Education Supplement Sample Notes

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Since 1968, the Current Population Survey has included a supplemental survey of school enrollment and related items. The supplement, administered along with the October basic survey, asks about the school enrollment status of household members age three and older. Information on the school enrollment status, grade level, school sector (public or private), as well as enrollment status and grade level the previous October is collected for children and adults. The survey includes additional items pertaining to civilian adults (15 and older who are not in the Armed Forces) such as vocational or on-the-job training, year of most recent school attendance, if they completed their diploma or most recent degree in the current year, and if they earned a high school credential by means of a traditional diploma or an equivalency test. Additional items are included intermittently on related topics such as language proficiency, grade retention, disabilities, and computer access. The supplement is funded by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES).

The universe for the October supplement includes everyone in the basic survey age three and older. Nonresponse for the October supplement is reported at the person level. From 1997-2010, person-level nonresponse for the October supplement has ranged from 2.5% (1998) to 7.4% (2010) with an average of 4.8%. Since nonresponse to the basic survey is reported at the household level these two nonresponse rates cannot be combined to determine an overall nonresponse rate for the October supplement.

EDSUPPWT is the weight for the Education Supplement. Sample weights for the October monthly supplements are identical to the basic survey sample weights from 1976-1980 and from 1994-2005. In 1989-1993, only adults have a seperate supplement weight. In these samples, those 15 and older have this supplement weight value, while children have the basic survey weight value.

Education Supplement Codebooks

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