Datasets for the Study of
Education
PRI Workshop
October 21, 2010
U.S. National Longitudinal
Datasets
National Center for Education Statistics
• Produce a number of studies focusing on
education
• List of available studies and data can be found
at: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/
NCES: Longitudinal Education Focus
• Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: Birth and
Kindergarten Cohorts
• National Education Longitudinal Study
Program
– NLS72
– HS&B
– NELS:88
– ELS:2002
– HSLS:09
Early Childhood Longitudinal Study:
Birth Cohort (ECLS-B)
• Nationally representative sample of 14,000
children born in 2001
• Study population included diverse
socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds
• Follow-ups conducted at 9mos, 2yrs and Preschool
• Surveyed children, parents, child-care
providers and teachers
ECLS-B
• Provides information on children’s cognitive,
social, emotional and physical development
across settings
• Mothers/fathers surveyed at each wave
• Children observed/participated in
assessments at each wave
• Child care providers, educators and school
administrators included in later waves
ECLS-B
• Special considerations
– Micro-data are only available via secure data
license 2 yrs after each wave collection
– 9mo data are available publicly via the NCES
online Data Analysis System (DAS)
– Information on children’s elementary schools is
available by linking with the Common Core of Data
(CCD) and Private School Survey (PSS) universe
files
Early Childhood Longitudinal Study:
Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K)
• Kindergarten class of 1998-99 followed
through 8th grade
• Nationally representative sample of
approximately 21,000 kindergartners from
about 1,000 kindergarten programs (both
private and public)
• Follow-ups at 1st, 3rd, 5th and 8th grades
ECLS-K
• Similar focus to ECLS-B
• Surveyed children, parents, teachers and
school administrators
• How early experiences relate to later
development, learning and school experience
• Child direct assessments: reading, math,
general knowledge/science, social/emotional,
and physical
ECLS-K
• Special considerations
– Child direct assessment instruments and rating
scales are copyrighted and only available with
license
– Restricted versions of data are only available via
secure data license
• Public data for some waves available on NCES
website
National Education Longitudinal
Studies Program
• NELS Program consists of 5 studies:
– National Longitudinal Study of the High School
Class of 1972 (NLS:72)
– High School and Beyond (HS&B)
– National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988
(NELS:88)
– Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002)
– High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09)
NLS:72
• Sample taken from the HS senior class of 1972
with a supplementary senior sample in 1973
• Collected HS records and post-secondary
transcripts
• Focused on transition from HS to postsecondary education and/or to the labor force
• Data collected between 1972 and 1986
• Data available from NCES from DAS
HS&B
• 2 Cohorts: 1980 Senior Class and 1980
Sophomore Class
• Both surveyed biannually through 1986
• 1980 Sophomore class surveyed again in 1992
• Focused on transition from HS to post-secondary
education and/or labor force
• Cumulative public data available via DAS
• Restricted cumulative data available via secure
data license
NELS:88
• Initiated in 1988 with cohort of 8th graders
• 4 follow-ups conducted in 1990, 1992, 1994,
and 2000
• 10th grade cohort added at 1st follow-up
• 12th grade cohort added at 2nd follow-up
• Surveyed students, parents, teachers, and
school administrators
NELS:88
• Students surveyed on:
– School, work and home experiences
– Educational resources and support
– Parent/peer role in their education
– Neighborhood characteristics
– Educational and occupational aspirations
• Public data available for 1994, 2000
• Restricted use data available with secure data
license
ELS:2002
• Sample of approximately 15,000 HS
sophomores from 750 schools in 2002
• 2004 added sample of HS seniors
• Students, parents, teachers and school
administrators surveyed
• Follow-ups at 2004 and 2006; 2012 planned
ELS: 2002
• Collected information on:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Achievement scores
HS/college transcripts
HS early completion and drop-outs
Student attitudes/experiences
College applications, enrollments, aid offers
Employment, earnings, living situations
• Public data available on NCES online Education
Data Analysis Tool (EDAT)
• Restricted data available via secure data license
HSLS:09
• Sample of 21,000 9th graders from 944 schools
• 1st follow-up scheduled for 2012
• Focus on what students decide to pursue in
regards to science, engineering, math
• Includes new assessments in algebra, reasoning,
problem-solving
• New inclusion of school counselors
• Will produce national level data but also state
level data for 10 states
Contextual Data Sets
Schools, School Districts, &
Neighborhoods
Linking Contexts to Individuals
State policy
(i.e. MN state
education data)
All schools
(i.e. CCD, PSS)
Individual Data
(i.e. NELS:88)
All school
districts
(i.e. CCD, SDDS)
Neighborhood
(i.e. Census)
Common Core of Data (CCD)
• Annual public school and school district data
Collected by NCES, 1986 to present
• Basic school and school district characteristics
(i.e. enrollment, % of each race/ethnicity,
pupil/teacher ratio; current student expenditure
(school district), drop out rate (school district)
• Data link:
– PRI Sodapop
• http://sodapop.pop.psu.edu/data-collections/ccd
– NCES web site
• http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/
School District Demographics System
(SDDS)
• School district demographic and geographic
data
• Data and map files are available
• Data years: Census 2000, ACS 2005-08
• Data link:
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sdds/index.aspx
State Data Systems
• Every state has her own education data system.
