"The Toolbox Revisited" is a data essay that follows a nationally representative cohort of students from high school into postsecondary education, and asks what aspects of their formal schooling contribute to completing a bachelor's degree by their mid-20s. The universe of students is confined to those who attended a four-year college at any time, thus including students who started out in other types of institutions, particularly community colleges. "The Toolbox Revisited" uses the most recently completed of the national grade-cohort longitudinal studies conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The study, known as the NELS:88/2000, began with a national sample of eighth-graders in 1988. They were scheduled to be in the 12th grade and graduate from high school in 1992. They were followed through December 2000. In addition to regular interviews with these students, the data set on which this essay draws includes the critical components of high school and college transcripts, and the transcript data are the principal sources for the academic history observed. Here, the author offers themes, highlights, and implications of the data for those who comment on secondary and higher education and make decisions about institutional or system policy--editorial writers, legislators, researchers, education administrators. (Contains 1 endnote.)