Education: School Calendar
Description
Specific Information: School Calendar
The Pathways study has attempted to capture a rich description of each participant's educational experiences through and beyond high school. This information is collected at a monthly level and across recall periods.
Items available from the school calendar include:
- For each month of the recall period: whether the subject was enrolled, type of school, unique ID associated with the school, number of days suspended/expelled, whether the subject missed five or more days of school that month, and overall school attendance.
- For each unique school attended: unique ID associated with that school, type of school, and the number of months attended in the recall period.
- At the recall level: currently enrolled in school or enrolled at all in the recall period, reasons for not being enrolled in school, number of unique schools attended, amount of schooling in an institution, number of months enrolled and not enrolled while in the community, number of months enrolled and not enrolled while in an institution, did they attend college less than full time and if so, the reasons for attending part-time, frequency of missing classes last semester and the reasons for missing.
There are four codebook sections that are relevant to school information:
- The monthly calendar data (described here)
- Summary measures regarding the education experience (high school and post-high school), including school attachment, descriptive information about the school experience (grades, involvement in school activities), and questions regarding college experiences (attendance, major, financing, attitudes and experiences at college). This codebook section is called "Education (Follow-ups): School Boding Grades Activities and Orientation" and can be found under Measures.
- Markers for academic achievement and participation in post-high school programs. This codebook section is called 'Academic achievement and post-high school program participation'.
- Gainful Activity. This construct consolidates school attendance and employment information into a single monthly variable that is intended to indicate positive community adjustment. This can be found under the "Gainful Activity" section of the Calendar codebook.
Be sure to review the descriptions for each of these codebook sections in order to obtain a complete understanding of the information we have available regarding the education experience.
Descriptive Information: Monthly Data Characterizing the Recall Period
As a standard practice, the specific calendar information will be accompanied by four variables which describe the recall period. This information is important for the user to consider when attempting to use data characterizing the recall period (e.g., measures) in conjunction with the monthly-level calendar data. In addition, this information is useful if the user is viewing events from a developmental perspective. These variables include:
- The actual number of days in each month that is represented in the calendar data.
- The calendar month and year mapped to the recall month (e.g., if S1M04 covers February 2003, the 'number of days' value for that month will be 28, and the calendar month associated with S1M04 will be 02/2003, "RealDate").
- The subject's age at each month of the recall period, available in two forms: 1) the subject's age truncated to a whole number, and 2) the age as a continuous variable. (The subject age at the time of the interview is available in the "Demographics" codebook, available under "Measures").
- A marker indicating whether each month of the recall period is a community or institution month, where an institution month is defined as a month where the subject spent eight or more days across the following type of out of community placements: drug/alcohol facility, psychiatric hospital or unit, jail or prison, detention, YDC or ADJC, contracted residential treatment (general), and contracted residential treatment (mental health). These setting types are described in detail in the "Out of Community Placements" codebook, available under "Calendars".
In addition, each dataset includes five variables which describe basic information related to the interview. These are explained in full detail in the "Interview Information" section under "Measures". These variables include the completion status of the interview, the date of the interview, version number in which the interview was conducted, the number of months in the recall period, and the number of days in the recall period.
General Information: Use of monthly life calendar data
Data regarding the participant's self-reported education is captured using a monthly life-calendar approach (Belli, 1998; Caspi, Moffitt, Thornton, & Freedman, 1996), where the research participant is provided with a visual calendar that contextualizes the recall of research data by anchoring information to salient events. Specifically, individuals are first asked to recount salient events which occurred in the recall period (e.g. birthdays, deaths) and this information remains visible to the participant as an anchor point for the timing of events in each of several life calendar domains. This approach thus creates an integrated view of activities in all of the domains examined, has firm roots in the science of how people remember events and life situations (Bradburn, Rips, and Shevell, 1987; Belli, 1998), and capitalizes on these processes to generate accounts of past events. On a practical level, it provides researchers with a richer set of data points. Instead of simply getting a summary measure of life changes over an extended recall period, the monthly life-calendar places these changes at specific points in time, opening up the possibility of examining sequences of events and potential causal mechanisms within individuals (Fals-Stewart, 2003; Mulvey, et al., 2006).