Some are publicly available, and some are only
for state internal use
• Most data sets are cross-sectional
• In 2009, 20 states win grants to create
longitudinal data systems
– Awardees are: Arkansas , Colorado, Florida, Illinois,
Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,
Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington,
Wisconsin
URL: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/dc/es/index.asp
URL:
http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/Data/Data_Downloads/index.html
Link Contexts to Individuals –
Find Out the KEY!
State policy
(i.e. MN state
education data)
All schools
(i.e. CCD, PSS)
School
id
School
District
id
All school
districts
(i.e. CCD, SDDS)
Individual Data
(i.e. NELS:88)
State
id/
zipcode
zipcode
Neighborhood
(i.e. Census)
Linking to Individual Data : Example 1
2001-02 CCD school file
Linking to Individual Data : Example 2
• The Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS)
• 4th- and 8th-grade students in many OECD countries
• Data years: 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007
• Linking data & key: CCD school file with school id
• TIMSS 2011:
– More than 60 countries. More than 20,000 students in
more than 1,000 schools across the United States will take
the assessment in spring 2011.
– Link the states scores from the national assessment—
NAEP-- to TIMSS.
International Datasets
3 Major Datasets
• TIMSS
– Originally: “Third International Mathematics and
Science Study”
– Now: “Trends in International Mathematics and
Science Study”
• PIRLS
– Progress in International Reading Literacy Study
• PISA
– Program for International Student Assessment
2 major organizations
– International Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement (IEA)
• Conducts TIMSS & PIRLS
• Major activity is comparative educational studies,
research and training
– Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD)
•
•
•
•
Conducts PISA
Data collection in education and other fields
Collects indicators to inform governments
32 member countries as of 2010
Data Files
• There are two basic types of data files in these
databases
– Background Files
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•
•
•
Student (TIMSS, PIRLS, PISA) - include test scores
Teacher (TIMSS, PIRLS)
School (TIMSS, PIRLS, PISA)
Home (PIRLS, PISA – Not in the US)
– Achievement Files
• These include item responses
Student Background Files
• Contains the responses of the students to a
background questionnaire
– Attitude towards the subject measured
– Personal/academic backgrounds
– School experiences
– Career/educational goals
School Background Files
• Contains the responses of the school
principals or administrators to the school
background questionnaire
– Curricula
– School climate
– Staffing levels
– Availability of resources and services
Teacher Background Files
• Not a representative sample of teachers
• They are teachers who teach a representative
sample of students
• Teacher data should be analyzed only in
conjunction with the Student-Teacher Linkage
file
• Statements to be made about “...percent of
students taught by teachers...”
Home Background
• Contains the responses of the parents/ guardian of
tested students to parent/ home background
questionnaire
In PIRLS 2006
– Early literacy activities
– Home educational resources
– Language in the home
– Out-of-school (literacy) activities
In PISA 2006
– Parents’ investment in their children’s education
– Parents’ views on subject-related issues and careers
• These were not administered in all countries
– Not in the United States
Achievement Test Files
• Also called cognitive items files
• Contain the responses of students to the items
administered
• Students only administered a fraction of the items in
test pool
• All students were administered multiple choice and
constructed-response items
• In TIMSS and PIRLS raw item responses are provided
with code for scoring
• In PISA two files are provided: one with items scored
and the other with raw item responses
How to obtain data & user guide
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•
•
•
http://nces.ed.gov/timss/ (US)
http://timss.bc.edu/ (Int’l)
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/ (US)
http://www.pisa.oecd.org/pages/0,3417,en_3
2252351_32235907_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
(Int’l)
Data Almanacs/Compendia
• Files that display weighted summary statistics,
by grade, for each participating country on
each variable included in background
questionnaires and test booklet
• One for each background instrument and by
domain
• Extremely useful to elaborate hypothesis
Demonstration using NCES Data
Tools
NCES Data Tools
Advantages:
• Good when you’re “shopping” for data
• Can explore various databases
• Can obtain summary statistics and correlational
analysis result – weights are applied
Disadvantages:
• Needs some practice
• Advanced analysis not available
• http://nces.ed.gov/datatools/index.asp?datat
oolsectionid=4
Appendix Materials
Other Data resource for Educational
Study
• Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)USA & International
• Variables:
– Person record: demographics, race/ethnicity &
nativity, family interrelationship, education,
income/work/occupation, migration, etc.
– Household record: geographical, economic
characteristics, etc.
• USA sample years: every 10 years from 1850 to
2000; every year from 2000 to present
• International sample years: from 1960 to present,
vary by countries