested in the phenomenon of learning over the lifetime. This topic is appropriate for a household survey, and consequently, it has been an important focus of the NHES. Adult Education surveys were conducted in 1991, 1995, and 1999 (AE-NHES:1991, AE-NHES:1995, AE-NHES:1999), and the Adult Education and Lifelong Learning survey was administered in 2001 (AELL-NHES:2001). Each of the surveys provided cross-sectional, national estimates of educational participation for persons 16 years and older who were not enrolled in grade 12 or below, as well as estimates for White, Black, and Hispanic adults. The 1995 and 2001 surveys provided estimates for adults who did not have a high school diploma or a GED. The surveys were also designed to permit the analysis of change over time in educational participation.

Respondents were asked about their participation in basic skills courses, English as a second language (ESL) courses, credential (degree or diploma) programs, apprenticeships, work-related courses, courses taken for personal development or personal interest, and in the AELL-NHES:2001, informal learning at work. Adults participating in programs or courses provided details about those programs or courses, such as subject matter, duration, cost, location and sponsorship, and employer support. In the AE-NHES:1991 and AE-NHES:1995, adults who had not participated in selected types of adult education were asked about their interest in educational activities and the barriers to participation in educational activities that they perceived. A battery of personal background, employment, and household questions was also asked in each Adult Education survey.

The School Readiness survey was conducted in 1993 (SR-NHES:1993); a subset of key items was also included in the Parent-NHES:1999 survey. Adopting a broad approach to assessing children's readiness for entering school, the survey encompassed a range of items related to learning. Parents of 3- to 7-year-olds who were in second grade or below completed interviews about their children's developmental accomplishments and difficulties, including emerging literacy and numeracy, center-based program participation, educational activities with family members, and health and nutrition status. Parents of children in elementary school were also asked about school adjustment, early school experiences, and feedback from teachers on children's school adjustment. Information about family stability and other risk factors was collected along with parent and household characteristics. The SR-NHES:1993 provided cross-sectional, national estimates for the population of interest, for White, Black, and Hispanic subgroups, and for preschoolers (children ages 3 to 5 and not yet in kindergarten).

In 1993, the NHES included the School Safety and Discipline survey (SSD-NHES:1993). Interviews were conducted with parents of students in grades 3 through 12 and with youth in grades 6 through 12. Parents and youth were asked about the school learning environment, discipline policy, safety at school, victimization, availability and use of alcohol and drugs, and alcohol and drug education. Youth were also asked about peer norms for achievement and behavior in school and substance use. The survey addressed parents' contributions to their children's learning environment through questions about parental expectations for academic achievement and good behavior at school, parental efforts to educate and protect their children, and parental involvement in the school. Parent and family characteristics were also elicited. The SSD-NHES:1993 provided national estimates of the topics above for the full population of interest, for White, Black, and Hispanic children, and for children in grades 3 through 5, 6 through 8, and 9 through 12.

The Parent and Family Involvement in Education and Civic Involvement survey was conducted in 1996 (PFI/CI-NHES:1996). Key family involvement items were incorporated in the Parent-NHES:1999 as well. The PFI/CI-NHES:1996 was different from the ECPP surveys in population of interest and subtopics incorporated in the survey; it focused on parents' participation in educational activities at home as well as participation in various capacities at the programs or schools their children attended. The population of interest was children age 3 through 12th grade. Questions for parents whose children attended school or a center-based program addressed specific ways the family was involved in the school/program, communication with teachers and other school practices to involve families, and parent involvement with children's homework. Parents of all children responded to questions about parent and family involvement with their children in educational activities outside of school. Children's contact with nonresidential parents and the involvement of those parents with school was also captured. An additional topic for parents of preschoolers was support and training received for parenting.

The civic involvement of parents of students in grades 6 though 12 and that of the students themselves, as well as a separate random sample of adults, was addressed in the PFI/CI-NHES:1996 and in two other 1996 surveys, the Youth Civic Involvement survey (YCI-NHES:1996) and the Adult Civic Involvement survey (ACI-NHES:1996). The topic of community service was expanded for inclusion in the end-of-decade 1999 Youth survey (Youth-NHES:1999). Questions related to the diverse ways that parents and other adults may socialize children for informed civic participation. The surveys were intended to provide an assessment of the opportunities that youth have to develop the personal responsibility and skills that would facilitate their taking an active role in civic life, such as through exposure to information about politics or national issues, through discussion of politics and national issues, and by the example of adults who participate in community or civic life. Questions about attitudes that relate to democratic values and knowledge about government were also included. In the YCI-NHES:1996, special emphasis was placed on the opportunities youth had for participation in community service and the extent of school efforts to support youth community involvement.

