Using an empirical investigation of alternate item nonresponse adjustment procedures in a National Longitudinal Study (NLS) of missing and faulty data, it is indicated that in some cases imputation can reduce the accuracy of survey estimates. A National Sample of the high school class of 1972 is designed to provide statistics on students moving…

The National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) employs a combination of mail, telephone, and personal interview data-gathering techniques. The NLS quality control process begins with editing each returned questionnaire to determine if certain key items are answered and if responses are consistent. If the respondent failed…

The major emphasis of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) has been directed toward individuals in the 1972 high school graduating class. Consequently, sampling parameters were established to ensure student representation, and the bulk of data collected were individual-level data. School-level data exist on a…

The paper describes a variety of analytical difficulties facing prospective users of the first follow-up of the National Center for Education Statistics National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) and suggests some possible approaches to coping with these. The primary focus is on the causes and consequences of selective…

The purpose of this user's manual is to document the procedures used to collect and process postsecondary school transcripts for members of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 who had attended any postsecondary institutions since leaving high school. In addition, this manual will provide researchers with the technical…

Meant to study post secondary educational and vocational activities, the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) is reported to have consistently succeeded in overcoming diminishing response rates and sample attrition found in other longitudinal surveys. The purpose of understanding the focus and experiences affecting…

The fourth mail and personal interview followup survey from October 1979 to May 1980 is reported as part of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS). The report is methodological, historical and descriptive in nature, but contains no analytical results. Reference to earlier reports is provided in determining post…

The Rand Corporation, under contract with HEW, developed a research agenda for an emerging data base: The National Longitudinal Study (NLS) of the High School Class of 1972. The study had four main objectives: (1) to identify ways in which public decisionmakers can apply NLS data to key policy issues; (2) to foster the efficient use of a large and…

A third followup survey within a National Longitudinal Study (NLS) of the high school class of 1972 finds that there is little difference in group variability in survey response when considering background characteristics, while significant differences in response rates are found when considering the group patterns of response to prior…

Aside from the theoretical issues involving the validity of inferences from surveys, the basic problem of producinq unbiased estimates of regression parameters and estimates of the associated standard errors has been a particularly difficult issue in dealing with results from stratified multistage sample designs such as the one used in the…

This paper presents a fixed effects model on the impact of individual high schools on adult earnings. This model not only captures the effects on observed and unobserved characteristics of high school on earnings, but also can control for selection bias resulting from correlation between school quality and student ability. The principal data used…

Data collection activities for the second follow-up survey of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 involved contact with over 22,000 graduates. During the period from July 1974 through June 1975, survey activities included the mailout of newsletters to sample members, telephone tracing of those individuals whose…

This addendum describes the nature, rationale, and results of the second cleaning and revision of the National Longitudinal Study of 1972 (NLS-72) Postsecondary Education Transcript Files (PETS). This project, conducted for nearly 3 years, followed an initial cleaning and reduction in 1987, which came about as a reaction to the idiosyncratic…

An examination of the probability of enrolling in postsecondary education, the likelihood of completing various types of credentials, and the effects of these credentials on wage rates, earnings, and other adult outcomes was conducted using data derived from the National Longitudinal Study of the Class of 1972. The followup survey in 1986…

The National Longitudinal Study (NLS) of the High School Class of 1972 is a large scale study providing information on high school students as they mature to adulthood. The NLS refers to high school seniors, excluding those who drop out. The study is potentially biased toward more educated students. The analysis was based on 1972 Current…