It is the first in an ongoing series of longitudinal studies designed to offer policymakers and researchers data related to high school educational experiences in the United States.
[2] President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society policies, including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, sought to increase federal funding and evaluation of public schools.
Social scientists were enlisted by the Department of Education to apply quantitative methods, a practice known as systems analysis, to guide policy making.
[3] Systems analysis allowed policymakers to collect, compare, and analyze educational data, such as teacher retention and graduation rates, to inform decisions.
[4] Researchers sought data on school quality, course patterns, attendance, ambition, and post-graduation outcomes, including higher education, the workforce, and family life.
[5] Special attention was given to postsecondary trends, particularly in the context of the Civil Rights and Second-Wave Feminism movements, which saw increased attendance among women and students of color in higher education.
These groups were oversampled because while they made up a smaller amount of the population, adequate data on their experiences was needed to study and address racial opportunity gaps.
The Student Questionnaire gathered information on personal and family backgrounds, education and work experiences, plans for the future, as well as attitudes, aspirations, and opinions.
These questionnaires collected information on sample members' marital status, children, educational attainment, military service, work history, attitudes and opinions related to self-esteem, goals, job satisfaction, and participation in community affairs.
This follow-up maintained the core features of the initial stratified, multistage design but differed by using unequal, secondary sampling to oversample policy-relevant groups and achieve cost-efficiency.
[7] To study occupational and career outcomes, NCES requested official transcripts from all academic and vocational schools attended by NLS-72 sample members.
[8] The resulting research will focus on understanding how opportunities and experiences of adolescents and young adults, as well as characteristics of students' high schools, future aspirations, post-secondary institution attendance and attainment, occupational choices, socioeconomic disparities, familial experiences, and geography shape sample members' lives, earnings, well-being, and cognitive health as they age and approach the retirement years.