The PFI/CI-NHES:1996 and Parent-NHES:1999 provided cross-sectional national estimates of the topics described above for all children in the population of interest, for White, Black, and Hispanic children, for preschoolers, and for 3-year groupings of grades.

This topic, focusing on the ways that parents arrange for supervision and enrichment during the out-of-school hours for children who are enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade, was introduced as part of the Parent-NHES:1999. It was the focus of the 2001 Before- and After-School Programs and Activities survey (ASPA-NHES:2001). Interviews were conducted with parents who reported on the before- and/or after-school arrangements in which their children participated, including care by relatives or nonrelatives in a private home, before- or after-school programs in centers and in schools, activities that might provide adult supervision in the out-of-school hours, and children's self-care. Items also addressed continuity of care arrangements, parental perceptions of quality, reasons for choosing parental care, and obstacles to participation in nonparental arrangements. The child's health and disability status and characteristics of the parents and household were also collected.

The ASPA-NHES:2001 provided cross-sectional estimates of participation in various types of arrangements for White, Black, and Hispanic children, and for children in grades K through 5 and 6 through 8.

The Household and Library Use survey of 1996 (HHL-NHES:1996) examined public library use by household members. This brief survey was administered to every household screened in 1996. The items tapped the ways in which household members used public libraries (e.g., borrowing books, lectures, story hour) and the purposes for using public libraries (e.g., for school assignments, enjoyment, work-related projects). The HHL-NHES:1996 provided cross-sectional, national estimates of household characteristics and library use for all households in the United States as well as estimates by state.

The preceding discussion contains a description of each of the topical areas covered by NHES surveys since the survey program's inception. A more detailed discussion of the topics and issues for the NHES:2001 surveys follows. There were two types of instruments in the NHES:2001, the screening interview (referred to as the Screener) and three extended interviews, one for the ECPP-NHES:2001, one for the ASPA-NHES:2001, and one for the AELL-NHES:2001. (See appendix A of the full report for copies of the NHES:2001 survey instruments.) The Screener was completed by a member of the household who was age 18 or older.¹ It was used to determine whether sampled telephone numbers belonged to households, gather the information needed to sample household members to be interview subjects for one or more surveys,² select the appropriate respondent for ECPP and ASPA interviews, and administer some items about household characteristics in households in which no one was sampled for an extended interview. The Screener was designed to accomplish these tasks efficiently, placing minimum burden on the respondent.

In the ECPP-NHES:2001 survey, data were collected about children from birth through age 6 as of December 31, 2000, who were not enrolled in kindergarten or a higher grade in school.³ The respondent for the ECPP interview was the adult living in the household who was the most knowledgeable about the child's care and education.⁴

In the ECPP interview, subjects were routed to one of two questionnaire paths, infant or preschool. The infant path (I) of the ECPP interview was for children newborn through 2 years of age. The preschool path (N) was for children who were age 3 or older and not yet attending kindergarten or primary school. These children were typically 3 to 5 years old, but eight were 6 years old. Information was collected about participation in early childhood care and programs (relative care, nonrelative care, center-based programs, and Early/Head Start), program continuity, parental perceptions of the quality of arrangements, and factors in parental choice of arrangement, literacy-related skills and activities, and training and support for families of preschoolers.

Irrespective of the questionnaire path for the child, parents were asked basic demographic questions about the child, the child's health and disability status, parent/guardian characteristics, and household characteristics. To avoid redundancy and greater response burden in households with multiple interviews, household information was collected only at the end of the first extended interview conducted in each household. Similarly, parent/guardian information was collected only once per household, unless sampled children in the same household had different parents.⁵ Exhibit 1-2 shows the structure of the ECPP and ASPA interviews, which contained many parallel items, and the distribution of topics among the paths for each interview.

