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Description of Data
To date, the UW-BHS data collection efforts have
focused primarily on three distinct data collection efforts: the Senior
Survey, the One Year Follow-Up Survey, and the Parental Survey.
Senior Survey
The Senior Survey is an in-school survey of enrolled
high school
seniors. It took place in the springs of 2000 and 2002 through 2005 in
three
school districts, with 9 traditional high schools, and 3 private
schools in a large metropolitan area on the West Coast. In 2000 and
2002, the sample consisted of one large public school district, which
included 5 comprehensive high schools and a host of alternative site
schools. However, in 2003, 2 additional public school districts, with
2 comprehensive high schools in each district, and 3 private high
schools were added to the sample, making for a total of 3 school
districts, with 9 public high schools, 3 private schools, and a host of
alternative schools. All 3 school districts, the 3 private schools and
the alternative site schools were surveyed from 2003 to 2005.
The survey was administered within the schools, either
in separate
classrooms or in an auditorium setting. It consisted of a self response
"paper-and-pencil" questionnaire which took roughly 45 to 60 minutes to
complete. The survey contained questions that measure the students’
educational and occupational aspirations, educational expectations, and
college plans. In addition, information on student demographic
characteristics, family background, participation in extracurricular
activities, social networks, and attitudes towards schooling was
collected.
The UW-BHS research team attempted to survey the entire
senior class,
and they were able to survey roughly 80% of all seniors that were
enrolled and attending school on a regular basis. As not all seniors
were present on the day of the survey, a series of mailings, which
included a copy of the survey, were sent to those that were absent. The
mailings increased the overall percentage of respondents by roughly
11%. The level of student cooperation was very high, as less than
two percent of the students or their parents (if the student was under
18) that were asked refused to participate. A total of 9,809 seniors
completed the survey, but 151 surveys are often excluded from analyses
as they were completed by exchange students, developmentally disabled
students, 11th graders ("juniors"), or students who completed the
survey with random and/or non-sensical answers. The sample often
utilized in analyses consists of 9,658 students.
For a list of survey questions which have changed
between survey years, click here.
One Year Follow-Up Survey
A follow-up survey of students who participated in the
Senior Survey
was conducted in the springs of 2001 and 2003 through 2006. This was a
short
and focused survey that asked students to report on their high school
graduation, their post-high school employment, and their post-high
school college enrollment. The students were contacted via a
combination of phone calls, email messages, and an internet-based
response system. Most students were contacted directly for the
follow-up survey, but the follow-up information for about 6% of
students was obtained from “proxies” such as family members or
friends. Of the 9,658 students surveyed in the spring of 2000 and
2002 through 2005, follow-up surveys were obtained from 8,888, yielding
a
follow-up response rate of 92% of the interviewed high school seniors.
Parental Survey
The Parental Survey was conducted in the springs of
2000, 2002, and
2003. The survey was mailed to the homes of all high school seniors.
The Parental Survey inquired about the home environment, parental
ambitions for their child, and parental (and spousal, if any)
demographic and occupational information. Roughly half of the parents
of Senior Survey respondents completed the Parental Survey.
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