About High School and Beyond

High School and Beyond is the second in the series of longitudinal studies of high school students conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This study began with a nationally representative sample of high schools and random samples of up to 18 sophomores and 18 seniors attending those high schools in 1980. The study was designed to be comparative, both across the two HS&B cohorts and the other NCES studies.

Through the base year study and its first four follow-ups (1982, 1984, 1986, and for sophomores only, 1992), researchers were able to learn about students' educational experiences in high school and their subsequent educational, vocational, and residential pathways after leaving high school. Students completed a variety of standardized assessments intended to inventory their academic and cognitive skills in certain domains, and responded to survey questions intended to offer insights into the school, community, family, and socioeconomic factors that influenced participants' outcomes.

A new follow-up funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, recontacted all surviving sample members of the sophomore cohort in 2014. Additional funding for that wave was provided by the Spencer Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences. The following year, the National Science Foundation funded a new follow-up of the senior cohort. The follow-ups focused on understanding the ways that participant's life experiences impact midlife health outcomes. 

A sixth follow-up of both the sophomore and senior cohorts was conducted in 2021, funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) with additional support from the Alzheimer's Association. The 2021 wave introduced biomarker collection and neurocognitive testing to assess participants' cognitive health. These data will be released for research use shortly. Read more in the Updated Cohort Profile.