General Information: Conversion of data to linear months
The monthly Pathways data, in its raw form, is not suited for some kinds of analytic approaches (e.g., trajectory analysis). Each time point interview allows for a maximum of eight or 14 months in the recall period, depending on the follow-up wave (eight months was the maximum for time points 6-36 and 14 was the maximum for time points 48-84). This means that there is a corresponding variable in the dataset reflecting events occurring in each of those months through a maximum of 14 months (the outer limit of any of the possible months covered). If however, the recall period did not include the maximum number of months (as is most often the case), there will be variables with no data. For example, subject 1 has a recall period of five months for follow-up 12 so this means he/she will have data in five monthly variables but not in the remaining nine. Subject 2, has seven months in the recall period for follow-up 12 so he/she will have data in all but seven of the monthly variables. The recall length is set by programming code based on the current date in relationship to the date of the previous interview (see "Interview Information" under Measures for a more detailed description of how the length of the recall period is determined). However, the programming code did permit the interviewer to "reset" by hand the length of the recall period. This was done infrequently, but in some instances it created a situation where we obtained two reports of the same month. For example, follow-up 6 covered months January to June and the interviewer resets the follow-up 12 recall period to start with June (leading to two different reports for the month of June). A series of data cleaning decisions (described in the "Making and Spending Money Calendar Documentation") were implemented to correct these situations but we note them here because they are relevant to the conversion of the data to linear months.
The "linear months" data set-up corrects these two situations. The "linear months" data reformats the variables so that each variable is a sequential representation of life event data for each month of the research participant's life from the baseline interview forward. In this format, variables that were place-markers for months not covered in the recall period are eliminated and situations where there were two reports for the same month are corrected. Thus, "linear month 8" actually represents eight calendar months from the baseline and "linear month 16" is actually 16 months past the baseline interview.
A specific list of variables available in the linear format is provided below. Also provided is a "map" to link the linear month back to the recall period and month in which the information was originally collected. This is important to know when recall-level data is being used in conjunction with the monthly event calendar data.
Data Issues
- The follow06 through follow36 timepoints allow for a maximum of 8 months in the recall period, while follow48 and later will have a maximum of 14. Note that while variables for months 9 through 14 are included in the datasets for follow06 through follow36, these are essentially place markers and in no instance will any case have data for these months until the follow48 period (see description above).
- Recall level college questions (attending part-time or full-time, reasons for attending less than full time, frequency of missing class during the last semester, and reasons for missing classes), were added to the interview in version 01.16.
- In version 01.22 of the interview, the question text for the gate questions into the education calendar (Have you been enrolled in school during the recall period / currently) were expanded to include further interviewer instructions on the definition of being enrolled in school (noting that any type of formal education, including on-line courses, should be included). This change was due to participants sometimes misunderstanding what it meant to be enrolled in school.
- The series of questions regarding why the subject was not enrolled in school in the recall period was removed from the interview in version 01.22. The response options for this question were geared more toward reasons for not being enrolled in high school (e.g., suspended, afraid to go, graduated/obtained GED, dropped out, etc.). Since most of our subjects were no longer enrolled in high school towards the end of data collect, these questions no longer applied.
- Prior to interview version 01.21, the logic of the interview did not allow for participants to receive both the school calendar and college questions section (attending part-time or full-time, reason for missing classes, etc.). Those who attended both high school and college within the same recall period only received questions within the school calendar; the college questions were skipped. It should be noted then that a greater number of cases could potentially have been enrolled in college than is represented in the current data. As of version 01.21, the logic of the interview was changed to allow for both sections to be asked.
- An error in the interview programming code made it possible for the subject to either skip the calendar completely, or to exit without fully completing the calendar. Cases with this issue are noted with a missing value code of -700 (Data missing: result of a programming error).
- Some cases reported not being enrolled in school during the recall period (both gate questions into the calendar are No), but then indicated later in the interview that they were enrolled in a GED program. The gate question into the calendar was changed for these cases to indicate the subject was enrolled during the recall period, and the type of school attended was entered as either 10 (GED in the community) or 4 (Institution schooling). However, for the majority of cases with this issue, because we do not know the exact months they were enrolled in the program, the school calendar was left blank. For the few cases where we did know the specific months they were enrolled in the program, a value of 1 (Enrolled) was entered into the monthly data. Cases with this issue will be missing all other interview-generated and computed variables relating to education.
- For some cases, the community month marker conflicts with the type of school indicated by the subject that month: either the month is marked as a community month (because the subject spent less than eight days in institutions that month) but the subject attended an institution school that month, or vice versa). These months have been left as is, however they were eliminated from all computations.
