HS&B

First Follow-up (1982)

• Sample consisted of 30,000 1980 sophomores and 12,000 1980 seniors.
• All students from the 1980 base year sample were contacted regardless of their previous participation.
• Information collected included school, family, work experiences, educational and occupational aspirations, personal values, and test scores for the sophomore cohort.
• High school and postsecondary experiences information were the main focuses for the senior cohort.
• The main method of collection for the senior cohort was a self-administered mail-back questionnaire, with in-person or telephone interviews for 19% of respondents.
• The main method of collection for the sophomore cohort were group questionnaires and tests.

High School Transcript Study (1983)

• Transcripts for a subsample of the first follow-up respondents were collected, numbering nearly 18,500 members of the sophomore cohort of 1980.

Second Follow-up (1984)

• 15,000 1980 sophomores and 12,000 1980 seniors were retained in the second follow-up.
• Data collected included work experience, postsecondary schooling, earnings, and periods of unemployment for both the senior and sophomore cohorts.
• Self-administered mail-back questionnaires were used to collect data for both the senior and sophomore cohorts

Third Follow-up (1986)

• The cohort samples for the third follow-up were the same as the samples for the second follow-up.
• Data collected included updates to background information and data about work experience, unemployment history, education and training, family information, income and other experiences and opinions.
• Self-administered mail-back questionnaires were used to collect data.
• A transcript study was also conducted for the sophomore cohort

Fourth Follow-up (1992)

• Information was collected regarding five issue areas: access to and choice of undergraduate and graduate educational institutions, persistence in obtaining educational goals, progress through the curriculum, rates of degree attainment and other 6 assessments of educational outcomes, and rates of return to the individual and society.
• Focused exclusively on the high school sophomore class of 1980 with 15,000 members.
• Members were administered a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) to collect data.
• Verification of employment and education information from the previous follow-up.

Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (1993)

• Transcripts were requested from vocational and academic institutions for sophomore members who reported postsecondary attendance after the 1987 transcript study.

Fifth Follow-up (2014 and 2015)

The HS&B:80/14 (Sophomore Cohort) and HS&B:80/15 (Senior Cohort [to be released]) are files created by independent external researchers with the permission and support of NCES.  The files are provided as a courtesy to the research community under NCES' restricted licensing program.  Because these files were not produced by NCES staff or contractors to NCES, they do not necessarily meet all the requirements for official statistical products under the NCES Statistical Standards.  While the data release may meet many quality standards users may expect from a Federal statistical collection, NCES did not require the level of documentation required to meet NCES Statistical Standards.

• In 2014, NCES permitted external researchers with the Education Studies for Healthy Aging Research (EdSHARe) project to conduct a "mid-life" follow-up to study the health and aging outcomes of HS&B:80 sample members, approximately 30-32 years after many had left high school. This follow-up provides data on later adulthood outcomes, such as health and occupational status.
• 1980 sophomores were surveyed in 2014.
• 1980 seniors were surveyed in 2015.