The National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS:72) is a large, diverse, nationally representative cohort study that began with a random sample of American high school seniors in 1972. Follow-up surveys were conducted between 1973 and 1986. The current follow-up began in 2024, with participants then in their seventies. Read more.
High School and Beyond (HS&B:80) is a large, diverse, nationally representative cohort study that began with a random sample of American high school sophomores and seniors in 1980. Follow-up surveys were conducted between 1982 and 2015. The most recent follow-up was in 2021, with participants then approaching age 60. Read more.
EdSHARe facilitates access to enhanced survey, biomarker, and administrative data from the NLS:72 and HS&B:80 studies at no charge. Learn more
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School-level measures of policies, programs, resources, climate, and more. Student-level measures of plans, attitudes, experiences, activities, test scores, grades, course taking, degree attainment, and more. Secondary and college transcripts.
Measures from adolescence of test scores in reading, math, vocabulary, and more. Measures from adulthood of learning, attention, working memory, language, executive function, and more. Also, biomarkers of ADRD risk.
Measures from adolescence of disability, BMI, and more. Measures from adulthood of chronic conditions, health behaviors, and more. Biomarkers from adult physical assessments, blood assays, saliva samples, and pharmacy records.
Adolescent plans, aspirations, job training, and more. Labor force status, industry, occupation, and income across the life course. Measures from consumer credit records over the past ~20 years.
Sex, race, ethnicity, age, nativity, disability status, languages spoken, and more (including age at death, cause of death). Both cohorts are nationally representative with probabilistic oversamples of key population subgroups.
Measures from adolescence of family structure and composition; parental education, occupation, and income; sibship size; and more. Measures from adulthood of family plans, marital status, family income, and more.
Adolescent measures of educational, work, and family plans, aspirations, and expectations; locus of control; self-concept; and more. Measures from adulthood of loneliness, mental health, and more.
Precise location of high schools in the base year. Home addresses at the time of follow-up surveys. Address histories from administrative records.
A variety of sampling weights, including balanced repeated replication of 'BRR' weights; guidance on variance estimation to correct for clustering, unequal probabilities of selection, and attrition; detail descriptions of sampling designs and outcomes; detailed technical documentation.
A variety of other measures from surveys, administrative records, and elsewhere on topics ranging from voting to COVID-19 to sports participation to experiences with discrimination to popularity in high school.