Contextual Data
Wave III Education Data Users’ Guides

The institutional features of schools play an important role in shaping students’ academic experiences. Hence, a main focus of the Contextual component is to draw upon secondary data to describe the programmatic and demographic features of the schools and school districts included in AHAA. Specifically, data from the Common Core of Data (CCD), the Private School Survey (PSS), and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) were attached to schools attended by AHAA students. The CCD and PSS surveys, conducted annually and biannually respectively, are based on a census of the universes of public and private schools in the nation as well as the corresponding local educational agency (e.g., school district). In addition to data from these surveys, AHAA project members linked the data from the biannual OCR survey of public schools to the school identification numbers of high schools attended by Add Health students.

Additionally, a series of indicators derived from data from both the 1990 and 2000 United States Census was created. Census data on school districts is available from the School District Demographics System at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). AHAA project members linked the data from NCES to the school identification numbers of high schools attended by Add Health students. A central goal pursued during construction of contextual variables based on 1990 census measures was to produce indicators closely mirroring those included in Add Health’s comprehensive contextual database, thus enhancing the compatibility between the Add Health and AHAA data sets. Variables were generated from the 1990 census and approximate those developed for the following subdivisions of Add Health’s contextual database: Education, Household, Labor, Population, and Poverty. All AHAA contextual variables are district-level measures. Add Health contextual variables, in contrast, reflect county, tract, and block-level information. Contextual indicators were also developed to capture equivalent contextual information about schools Add Health/AHAA students transferred into during their high school careers – information not available in Add Health’s contextual data sets (Add Health’s contextual data is restricted to the original Add Health schools students were enrolled in during Wave I).

Users’ Guides and Associated Data Files

Contextual Codebook, 2008
educcd1 and educcd2: These data files contain indicators based on data from the CCD surveys.
edupss: This data file contains indicators related to the PSS survey.
educen: This data file contains indicators constructed with data from the 2000 U.S. Census.

Contextual Component, 1990 Census Codebook, 2008
educx90: This data file contains 1990 Census measures and constructed variables.

Contextual Component, OCR Codebook, 2008
eduocr: This data file contains school-level data from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).