This guide provides users of the National Household Education Survey (NHES) data with suggested techniques for working with the data files. Special attention is paid to topics that will help users avoid the most commonly made mistakes in working with NHES data. The guide is meant to be an introduction and an overview, and not a substitute for the separate user's manuals and other reports. The NHES is a data collection system of the National Center for Education Statistics that provides descriptive data on the educational activities of the U.S. population and offers policymakers, researchers, and educators a variety of statistics on the condition of education in the United States. The primary purpose of the NHES is to collect repeated measurements of the same phenomena at different points in time, but one-time surveys of topics of interest may be fielded. The NHES is a telephone survey of the noninstitutionalized civilian population of the United States, and households are selected using random digit dialing methods. The NHES has been conducted in 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1996. This guide contains the following sections: (1) introduction and overview; (2) brief descriptions of the separate NHES data files; (3) comparisons with other data sets; (4) familiarization with the data and descriptions of data collection and processing; (5) selecting variables for working data sets; (6) NHES design; (7) working with missing data; and (8) weights and estimation procedures. Appendixes contain commonly asked questions and answers, examples that illustrate points in the text, and a summary of weighting and sample variance estimation variables. (Contains 10 references.) (SLD)

The purpose of this data guide is to provide users of the National Household Education Survey (nhes) data with suggested techniques for working with the data files. Special attention is paid to topics that will help users avoid the most commonly made mistakes in working with nhes data. The nhes is a data collection system developed by the National Center for Education Statistics to provide descriptive data on the educational activities of the U.S. population. It offers policymakers, researchers, and educators a variety of statistics on the condition of education in the United States. The nhes is a telephone survey of the noninstitutionalized population of the United States for which households are selected through random digit dialing methods. The methodology for any single fielding of the nhes is linked to the research issues under study, the level of data required to address the issues, and how precise the estimates generated from the survey data need to be in order to meet study objectives. Topics addressed by nhes:91 through screening about 60,000 households were early childhood education and adult education. Nhes:93 screened about 64,000 households about school readiness and school safety and discipline. The two survey components of nhes:95, early childhood program participation and adult education, paralleled nhes:91 with over 45,000 households. Three appendixes present information about commonly asked questions, data examples, and weighting and sample variance estimation. (Contains 13 appendix tables and 10 references.) (Sld).

The 1996 National Household Education Survey (NHES:96) was a random digit dial telephone survey of households that was developed by the National Center for Education Statistics and conducted by Westat, Inc. The NHES:96 included two topical survey components, "Parent and Family Involvement in Education," (PFI) which collected data about family involvement in children's schooling, and "Civic Involvement," (CI) which collected data about participation in civic activities and attitudes toward government. This manual provides documentation and guidance for users of the four public release data files of the NHES:96: the Household and Library File, the PFI and CI files, the Youth Civic Involvement file, and the Adult Civic Involvement File. Volume I contains information about the purpose of the study, the data collection instruments, the sample design, and data collection and data processing procedures. Volumes II through V each contain a guide to the data file and its codebook, a discussion of data considerations and anomalies, and, in appendixes, the file layout and additional information. This volume contains the following sections: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "Description of Data Collection Instruments"; (3) "Sample Design and Implementation"; (4) "Data Collection Methods and Response Rates"; and (5) "Data Preparation." An appendix presents the screener for the four files. (Contains 1 figure, 17 tables and 25 references.) (SLD)

The 2012 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES:2012) Data File User's Manual provides documentation and guidance for users of the NHES:2012 data files. The manual provides information about the purpose of the study, the sample design, data collection procedures, data processing procedures, response rates, imputation, weighting and standard error calculation and use, data considerations and anomalies, a guide to the data file structure, nonresponse bias analysis, data collection instruments, data file layout, comparisons of estimates from NHES:2012 to prior NHES administrations and other data sources, and tables of nonresponse adjustment cells and response rates. The NHES:2012 consists of two topical surveys--the Early Childhood Program Participation (ECPP) Survey and the Parent and Family Involvement in Education (PFI) Survey--that were last fielded in 2005 and 2007, respectively. The ECPP survey has a target population of children age 6 or younger who are not yet in kindergarten. The PFI survey has a target population of children and youth age 20 or younger who are enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade in a public or private school or who are being homeschooled for the equivalent grades. The NHES:2012 was a two-phase survey conducted primarily by mail. The first phase of the survey was the administration of a short household screener questionnaire used to identify households with children under age 20. A total of 159,994 households were selected, and the response rate was 73.5 percent. The second phase of the survey was the collection of topical survey data from households with eligible children. The topical response rate was 78.7 percent for the ECPP survey and 78.4 percent for the PFI survey. The overall response rates (the product of the screener response rate and the topical response rate) were 57.8 percent for the ECPP survey and 57.6 percent for the PFI survey. The following are appended: (1) Questionnaires; (2) Data File Layout and Position Order; (3) Comparison of Estimates; (4) Screener Nonresponse Interview Adjustment Cells; (5) ECPP Nonresponse Interview Adjustment Cells; (6) PFI Nonresponse Interview Adjustment Cells; and (7) Summary of Weighting and Sample Variance Estimation Variables.

The National Household Education Survey (NHES) is a data collection system of the National Center for Education Statistics, which has as its mission the collection and publication of data on the condition of education in the United States. The NHES is specifically designed to provide information on educational issues that are best addressed by contacting households rather than educational institutions. The NHES, which was conducted in 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1996, is a telephone survey of the noninstitutionalized civilian population of the United States. From 45,000 to 64,000 households are screened for each administration and those who meet predetermined criteria are sampled for more detailed or extended interviews. This report presents an overview of the NHES survey program from 1991 to 1996, addressing specific aspects such as survey topics, sample design, and data collection. It discusses how the NHES has evolved over time, but is not intended to provide detailed information about each NHES cycle. The following components were surveyed in these years: (1) 1991--early childhood education and adult education; (2) 1993--school readiness, school safety and discipline--parent and youth interviews; (3) 1995--early childhood program participation and adult education; and (4) 1996--household and library screening and parent/family involvement in education and civic involvement--parent interview. (Contains three tables.) (SLD)