The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) is a comprehensive nationwide study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics to determine how students and their families pay for postsecondary education and to describe some demographic and other characteristics of those enrolled. The study is based on a nationally representative sample of students in postsecondary education, including undergraduate, graduate, and first-professional students at public and private institutions, whether less-than-two-year, two-year, or four-year. Data were available on about 82,000 students, and parents of 18,000 students were selected for a telephone interview. This discussion of survey methodology focuses on: (1) study objectives and design; (2) institution sampling and enlistment; (3) student and parent sampling; (4) institutional records data collection; (5) student and parent surveys; (6) file creation and data analysis; (7) weights and variance estimation; (8) the 1993 NPSAS field test; and (9) a summary and recommendations for survey improvement. Six appendixes provide further details about methodology, including a formulation of the generalized rating model. (Contains 17 figures and 56 tables.) (SLD)

The search for reliable information on the well-being of America's young is vital to designing programs to improve their lives. Yet social scientists are concerned that many measurements of children's physical and emotional health are inadequate, misleading, or outdated, leaving policymakers ill-informed. Indicators of Children's Well-Being is an ambitious inquiry into current efforts to monitor children from the prenatal period through adolescence. Working with the most up-to-date statistical sources, experts from multiple disciplines assess how data on physical development, education, economic security, family and neighborhood conditions, and social behavior are collected and analyzed, what findings they reveal, and what improvements are needed to create a more comprehensive and policy-relevant system of measurement. Today's climate of welfare reform has opened new possibilities for program innovation and experimentation, but it has also intensified the need for a clearly defined and wide-ranging empirical framework to pinpoint where help is needed and what interventions will succeed. Indicators of Children's Well-Being emphasizes the importance of accurate studies that address real problems. Essays on children's material well-being show why income data must be supplemented with assessments of housing, medical care, household expenditure, food consumption, and education. Other contributors urge refinements to existing survey instruments such as the Census and the Current Population Survey. The usefulness of records from human service agencies, child welfare records, and juvenile court statistics is also evaluated.

This document is a summary and evaluation of the methodological procedures and results of the full-scale implementation of the Beginning Postsecondary Student Longitudinal Study, 1990-92 (BPS). The BPS starts with a cohort of students beginning postsecondary education regardless of when they completed high school. As a result, information will be available about nontraditional students who have delayed their postsecondary education. Many educational policy questions can be addressed through information gathered by the BPS about student characteristics and patterns of information. An introductory chapter provides a summary of the background, major procedures and results, and scheduled products of the survey. Other sections cover the design and method, data collection and results, data analysis, nonresponse weighting, and data file construction. Eight appendixes provide technical information about survey conduct. Six figures and 57 tables present some survey findings and details about the methodology. (SLD)