Appendix 11: Collection of the Transcript Data (High School)

Credit-Related Variables

Credits by Academic Year, Academic/Vocational

Summary credits variables sum Carnegie credits (TRANS_CRS_CARNEGIE_CREDIT.xxx) over the relevant course codes or time period. Total credits variables are assigned to reserved codes for three classes of students: those with only pre-high school coursework; those with no relevant courses; and those who had relevant courses, but no valid Carnegie credits associated with those courses. Question names for these variables are as follows:

Course codes for these variables are classified as follows (for an explanation of the course codes [e.g., 1_31*], see Coding Information above):

Cumulative Credits by Academic Year (question name: TRANS_CUM_CRDS_EARNED_XXYY)

These variables sum the Carnegie credits earned by each student over the course of his/her high school career as of the end of each academic year. The variable has valid values for every academic year from when the student first reported high school coursework, to when the student last reported high school coursework, including interim years (if any) in which no coursework was reported.

Terms were assigned to an academic year primarily by a series of rules using information contained in the variables TERMSEAS, TERMYEAR, TRMSTRMO, TRMSTRYR, TRMENDMO, and TRMENDYR. For example, a Fall term beginning in September of 1999 would be assigned to the 1999-2000 academic year. However, start and end dates are often either missing or inaccurate, so there was extensive re-coding of academic year based on the entire sequence of terms included in the transcript, with reference to the GRLEVEL and CRSCODE variables as necessary. Summer terms were included with the previous academic year; thus, courses taken in Summer 1999 were coded as belonging to the 1998-1999 academic year.

Cumulative Percentage of New Basics Requirements Fulfilled by Academic Year (question name: TRANS_PCT_NB_EARNED_XXYY)

The New Basics curriculum is a minimum curriculum recommended by the National Commission of Excellence in Education (NCEE) in 1983 to be completed by high school graduates. These variables represent the cumulative percentage of New Basics Core requirements completed by each student.

New Basics Core Requirements

English- 4 credits (1_3*)
Math- 3 credits (1_1*)
Science- 3 credits (1_2*)
Social Science- 3 credits (1_4*)
Computer Science- 0.5 credits (2_C071*)

The Carnegie credits earned for courses fulfilling New Basics requirements were summed by subject area over each academic year, and the cumulative percentage of Core New Basics requirements completed was calculated. Percentages were capped at 100, so that students exceeding requirements would show 100% fulfillment. Users may refer to National Center for Education Statistics (www.nces.ed.gov) publications for additional information on the New Basics curriculum.

Grade level by Academic Year (question name: TRANS_GRD_LV_XXYY)

These variables report the student's grade level for each academic year we have course work reported for them. In some cases, there were two or more grade levels reported for a single academic year. In these cases, the academic year grade level is set to the grade level associated with the highest number of credits. In most cases, this is also the highest grade level reported during that academic year. Summer terms (and their associated grade levels) were excluded from this construction.

Coursework Reported by Academic Year (question name: TRANS_CRSWRK_IN_XXYY)

After the assignment of terms to academic years (see the section Cumulative Credits by Academic Year for an explanation of this process) we recorded for each student the academic years in which any coursework was reported for that student. Academic years in which only pre-high-school coursework was reported are assigned a reserved code; an academic year which contained a mixture of high-school and pre-high-school coursework (often because of high school work pursued during the summer after 8th grade) was coded as having valid coursework reported.

Credit-Weighted Grade Point Averages (question names: TRANS_CRD_GPA_OVERALL and TRANS_CRD_GPA_YR_XXYY)

These variables indicate grade point averages on a 4 point grading scale. For each course, the quality grade (TRANS_CRS_GRADE.xxx) is weighted by Carnegie credits (TRANS_CRS_CARNEGIE_CREDIT.xxx). Quality grades were recoded as follows: 1 = 4.3, 2=4.0, 3=3.7, 4=3.3, 5=3.0, 6=2.7, 7=2.3, 8=2.0, 9=1.7, 10=1.3, 11=1.0, 12=0.7, 13=0.0, all other values recoded to missing. Overall and Academic Year variables include all courses.

Subject variables are defined as follows:

• Credit Weighted GPA - English (question name: TRANS_CRD_GPA_ENGLISH): 1_31* 1_32 1_33 1_34
• Credit Weighted GPA - Foreign Language (question name: TRANS_CRD_GPA_FGN_LANG): 1_61* 1_62* 1_63* 1_64* 1_65* 1_66*
• Credit Weighted GPA - Social Science (question name: TRANS_CRD_GPA_SOC_SCI): 1_41* 1_42* 1_43* 1_44* 1_45* 1_46* 1_47*
• Credit Weighted GPA - Mathematics (question name: TRANS_CRD_GPA_MATH): 1_11* 1_12* 1_13 1_14 1_15 1_16 1_17* 1_18 1_19*
• Credit Weighted GPA - Life and Physical Sciences (question name: TRANS_CRD_GPA_LP_SCI): 1_21* 1_22* 1_23* 1_24* 1_25* 1_26*