Since 2004, U.S. states have collected information from former students with disabilities about their employment and further education activities in the first year after leaving high school. About one year after they leave school, young adults who had Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are asked some very important questions: Are they…

The purpose of "Branding your Post-School Outcomes Data Collection Process" is to help state education agencies create brand recognition with youths, families, and school personnel for the post-school outcomes survey. Recognition--paired with information about the survey purpose, who is conducting the interview, and how the information…

Never before has the link between a college education and postgraduate job prospects been more important. College graduates are employed more often and, on average, earn significantly more than those without college degrees. During recent years, as students have moved into a challenging job market, a college education has remained the most…

Offers guidelines for conducting outcomes assessment research, particularly communication alumni surveys. Recommends what to do before starting, suggests some step-by-step guidelines, and notes the aftermath and conclusions of the 1991 Boise State University Outcomes Assessment Project. (SR)

Direct mail surveys can be an effective method of surveying alumni, but a good survey takes careful planning, scheduling, execution, and follow-up. A six-month timetable is recommended, with three mailings and attention to a variety of details, such as the quality of the survey package and the recording of responses. (MSE)

A guide for conducting alumni surveys is presented, including 22 sample questionnaires. The first section on planning an effective survey strategy includes the following five articles: "Let's Take a Survey" (Cletis Pride); "Surveying Your Alumni: Or an Unexamined College Is Not Worth Loving" (Jocelyn Bartkevicius); "Make Your Survey Scientific"…

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…

A career survey of arts and sciences graduates between 1971-1981 was undertaken by the University of Virginia to determine how liberal arts graduates do in the working world. When asked what type of education they would recommend to undergraduates, 91% answered a liberal arts degree. Alumni advised today's students to complement their liberal arts…

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…

Designed for local school and district vocational educators, this manual contains instructions and materials necessary to plan and implement a student longitudinal followup system. Part 1 provides background information and definitions used in the system. In part 2 are described the 11 major activities that must be undertaken by local program…

Telephone surveys are faster and only slightly more expensive than surveying by mail. One successful effort involved planning, setting objectives, studying market research techniques, drafting a questionnaire, using computers when feasible, sending a presurvey mailing, doing the calling, and preparing a final report. (MSE)

In response to this survey, recent graduates of the Criminal Justice program at Sam Houston State University (Texas) evaluated both the University and the College of Criminal Justice highly. The research team received 277 completed responses from the 762 questionnaires distributed to all 1988, 1990, and 1992 recipients of baccalaureate degrees in…

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…

Information on why readership surveys are valuable and on how to conduct them is presented, along with sample surveys used at a number of different institutions, and a questionnaire used by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education to measure the opinion of "CASE CURRENTS," readers. Guidelines for doing a mail survey outline…

This article describes the University of Illinois's telemarketing test to recruit new alumni association members. The computerized calling program resulted in 379 new members (out of 9,278 alumni contacted), netted a profit, and indicated that different groups of alumni react to phone solicitations differently. (DB)