National Longitudinal Study of the Class of 1972 (ICPSR 8085)

Version Date: Apr 6, 2026

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Principal Investigator(s):
United States Department of Education. Center for Education Statistics

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08085.v2

Version V2 ()

  • V2 [2026-04-06]
  • V1 [1999-02-25] unpublished
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Summary

This longitudinal data collection supplies information on the educational, vocational, and personal development of young people who were high school seniors in 1972 and examines the kinds of factors -- personal, familial, social, institutional, and cultural -- that may affect that development. The collection provides a broad spectrum of information on each student and covers areas such as ability, socioeconomic status, home background, community environment, ethnicity, significant others, current activity at time of survey, educational attainment, school experiences, school performance, work status, work performance and satisfaction, goal orientations, marriage and the family, and military experience.

Data collected in the base-year (1972) focus on factors relating to the student's personal/family background, education and work experiences, plans, aspirations, attitudes, and opinions. The first follow-up, which was conducted in 1973, offers information on the respondent's activity state (education, work, etc.), socioeconomic status, work and educational experience since leaving high school, future plans, and expectations. The second follow-up (1974) probes respondents on similar measures but is augmented by additional variables pertaining to work and education. The third follow-up (1976) contains additional items on graduate school application and entry, job supervision, sex roles, sex and race biases, and a subjective rating of high school experiences. The fourth follow-up (1979) offers data similar to the other follow-ups but includes some variables that were modified to elicit unique information. For the fifth follow-up, the sample members averaged 32 years of age and had been out of high school for 14 years. In addition to covering the same subject areas as the previous surveys, this follow-up includes additional questions on marital history, divorce, child support, and economic relationships in modern families.

Part 1 of this collection contains base-year data as well as data collected during four subsequent follow-ups undertaken in 1973, 1974, 1976, and 1979, while Part 11 contains fifth follow-up data for 1986. Part 2, the School File, contains information obtained from the respondent's high school and also from high school counselors. Data are available on school organization and enrollment, course offerings, special services and programs, library and other resources, time scheduling, and grading systems. Counselor information is supplied on work loads, counseling practices and facilities, experience with student financial aid programs, age, ethnicity, training, and experience. A supplementary School District Census File, Part 3, contains 1970 Census data tabulated by school district boundaries. In addition, the collection includes a FICE Code File and a CEEB Institutional Data Base File that can be used in conjunction with the student file to supply contextual information about respondents' colleges. The Institutional Data Base File offers data for colleges and universities on items such as enrollment, income and revenues, expenses, tuition and fees, and median student scores on standardized tests. Parts 7, 8, 9 and 10 contain transcript data from each postsecondary institution reported by sample members in the first through fourth follow-up surveys. Data are available for several types of postsecondary institutions, ranging from short-term vocational or occupational programs through major universities with graduate programs and professional schools. Data in these four rectangular files -- Student, Transcript, Term, and Course Files -- are organized to be used in combination hierarchically. Information is available on terms of attendance, fields of study, specific courses taken, and grades and credits earned. The Fifth Follow-Up Teaching Supplement (Parts 12) surveyed those members of the original 1972 sample who had obtained teaching certificates and/or who had teaching experience. Respondents were asked questions about their qualifications, experience, and attitudes toward teaching.

Citation

United States Department of Education. Center for Education Statistics. National Longitudinal Study of the Class of 1972    . Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2026-04-06. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08085.v2

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

city

Restrictions

This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, this data collection is restricted from general dissemination. To obtain this file, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use Agreement in accordance with existing ICPSR servicing policies.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1972 -- 1986

Data Collection Notes

  1. Educational Testing Service (ETS) conducted the base-year survey, Research Triangle Institute (RTI) administered the first through fourth follow-ups, and National Opinion Research Center (NORC) collected data for the fifth follow-up.

  2. Supplementary documentation for this collection is available on microfiche.

  3. For additional information about the study, please refer to the PI's documentation.

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Sample

The sample design for the base-year (1972) survey was a stratified two-stage probability sample. Schools were selected with equal probabilities from 600 strata. Schools in low-income areas and schools with high proportions of minority group enrollment were sampled at twice the rate used for remaining schools. Two schools from each of the final 600 strata were sampled and then a simple random sample of 18 students from each of the sampled schools was chosen.

Time Method

Longitudinal: Panel

Universe

Students in all public and private schools in the United States that contained twelfth graders in the 1971-1972 academic year. Excluded were students from schools for the physically or mentally handicapped, from schools for legally confined students, and from those special institutions such as vocational schools where students were also enrolled in other high schools in the sampling frame.

Data Source

personal interviews, telephone interviews, and mail questionnaires. Part 6: 1973-1974 Higher Education Directory, 1973-1974 Tripartite Application Data File, 1972-1973 HEGIS Finance Survey, and 1972 ACE Institutional Characteristics file

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

The variables in this study capture multiple dimensions of high school seniors' educational, vocational and personal development. They include information on students' personal and family backgrounds, work experiences, future plans, aspirations, attitudes, and opinions, as well as the detailed indicators of school experiences, academic performance, course-taking patterns, and educational goals. Additional variables describe students' demographic characteristics, course-taking patters, postsecondary plans, employment expectations, and attitudes toward school and work.

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Original Release Date

1984-03-18

Version History

2026-04-06 All ASCII data files were converted into a complete suite of data files. The dataset structure was revised as follows: the previously released Dataset 1 was split into Dataset 1 (public-use) and Dataset 2 (restricted-use); the former Datasets 2-7 were renumbered as Datasets 3-8, respectively. Datasets 9 and 10 remain unchanged. The former Datasets 12 and 15 were renumbered as Datasets 11 and 12, respectively. The 17 PI documentation files (originally for Parts 18-34) were combined into a single PDF file named doc08085-all.pdf.

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:

  • United States Department of Education. Center for Education Statistics. National Longitudinal Study of the Class of 1972 . ICPSR08085-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2026-04-06. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08085.v2

1999-02-25 Three user manuals and their associated appendices, Parts 18-34, have been added to this collection, along with a PDF codebook for the fifth follow-up data (Part 32).

1984-03-18 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.

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Weight

There are weight variables in DS1, DS3, DS6, DS8, DS11, and DS12. Please refer to the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study: User's Manual section in the PI's documentation for detailed information on all weights.

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Notes