High School Transcript Study, 1987. Contractor Report.

The 1987 High School Transcript Study was designed to provide educational policymakers with information regarding current course offerings and course taking in the nation's secondary schools. As a part of the study, analysis of course-taking patterns of 1987 graduates were compared with data for 1982 graduates. In the fall of 1987, high school transcripts were collected from 34,140 students, including 6,583 handicapped students, attending 433 schools that has previously been sampled for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1986. Approximately half of the students involved in the 1987 study had participated in the NAEP assessment in 1986. The transcript study was designed to satisfy the needs of the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Assessment of Vocational Education, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs, and the National Science Foundation. Information collected from transcripts included, but was not limited to, course lists, graduation requirements, and definitions of units of credit and grades. This report covers study methodology, including extensive discussion of sampling, data collection, data processing, weighting procedures and variance estimation, and transcript study data files. Sampling forms, transcript study questionnaires, a transcript study information packet, modifications to the classification of secondary school courses, definition of description of community and sampling description of community, and A Nation At Risk update study weighting procedures (1987 component) are appended. (TJH)