Education Longitudinal Study of 2002: Base-Year to First Follow-Up Data File Documentation. NCES 2006-344

This report provides guidance and documentation for users of the public release for the combined base-year and first follow-up data of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). It provides extensive documentation of the content of the data files and how to access and manipulate them. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to ELS:2002. It includes an overview and history of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) program of longitudinal high school cohorts, summarizes the ELS: 2002 objectives, and supplies an overview of the base-year and longitudinal study design. Chapter 2 describes the first follow-up data collection instruments, including both the development and content of the in-school student, transfer, dropout, early graduate, home schooled, and school administrator questionnaires, as well as the student assessment in mathematics. The sample design and weighting procedures used both in the base-year and first followup studies are documented in chapter 3, as are weights, imputation, and the calculation of design effects. Data collection schedules, training, procedures, and results are presented in chapter 4. Chapter 5 describes data preparation and processing, including the receipt control system, optical scanning, machine editing, and data file preparation. Chapter 6 describes the contents of the data files, including the data structure and analysis populations. Appended are: (1) Introduction to the Electronic Codebook; (2) Base-Year and First Follow-up Questionnaires; (3) Documentation for Imputed Variables; (4) Public-Use Masked/Suppressed Variables Available on Restricted Files for Licensed Users; (5) Glossary of Terms; (6) Student Questionnaire Critical Items; (7) Base-Year to First Follow-up Electronic Codebook; (8) Cross-Cohort Comparisons; (9) Standard Errors and Design Effects; and (10) Synopsis of the ELS: 2002 First Follow-up Field Test (2003). (Contains 47 tables and 17 figures.)