Created variables

• CV_SCH_ATTEND_YR. Summarizes the total number of schools the respondent has attended from the 7th through 12th grades as of each round's survey date. Available through round 13.
• CV_SCH_ATTEND_EVER. Number of regular schools ever attended as of the survey date. In round 1, the CV_SCH_ATTEND_EVER variable was created using information from the parent questionnaire only. Youths whose parents reported the youth's current grade as sixth or lower are coded as 0; youths with no parent interview are coded as -4. In round 2, the CV_SCH_ATTEND_EVER variable was created using information from the round 2 youth interview (about the period between round 1 and round 2) combined with the round 1 created variable. Youths with no parent interview and youths whose parents incorrectly reported their grade in school as less than 7 may have an undercount of the number of schools attended, because their information is based on the period since the round 1 interview. Subsequent rounds follow the method of creating the round 2 variable. Available through round 13.
• CV_SCHOOL_TYPE. Determines whether the respondent's current or most recent primary or secondary school is public, private, parochial, or some other type of school. Available through round 13.
• CV_SCHOOL_SIZE. Provides school size (number of students) of the respondent's current /most recent school. This variable is constructed using data from the QED and is available for rounds 1-8.
• CV_STUDENT_TEACHER_RATIO. Provides student-to-teacher ratio in the current or most recent school. This variable is constructed using data from the QED and is available for rounds 1-8.

Event History variables

A set of variables provides information on the respondent's educational experiences beginning in 1980, when the first information is available in the survey, through the current interview. From 1980 through the round 1 interview date, the variables report schooling information on a yearly basis. Data from subsequent rounds have both monthly and yearly schooling event histories. This approach permits the combination of information from the youth questionnaire, which collects more detailed data, and from the parent questionnaire, which presents information only for each year. In general, these variables refer to the school year rather than the calendar year.

Yearly schooling variables

• SCH_YEAR_TO_GRADE, SCH_GRADE_TO_YEAR. Presents the grade the respondent attended during the school year and the school year during which the respondent attended a certain grade. For example, SCH_YEAR_TO_GRADE.1990 refers to the grade attended by the respondent during the school year that starts in fall 1990 and ends in spring 1991. ;Similarly, if the respondent attended fourth grade in 1992-93, then SCH_GRADE_TO_YEAR.4 would have the value 1992.
• SCH_CHANGES. Counts the number of times that the school the respondent attended changed during the school year. For example, SCH_CHANGES.1990 shows how many different schools the respondent attended during the school year that started in fall 1990 and ended in spring 1991.
• SCH_MNTHS_MISSED. Presents the number of months during the school year that the respondent did not attend school. Does not include summer vacation.
• SCH_SUMMER_SCHOOL. Indicates whether the respondent attended extra school classes, such as summer school, during an educational break in a given school year.
• SCH_SUSPENSIONS. Counts the number of days during the school year the respondent was suspended from school. For example, if SCH_SUSPENSIONS.1990 has a value of 3 then the respondent was suspended from school for three days during the 1990-91 school year.
• SCH_GRADE_PROGRESS, SCH_YEAR_PROGRESS. Reports whether the respondent was skipped ahead or demoted during a given grade in school or during a given school year.

Monthly schooling variables

• SCH_STATUS. Reports the respondent's enrollment status during each month from the round 1 interview date through the current interview date. Coding categories include unknown, not enrolled, in grades K-12, in college, on vacation, expelled, and other.
• SCH_TERM. Reports the respondent's school type (public, private, or religious) and grade for each month in the time period. Researchers should consult Appendix 6 of the NLSY97 Codebook Supplement for exact information on the coding structure used in this array.
• SCH_ID. Permit users to link array information to the school roster in the main data file and access other information about the school. For each month that the respondent was enrolled in the SCH_STATUS array, the corresponding monthly variable in this array contains an identification code. The SCH_ID is based on the NEWSCHOOL_PUBID identification variables that are part of the main data set's schooling rosters. Users should refer to Appendix 6 of the NLSY97 Codebook Supplement for exact information on using the code to match event history data with main file data.
• SCH_DUAL_xxxx. Flags the small number of NLSY97 respondents who went to two different schools in the same month. Because only the first school can be reported in the other arrays, this variable flags these special cases. There is only one variable for each school for the period between each interview; the exact month when the overlap occurred is not indicated, and overlap may have occurred in more than one month.
• Deny Variables. Deny variables in the schooling section identify respondents who deny ever attending a school reported in a previous interview round.