Exhibit 1-2. Content by path: ECPP-NHES:2001 and ASPA-NHES:2001

Characteristic	Infants/ toddlers (I)	Not enrolled	Center-based1	Enrolled in school (S)	Home- schooled (H)
Demographics2
Current school/program status					3
Characteristics of program/school
Homeschooling
Care/program characteristics
School characteristics					3
Student academic performance and behavior					3
Nonparental care/education
Before-/after-school care arrangements/programs
Parental care during out-of-school hours
Program continuity
Perceptions of quality of care and programs
Factors in parental choice
Support for families of preschoolers
Home activities
Emerging literacy and numeracy
Health and disability
Parent/guardian characteristics
Household characteristics

¹Center-based programs include day care centers, nursery schools, preschools, and prekindergartens.

²Age and sex were collected in the Screener for some household members. This information was confirmed in the ECPP and ASPA extended interviews.

³Asked of homeschooled students who also attended regular school for 9 hours per week or more.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Program Participation (ECPP) Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES), 2001; and Before- and After-School Programs and Activities (ASPA) Survey of the NHES, 2001.

In the ASPA-NHES:2001 survey, data were collected about children who were in kindergarten through eighth grade provided they were age 15⁶ or younger. The respondent for the ASPA interview was the parent or guardian living in the household who was the most knowledgeable about the sampled child's care and education. There were two paths through the interview items, the school path and the homeschool path. All respondents were asked basic demographic questions about the child, the child's health and disability status, parent/guardian characteristics, and household characteristics in both paths of the interview (see exhibit 1-2).

The subjects of the school path (S) were children currently attending a regular school in kindergarten, including transitional kindergarten and prefirst grade, through eighth grade. The ages of the children ranged from 3 to 15; however, all but 95 of them were ages 5 to 14. In the school path, data were collected about enrollment in school, school characteristics, student academics and behavior at school, before- and after-school care arrangements and programs, before- and after-school activities, self-care, parental care during the out-of-school hours, program continuity, parental perceptions of the quality of arrangements, and factors in parental choice of arrangement.

The homeschool path (H) was for children who were being instructed at home for some or all of their classes instead of attending regular school and who had a grade equivalent of kindergarten through eighth grade. Parents of homeschoolers were asked questions about the student's grade equivalent, reasons for schooling their child at home, and receipt of support for homeschooling from their public school or district. For those students who were reported to be homeschooled but also attended a school 9 or more hours per week, parents/guardians were administered the sections on school characteristics and student performance at school.

The AELL-NHES:2001 was designed to provide national estimates of participation in adult educational activities. Adults age 16 and older who were not enrolled in grade 12 or below, not institutionalized, and not on active duty in the military were eligible for this survey.

Respondents were asked about their participation in the following types of educational activities: English as a second language, basic skills/GED preparation, credential courses in colleges or universities, vocational or technical credential courses, apprenticeships, career- or job-related training or courses, personal interest/development classes, and informal learning activities at work. Information about employer support for educational activities was obtained. Other items gathered demographic, household, and detailed employment information.

¹Any household member age 18 or older was eligible to respond to the screening interview. However, if there were no household members age 18 or older, the male or female head of the household completed the Screener. Household members were defined as persons who considered that household as their residence, kept their possessions there, and had no other place to live.

²Up to three interviews were conducted in a household. Interviews could have been conducted about a maximum of two children and one adult in any household.

³Because the proportion of 7-year-olds who are not enrolled in school is very small (about 1.5 percent), an upper age limit of 6 was established for the ECPP survey.

⁴The respondent for the ECPP and ASPA surveys was identified by the Screener respondent as the household member most knowledgeable about the care and education of the sampled child. In more than 75 percent of the cases, it was the child's mother; in more than 96 percent of the cases, it was the child's mother or father. In about 2 percent of the cases, it was the child's grandmother. For ease of discussion, the respondent to the ECPP and ASPA surveys is referred to as the parent/guardian.

⁵Demographic information on the mother and father residing in the household was collected in the first ECPP or ASPA interview conducted in the household and was copied to the interview for a second sampled child if the sampled children had the same mother and father. If a sampled child had no mother and no father in the household, parent information was collected about the guardian responding to the interview.

⁶Less than 1.5 percent of children enrolled in 8th grade are 16 years or older; therefore, the upper age limit for the ASPA survey was set at 15 years.