Technical Report:

An Overview of the National Household Education Survey: 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1996

May 1997

Highlights

The National Household Education Survey (NHES) is a data collection system of the (NCES), which has as its legislative mission the collection and publication of data on the condition of education in the Nation. The NHES is specifically designed to support this mission by providing information on those educational issues that are best addressed by contacting households rather than schools or other educational institutions. The NHES, which was conducted in 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1996, provides descriptive data on the educational activities of the U.S. population and offers policymakers, researchers, and educators a variety of statistics on the condition of education in the United States.

The NHES is a telephone survey of the noninstitutionalized civilian population of the United States. Households are selected for the survey using random-digit-dialing (RDD) methods, and data are collected using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) procedures. From 45,000 to 64,000 households are screened for each administration, and individuals within households who meet predetermined criteria are sampled for more detailed or extended interviews. The data are weighted to permit estimates of the entire population. The NHES survey for a given year typically consists of a set of screening questions (Screener), which collects household composition and demographic data, and extended interviews on two substantive components addressing education-related topics. In order to assess data item reliability and inform future NHES surveys, each administration also includes data quality studies such as reinterviews with a subsample of respondents.

Throughout its history, the NHES has collected data in ways that permit estimates to be tracked across time. This includes repeating topical components on a rotating basis in order to provide comparative data across survey years. In addition, each administration of the NHES has benefited from experiences with previous cycles, resulting in improvements to the survey procedures and content. Thus, while the survey affords the opportunity for tracking phenomena across time, it is also dynamic in addressing new issues and including conceptual and methodological refinements.

A new design feature implemented in the NHES:96 was the collection of demographic and educational information on members of all screened households, rather than just those households potentially eligible for a topical component. This expanded screening feature included a brief set of questions on an issue of interest to education program administrators or policymakers. In the NHES:96, these questions were about public library use. The total Screener sample size was large enough to produce state estimates of household characteristics and public library use for the NHES:96.

The NHES system has also included a number of methodological investigations that have resulted in technical reports and working papers covering diverse topics such as telephone undercoverage bias, proxy reporting, sampling methods, and household screening approaches. This series of technical reports and working papers provides valuable information on ways of using the data from the surveys and improving the NHES in the future.

This report presents an overview of the NHES survey program from 1991 to 1996. It addresses specific aspects of the NHES (e.g., survey topics, sample design, and data collection) and discusses how the NHES program has evolved over time. This report is not intended to provide detailed information about each NHES cycle; readers who are interested in additional detail on specific survey administrations or survey components are encouraged to obtain and review the Data File User's Manuals for the components of interest that come with the public use files, other technical and substantive reports, and project working papers.

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For more information about the content of this report, contact Kathryn Chandler at Kathryn.Chandler@ed.gov.