A.2 Overview of ELS:2002
A.2.1 Study Objectives
ELS:2002 is a longitudinal study, in which the same individuals are surveyed repeatedly over time. Individual students are expected to be followed until about age 30; the base-year schools have been surveyed twice (they were surveyed in 2002 and again in 2004). In the high school years, ELS:2002 is an integrated multilevel study, involving multiple respondent populations, including students, their parents, their teachers, and their schools (from which data are collected at three levels: from the principal, the librarian, and a facilities checklist). This multilevel focus supplies researchers with a comprehensive picture of the students' home, community, and school environments. This multiple-respondent perspective is unified by the fact that, for most purposes, the student is the basic unit of analysis.
The analyses presented in this report use data from the base-year and first follow-up components. Key elements from these components are summarized below.
- Baseline survey of high school sophomores.
- Cognitive tests in reading and mathematics.
- Surveys of parents, school administrators, English teachers, and mathematics teachers.
- Additional components for this study included a school facilities checklist and a media center/library questionnaire.
- Sample sizes of approximately 750 participating schools and over 15,000 participating sophomores.
- Oversampling of Asians and private schools.
- Design linkages (test score equating in reading and mathematics, some questionnaire items in common) with the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and score reporting linkages to the prior longitudinal studies (the High School and Beyond longitudinal study [HS&B] and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 [NELS:88]).
- Follow-up in spring-term 2004, when most sample members were seniors but some were dropouts, early graduates, or in other grades.
- Student questionnaire, dropout questionnaire, assessment in mathematics, and school administrator questionnaire administered; specially tailored instruments for early graduates and homeschooled students.
- Interviewed students who remained in their base-year school as well as those who transferred, dropped out, graduated early, or transitioned into a homeschool setting.
- High school transcript component with data collection late 2004 through early 2005 (coursetaking records for grades 9–12). Course offerings information was also collected, for the base-year school sample.
Base Year (2002)
First Follow-up (2004)
A.2.2 Base-Year and First Follow-up Study Design and Content
- Base-year Study Design.
Seven study components comprised the base-year design: assessments of students (achievement tests in mathematics and reading); a survey of students; surveys of parents, teachers, school administrators, and librarians; and a facilities checklist (completed by survey administrators, based on their observations at the school). The student assessments measured achievement in mathematics and reading; the baseline scores can serve as a covariate or control variable for later outcomes. Mathematics achievement was reassessed in the first follow-up, so that achievement gain over the last 2 years of high school can be measured and related to school processes and mathematics coursetaking. The student questionnaire gathered information about the student's background, school experiences and activities, plans and goals for the future, employment and out-of-school experiences, language background, and motivation toward learning.
One parent of each participating sophomore was asked to respond to a parent survey. The parent questionnaire was designed to gauge parental aspirations for the child, home background and the home education support system, the child's educational history prior to 10th grade, and parental interactions with and opinions about the student's school. For each student enrolled in English or mathematics, a teacher was also selected to participate in a teacher survey. Teachers typically (but not always) reported on multiple ELS:2002 sophomores. The teacher questionnaire collected the teacher's evaluation of the student and provided information about the teacher's background and activities. The head librarian or media center director at each school was asked to complete a library media center questionnaire, which inquired into the school's library media center facility, its staffing, its technological resources, collection and expenditures, and scheduling and transactions. Finally, the facilities checklist was a brief observational form completed for each school. The form collected information about the condition of school buildings and facilities.
- First Follow-up Study Design.
In the first follow-up, the base-year schools were surveyed by means of an administrator questionnaire. Base-year students were surveyed whether in the base-year school, in a new school, or out of school. A mathematics assessment was administered to first follow-up students who were still attending their original (base-year) schools. When possible, students who had dropped out, transferred schools, or entered a homeschool setting were surveyed, but were not administered mathematics assessments. Further details on the instrumentation, sample design, data collection results, data processing, weighting and imputation, and data files available for analysis may be found in the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002: Base-Year to First Follow-up Data File Documentation (Ingels et al. 2005).1
- Transcript Study Design.
Transcripts were collected from sample members in late 2004 and early 2005, about 6 months to 1 year after most students had graduated from high school. Collecting the transcripts in the 2004–05 academic year allowed for more complete high school records. Transcripts were collected from the school that the students were originally sampled from in the base year (which was the only school for most sample members) and from their last school of attendance if it was learned during the first follow-up student data collection that they had transferred.
The ELS:2002 high school transcript data collection sought key pieces of information about coursetaking from the student's official high school record-including courses taken while attending secondary school, information on credits earned, year and term a specific course was taken, and final grades. When available, other information was collected, including dates enrolled, reason for leaving school, and standardized test scores. Once collected, information (e.g., course name, credits earned, course grades) was transcribed and linked back with the student's questionnaire and assessment data. Due to the size and complexity of the file, and because of reporting variation by school, additional variables were constructed from the raw transcript file. Further details on the instrumentation, sample design, data collection results, data processing, weighting and imputation, and data files available for analysis may be found in the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002: First Follow-up Transcript Component Data File Documentation (Bozick et al. 2006).
1 See appendix reference list for full citation. The base-year first follow-up Data File Documentation can be downloaded from the NCES website at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch. For more comprehensive information about the base year, see Ingels et al. (2004).