We examine the American landscape of higher education quantitative research concerning how gender and sex demographic information is collected. We use a directed content analysis to examine the prevalence and operationalization of gender and sex among widely used higher education survey instruments. Our findings illuminate a seemingly haphazard…

The U.S. Department of Education's (ED's) National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) is the nation's preeminent source of information on how students and their families pay for college. This paper explores how NCES can leverage linkages to federal and non-federal data sources to improve…

To promote inclusivity in quantitative research about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) students, scholars must first understand how sexual orientation data are collected in higher education survey research (Garvey, 2014; Rankin & Garvey, 2015). There is one research question that guides this study: How is sexual orientation demographic…

The 2012/17 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/17), conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education, is the second follow-up of students who began postsecondary education in the 2011-12 academic year. BPS:12/17 draws from the 2011-12 National Postsecondary Student Aid…

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals generate a stream of scientific discoveries and technological innovations that fuel job creation and national economic growth. Ensuring a robust supply of these professionals is critical for sustaining growth and creating jobs growth at a time of intense global competition.…

This study focuses on the differences in college student dropout behavior among racial/ethnic groups. We employ event history methods and data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) and National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) surveys to investigate how financial aid may differentially influence dropout risks among these student…

This report describes the methods and procedures used for the full-scale data collection effort of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study First Follow-Up 1996-98 (BPS:96/98). These students, who started their postsecondary education during the 1995-96 academic year, were first interviewed during 1996 as part of the National…

This report describes the status after 5 years of the diverse groups of students who first entered institutions of postsecondary education during the academic year 1989-90. It describes their economic and demographic characteristics, their educational objectives, the types of institutions they attended, their experiences while enrolled, and their…

This report examines the beginning of the educational experiences of students who leave college before their second year, both those who return to college later (stopouts) and those who do not return (stayouts). The report is based on data from the 1989-90 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study. First-year students in 1989-90 were…

Describes the design and methodology of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study First Follow-up, including overall outcomes of data collection and evaluations of the quality of data collected. (SLD)

Federal agencies conduct large, national studies that provide abundant data easily accessible to researchers. While these datasets provide access to rich data for analyzing a multitude of topics, certain skills are necessary for appropriate use. Specifically, over sampling and multistage cluster sampling must be accommodated in the analyses to…

This report describes the methods and procedures used for the full-scale data collection effort of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Second Follow-up Student 1996-2001 (BPS:1996/2001). These students, who started their postsecondary education in the 1995-1996 academic year, were first interviewed during 1996, and subsequently interviewed in…

This CD-ROM disc contains data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study First Follow-up (BPS:90/92) in the form of a Data Analysis System (DAS) public release. This DAS release does not contain all of the variables collected as part of BPS:90/92, but it does contain most that are of interest to analysts for descriptive…

This document provides a summary and evaluation of the methodological procedures and results of the full-scale implementation of the Beginning Postsecondary Student Longitudinal Study Second Follow-up, 1990-94 (BPS:90/94). The study was conducted for the National Center for Education Statistics by Research Triangle Institute with the assistance of…

This report examines the relationship between high school academic curricula and students' persistence path through college, approximately 3 years after first enrolling. Data are from the 1995-1996 Beginning Postsecondary Students Survey, a longitudinal study of beginning postsecondary students who first enrolled in a four-year college in…