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Discussions about how to use and analyze transcripts inevitably include how to classify and measure individual courses and how to aggregate and measure groups of courses in a meaningful way. The Secondary School Taxonomy (SST) was developed in the 1980s by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as a framework for aggregating and analyzing transcript data and has since been used to monitor U.S. progress toward meeting national goals for student course-taking in academic and vocational subjects as well as overall trends in course taking in U.S. schools. Chapters 1,2, and 3 describe the revised SST and its predecessor. Chapters 4 and 5 contain the SST with the codes that make it usable. Appendixes list members of the Professional Work Group, discuss effects of the revision, and give a detail of the revised code assignments. (Contains 12 figures and 14 tables.) (SLD)

National databases are not necessarily useful for specific school district needs. Participating sites in the High Schools that Work program have adapted several data collection procedures from national studies to serve their own information needs and assess the effectiveness of local program changes. (SK)