Items available from the school calendar
For an overview and a detailed list of the questions included with this calendar please select the link(s). In addition to providing an overview of the "flow" of the calendar and a detailed listing of the questions, this document notes version issues (i.e. questions/variables that are only present for a sub-sample due to their later addition to the interview) and provides other information that is critical to using and interpreting the data correctly. The table below gives you an overview of issues related to each construct noted above and it also provides you with the page numbers within our detailed document that address each of these constructs. Please be sure to consider this information carefully before moving forward with your analysis.
Click here to download a detailed document in PDF format.
Description of Variable | Variable Name | Version Change | Page Number |
---|---|---|---|
School Calendar | |||
By recall period | |||
Currently enrolled in school | S#Enrld | X | 9 |
Enrolled in school in recall period | S#AnySch | X | 9 |
Reasons for not being enrolled in school | S#NoSchSuspended to S#NoSchFinancial | X | 14, 15 |
Number of unique schools attended | S#SchCal_NSchools | 17 | |
Number of institution schools attended | S#SchCal_NSchFac | 17 | |
Amount of schooling in an institution | S#SchCal_SchInFac | 17 | |
Number months enrolled while in community | S#NumCommMthsInSch | 18 | |
Proportion of community months enrolled in school | S#PropCommMthsInSch | 18 | |
Number of community months not enrolled in school | S#NumCommMthsNoSch | 18 | |
Proportion of community months not enrolled in school | S#PropCommMthsNoSch | 18 | |
Number of institution months enrolled in school | S#NumInstMthsInSch | 19 | |
Proportion of institution months enrolled in school | S#PropInstMthsInSch | 19 | |
Number of institution months not enrolled in school | S#NumInstMthsNoSch | 19 | |
Proportion of institution months not enrolled in school | S#PropInstMthsNoSch | 19 | |
Attend college less than full time | S#Sch_ColQ_CQ19 | X | 16 |
Reasons for attending college less than full time | S#Sch_ColQ_WhyPartWork to S#Sch_ColQ_WhyPartOther | X | 16 |
Frequency of missing classes last semester | S#Sch_ColQ_CQ32 | X | 16 |
Reasons for missing class | S#Sch_ColQ_WhyMissTrans to S#Sch_ColQ_WhyMissOther | X | 17 |
By month | |||
School Calendar | |||
Enrolled in school | S#SchCal_Enrld_M## | X | 9 |
Unique ID associated with the school attended the most that month | S#SchCal_ID_M## | 9, 10 | |
Type of school | S#SchCal_Type_M## | 11, 12 | |
Type of institution schooling received | S#SchCal_TypeInst_M## | 12 | |
School absence | S#SchCal_Attendance_M## | 12, 13 | |
Number of days suspended/expelled | S#SchCal_SuspExp_M## | 11 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Physical illness | S#SchCal_MissPhys_M## | 11 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Mental health reasons/emotional problems | S#SchCal_MissMent_M## | 11 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Afraid to go | S#SchCal_MissAfr_M## | 11 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Refusing to go/truancy | S#SchCal_MissTru_M## | 11 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Other reasons | S#SchCal_MissOth_M## | 11 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Did not miss five or more days this month | S#SchCal_MissNone_M## | 11 | |
Data characterizing the recall period | |||
Subject age at each month (truncated) | S#SubjAge_M## | 26 | |
Subject age at each month (continuous) | S#CTSubjAge_M## | 26 | |
Community vs. Institution month marker | S#CommunityMonth_M## | 25 | |
Number of days covered in each month | S#NDays## | 26 | |
Calendar month linked to each s#m# | S#RealDate## | 26 | |
By unique school (for a maximum of five schools for each recall period) | |||
Unique ID | S#SchCal_School##_ID | 13 | |
Number of months attended | S#SchCal_School##_NMonths | 15 | |
Type of school | S#SchCal_School##_Type | 14, 15 | |
Type of institution schooling received | S#SchCal_School##_TypeInst | 15 | |
By linear month | |||
School Calendar | |||
Enrolled in school | L##SchCal_Enrld | 27, 28 | |
Unique ID associated with the school attended the most that month | L##SchCal_ID | 27, 28 | |
Type of school | L##SchCal_Type | 27, 28 | |
Type of institution schooling received | L##SchCal_TypeInst | 27, 28 | |
School absence | L##SchCal_Attendance | 27, 28, 29 | |
