Educational Attainment & School Enrollment

Created Variables

HGC - These variables represent the highest grade completed by the respondent as of each interview date.  These are the original formulation of the Highest Grade Completed variables.
HGC_REVISED - These variables represent the highest grade completed by the respondent as of each interview date.  These are created with some adjustments to keep people from regressing in years of schooling when they take such actions as returning to school in a new field.
ENROLLMT_STATUS  These variables represent the respondent’s enrollment status on May 5 of the survey year.
ENROLLMT_STATUS_REVISED - These variables represent the respondent’s enrollment status on May 5 of survey year.  There should be little to no difference between the original and revised versions of this variable. They are simply produced by determining whether the respondent reported being enrolled in May of the survey year.

Important Information About Using Educational Status Data:

  1. A review of the NLSY79 enrollment and grade attending and completed data found a number of inconsistencies, such as the highest grade attended or grade currently attended decreasing over time, and such.  Revised 'Highest Grade Completed' and 'Enrollment Status' variables, which seek to clean up some of the inconsistencies, have been added to the data set. See Appendix 8 in the NLSY79 Codebook Supplement for a description of these revisions.
  2. Due to some problematic coding practices, cross-wave matches of original supplemental FICE codes cannot be assumed. We advise researchers to use the revised set of FICE codes for 1984 and after available in the Geocode data file along with the "FICETYPE” variables, which describe the type of code assigned. See "Attachment 105: Addendum to FICE Codes," in the NLSY79 Geocode Codebook Supplement, for more information.

Data collected: Information on NLSY79 respondents' educational experiences has been collected during each survey year.  In addition, three special data collections conducted during 1980-83 gathered the following for select universes: 

Table 1 summarizes the major types of NLSY79 educational status and attainment variables and identifies the survey years during which such data were collected.

Table 1. Educational Attainment & School Enrollment Variables: 1979-2008

Variable

Survey Years

Current School Enrollment Status
  Currently attending or enrolled in school

1979-2008
Grade attending 1979-2008
Specific months R was attending regular school since last interview 1981-2008
Month/year last enrolled in school ((not enrolled) data users must compute months R was attending)) 1979-98
Reason left school (not enrolled) 1979-2008
Any high school/college courses taken while in Armed Forces 1979-85
Enrollment status as of May 1 survey year (Key/Created Variable) 1979-2008
Highest Grade Attended or Completed
Highest grade attended since last interview 1979-2008
Highest grade completed since last interview 1979-2008
Years of school completed while in the Armed Forces since last interview 1979-85
Highest grade completed as of May 1 survey year (Key/Created Variable) 1979-2008
Type of High School Curriculum
Type of current/last school curriculum in grades 9-12 1979-85
1st-8th high school subject during most recent enrollment; grades 9-12 1979
High school courses from the Transcript Surveys 1980-83
Nature of high school program 1980
Major Field of Study in College
Major field of study current/last college attended 1979-83
Major field of study most recent and 2nd/3rd most recent college attended 1984-86, 1988-90, and 1992-2008

College Status
Full time/part time status (in college last enrolled since 9/1 past year) 1979-83
Full time/part time status most recent and 2nd/3rd most recent college 1984-86, 1988-90, and 1992-2008
Attainment of a High School Diploma and Other Degrees
Ever received degree/diploma 1979
Have high school diploma or equivalent 1979-2008
Have diploma or GED 1979-2008
Month/year received diploma or GED 1979-2008
Received degree since last interview 1980-84 and 1989-2008
Received more than one college degree since last interview 1981-84
Diploma/degree received during or since recent Armed Forces enlistment 1979-85
Highest degree ever received (including high school diploma) 1988-2008
Month/year received degree/highest degree 1979-80 and 1988-2008
Types of diplomas/college degrees received 1979-84
Types of diplomas/college degrees received during or since recent enlistment 1979-85

Name and Geographic Location (Available on Restricted Geocode Release)
  State location of current/last college attended

1980-83
Location of most recent college(s) attended 1984-86, 1988-90, and 1992-2008
FICE code of most recent and 2nd/3rd most recent college attended 1984-86,1988-90, and 1992-2008
College Loans
Educational loan received for this year's college expenses 1979-83
Educational loan received to cover most recent and 2nd/3rd most recent college attended 1984-86, 1988-90, and 1992-2008
Total amount of educational loans: most recent and 2nd/3rd most recent college attended 1984-86, 1988-90, and 1992-2008
Household/Family Members
Highest grade completed for each household member 1979-2008
Highest grade completed for R's mother, father, oldest sibling 1979
Highest grade completed for R's current or most recent spouse 1979-82
Highest grade completed for all siblings 1993

Armed Forces Sample: During the 1979-85 surveys, respondents who had served in the Armed Forces since the last interview or were serving at the current interview date were asked a series of questions on high school or college courses taken and years of school completed while in the Armed Forces.

Related Topics:

Additional information on schooling as it relates to other areas of the respondent's life can be found in the following sections:

  • employment,
  • income,
  • childcare,
  • investments in other types of schooling or training.
  • More information on the special school/transcript surveys can be found in the "School & Transcript Surveys" section of this guide.
  • Descriptions of the various standardized test scores available for NLSY79 respondents can be found in the "Aptitude, Achievement & Intelligence Scores" section.

 

 

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts

Enrollment status in the past year, current enrollment status, highest grade attended and completed, and degrees and diplomas received have been collected for all cohorts except the Older Men.  Respondents in the Older Men cohort provided information on their highest grade completed and highest college degree received.  For more details about specific survey years in which these data were gathered, consult the BLS website at www.bls.gov/nls or the appropriate cohort's User's Guide.

Survey Instruments and Documentation:

Core education questions are found in the yearly questionnaires in the "Regular Schooling" sections (see Section 3 or 4) and the "Military" sections (Section 7 [1979], Section 6 [1980], Section 5 [1981], and Section 4 [1982-85]).  "Regular school" provides credit toward an academic degree or diploma (for a further definition, see Areas of Interest definitions in this guide).  Sections 14 and 12 of, respectively, the 1979 and 1980 questionnaires collected supplementary information on the types of degrees and other certifications that the respondent had obtained. 

  • "Attachment 7: Other Certificate Codes" found within the NLSY79 Codebook Supplement, provides the 1979 codes, such as associate degree, bachelor's degree, or master's degree, as well as the various types of certifications, such as practical nurse, welding, or insurance, that respondents reported ever having received.
  • "Attachment 4: Fields of Study in College" provides the coding classifications for the major field of study variables. 
  • Copies of the transcript coding form and course codes can be found in the separate NLSY High School Transcript Survey:  Overview and Documentation. 
  • Creation procedures for the enrollment status and highest grade completed as of May 1 variables are provided in "Appendix 8: Highest Grade Completed and Enrollment Status." "Attachment 102: FIPS Codes" and "Attachment 105: Addendum to FICE Codes," both contained within the NLSY79 Geocode Codebook Supplement, provide State coding information for the locations of colleges attended and assignment of codes.

 

Areas of Interest:

  • Most variables related to schooling are located in the "School," "Degrees & Certificates," "Military," or "Misc. xxxx" areas of interest. 
  • The yearly created variables on enrollment status and highest grade completed are found in the "Key Variables" area of interest. 
  • The special high school course information has been placed in "Transcript Survey," while the 1981 time use data (which tracked hours and minutes spent at various major activities, including school) is located in "Time Use." 
  • Family and household member educational attainment variables are found, respectively, in the "Family Background" and "Household Record" areas of interest. 
  • The "Geocode xxxx" areas of interest on the Geocode CD contain data on the specific colleges attended (FICE codes).