About PETS

Transcript data provide researchers with an important analytic resource, creating opportunities to study course-taking patterns, credit transfer, student momentum and attrition, and the connection among course and major choices, occupations, and wages. Nine NCES longitudinal studies have collected postsecondary transcripts, beginning with the National Longitudinal Study of 1972, the transcripts for which were collected in 1984.

The most recent NCES studies to contain transcript data are the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), and the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/17). Transcript data for these studies are available through the NCES restricted data program (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/licenses.asp). Data can also be analyzed online through PowerStats (nces.ed.gov/datalab) and/or downloaded from the Online Codebook (nces.ed.gov/onlinecodebook) as a public use file, depending on the study. Studies with postsecondary education transcript collections include:

Year of Transcript Collection	Data source
1984	NLS:72
1993	HS&B:80
1994	B&B:93/03
2000	NELS:88
2010	BPS:04/09
2010	B&B:08
2014	ELS:2002
2017	HSLS:09
2017	BPS:12/17

The amount of detail in transcript collection varies depending on the study. Some studies, such as NELS:88, BPS:12/17, B&B:08, and ELS:2002 have detailed course, term, and institution records. Other transcript collections were used to verify interview data collected from the students in the study, e.g. (B&B:93/03). For more information on NCES's other transcript collections see http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/hst/ and http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/hsts/.