Number of days suspended/expelled | L##SchCal_SuspExp | 27, 28 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Physical illness | L##SchCal_MissPhys | 27, 28 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Mental health reasons/emotional problems | L##SchCal_MissMent | 27, 28 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Afraid to go | L##SchCal_MissAfr | 27, 28 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Refusing to go/truancy | L##SchCal_MissTru | 27, 28 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Other reasons | L##SchCal_MissOth | 27, 28 | |
Miss 5 or more days: Did not miss five or more days this month | L##SchCal_MissNone | 27, 28 | |
Data characterizing the recall period | |||
Subject age at each month (truncated) | L##SubjAge | 27, 28 | |
Subject age at each month (continuous) | L##CTSubjAge | 27, 28 | |
Community vs. Institution month marker | L##CommunityMonth | 27, 28 | |
Number of days covered in each month | L##NDays | 27, 28 | |
Calendar month linked to each s#m# | L##RealDate | 27, 28 | |
Academic Achievement and Post-High School Program Participation | |||
By recall period | |||
High school diploma completion status | S#Complete_HSD | 23, 24 | |
GED completion status | S#Complete_GED | 23, 24 | |
College degree completion status | S#Complete_College | 23, 24 | |
License completion status | S#Complete_License | 23, 24 | |
Cumulative through 84months | |||
GED classes | |||
Ever attend | Attend_GED | X | 20, 21 |
Ever complete | Complete_GED | X | 20, 21 |
Recall period month of completion | Date_GED | X | 20, 21 |
Was it obtained from an institution | Placement_GED | X | 20, 21 |
High School | |||
Ever attend | Attend_HighSchool | X | 20, 21 |
Ever complete | Complete_HighSchool | X | 20, 22 |
Recall period month of completion | Date_HighSchool | X | 20, 22 |
Less than high school education | |||
Last grade completed | Complete_LastHSGrade | X | 20, 22 |
Recall period month of completion | Date_LastHSGrade | X | 20, 22 |
Licenses/Certificates (up to three licenses) | |||
Ever attend | Attend_License | X | 20, 23 |
Ever complete | Complete_License# | X | 20, 23 |
Recall period month of completion | Date_License# | X | 20, 23 |
Was it obtained online | Online_License# | X | 20, 23 |
Type of license received | AreaOfStudy_License# | X | 20, 23 |
College/University | |||
Ever attend | Attend_College | X | 20, 22 |
Ever complete | Complete_College | X | 20, 22 |
Recall period month of completion | Date_College | X | 20, 22 |
Type of degree received | DegreeType_College | X | 20, 22 |
Was it obtained online | Online_College | X | 20, 22 |
Additional sections supplement this calendar. Refer to the codebook section for each listing for more information | |||
Interview Information -- contains variables that describe basic information related to the interview, such as interview completion status, interview date, version, and number of months and days covered by the recall period. This can be found under the "Interview Information" section of the Measures codebook. | |||
Education (Follow-ups): School Bonding Grades Activities and Orientation -- contains information about school attachment and descriptive information about the school experience (grades, achievement, involvement in school activities, and questions regarding college experiences | |||
Gainful Activity -- a construct that consolidates school attendance and employment information into a single monthly variable that is intended to indicate positive community adjustment. This can be found under the "Gainful Activity" section of the Calendar codebook. |
References
- Caspi, A., Moffitt, T., Thornton, A., Friedman, D., Amell, J., Harrington, H., et al. (1996). The Life History Calendar: A research and clinical assessment method for collecting retrospective event-history data. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., US, 6(2), 101-114.
- Belli, R.F. (1998). The structure of autobiographical memory and the event history calendar: Potential improvements in the quality of retrospective reports in surveys. Memory, 6(4), 383-406.
- Burns, Barbara J., Adrian Angold, Kathryn Magruder-Habib, Elizabeth J. Costello, and M. K. Patrick. 1992. The Child and Adolescent Services Assessment (CASA). Durham, NC: Duke University Medical Center.
- Other types of schools/programs and licenses/degrees/certificates, and College Experience: Furstenberg, F.F. (2000) Selected items from ongoing research from the MacArthur Network on Transition to Adulthood.
- Other items regarding educational experiences developed by the working group.