Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project

The research goals of the Baseline survey were to establish a panel of sophomore and senior high school students in the state of Texas that can be followed to examine the decision-making, knowledge and attitudes of students regarding post-high school life course decisions in light of the existence of the Top 10 legislation in Texas. The baseline survey was intended to establish benchmark measures. Follow-up surveys with a subsample of the students will be used to track the evolution of student decision-making about college attendance among those who attend college (full time or part time) immediately after high school graduation as well as those who decide to attend college one or more years after graduation. The Baseline survey objectives called for the collection of 33,000 to 35,000 completed interviews with sophomores and seniors in Texas public high schools using a sample survey design. A probability sample of 100 high schools was desired. Interviews were to be conducted in class using self-administered surveys. This would require district and high school cooperation with the survey effort. Analysis was desired at multiple levels of the education system -- students, schools and districts. Because of the multilevel nature of the analytic goals of the study, a census of sophomores and seniors was desired within the schools that were selected into the survey (to facilitate multilevel analyses). At the student level, analyses were desired separately by racial/ethnic subgroup: non-Hispanic Whites; African Americans; Asians and Hispanics. Moreover, analyses of likely college goers and non-college goers were desired. The Wave 2 Senior Study is the first follow-up with a subsample of baseline seniors. This phase tracks the evolution of student decision-making about college attendance among those who decide to attend college (full or part time) immediately after high school graduation, as well as those who decide to attend college one or more years after graduation. The survey also covers post high school activities including military enlistment, employment, civic activities, high school experiences, life events, self-esteem, and current living status. The following demographic subgroups will be used for comparative analyses: Non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. Additionally, separate analyses are desired for students attending college or technical school and students not attending college one year after attending high school. The Sophomore Wave 2 "Stayer Leaver" Survey is the first follow-up with a subsample of baseline sophomores. Most of the respondents were in their senior year of high school at the time of the interview. The focus of the survey is on the student's activities during the senior year and their plans after high school. An important component of this study was to partition the sophomore cohort into Stayers and Leavers. Stayers represent those students who have attended the same high school from the baseline survey in 2002 to the Wave 2 survey in 2004. Analysis of students who stayed at the same high school will determine whether students' knowledge of the Top 10 Percent law increased and whether they changed their college aspirations as they progressed through school. Leavers are those students that have changed schools or dropped out (and did not return to the same high school) between the baseline survey and the Wave 2 survey. Analysis of the leaver students will determine whether, how many, and which students deliberately changed schools in order to qualify for the benefits of the Top 10 Percent law. Students that had dropped out of school, regardless of whether they returned to school or not, were asked a series of questions that explored reasons for dropping out and activities during their time away from school. Students that dropped out, but then returned to the same high school are defined as Stayers. Those that dropped out and did not return to school, or attended a different school, are defined as Leavers. The Senior Wave 3 survey is the second follow-up interview with the subsample of 8,345 baseline seniors. The Wave 3 survey sought to determine students' educational pursuits and levels of attainment, and other life choices, four years after high school graduation. For students following a four-year path through college or university, graduation would occur in 2006, but a special strength of Wave 3 is its ability to identify delayed college entry; transfers among post-secondary institutions, including transfers to and from community colleges; withdrawal from college; and variation in school-to-work trajectories for students according to class rank. The THEOP administrative data consists of college applications and enrollee college transcripts obtained from nine Texas universities--seven public and two private institutions. For the public institutions, freshman Application Data spans several years prior to the implementation of the Texas Top 10 Percent law in 1998, and extends until at least 2002. Application Data for the two private institutions is available only for the period after implementation of the automatic admission law.

本基线调查的研究目标为，在德克萨斯州建立一支高中二年级与高三学生追踪队列，以便结合德克萨斯州前十名法案（Top 10 legislation）的实施背景，追踪学生在高中毕业后人生规划决策方面的决策过程、认知水平与态度倾向。本次基线调查旨在建立基准测量指标。后续将针对子样本学生开展追踪调查，以跟踪高中毕业后直接就读全日制或非全日制大学的学生，以及毕业后1年及以上再就读大学的学生，其大学入学决策的演变情况。基线调查的目标为，通过抽样调查设计，完成德克萨斯州公立高中二年级与高三学生共33000至35000份有效访谈。计划采用100所高中的概率抽样样本，访谈将在课堂内通过自填式问卷完成，因此需要学区与高中配合本次调查工作。分析将覆盖教育系统的多个层级——学生、学校与学区。由于本研究的分析目标具备多层级特性，因此需要在抽中的学校内对高二与高三学生开展普查式数据收集，以支撑多层级分析。在学生层级，分析将按种族/族裔亚组分别开展：非西班牙裔白人、非裔美国人、亚裔与西班牙裔。此外，还将针对潜在大学申请者与非申请者分别开展分析。“第二届高三追踪研究”为基线高三学生子样本的首次追踪调查。本阶段将跟踪两类学生的大学入学决策演变：一类为高中毕业后直接就读全日制或非全日制大学的学生，另一类为毕业后1年及以上再就读大学的学生。本次调查还涵盖高中毕业后的各类活动，包括入伍、就业、公民参与活动、高中就读经历、人生事件、自尊水平与当前居住状况。本次研究将采用以下人口统计学亚组开展对比分析：非西班牙裔白人、非裔美国人、西班牙裔与亚裔。此外，还将针对高中毕业后1年内就读大学或职业院校的学生，以及未就读大学的学生分别开展分析。“第二届高二追踪‘留存-转学’调查”为基线高二学生子样本的首次追踪调查。本次访谈时，大部分受访者正处于高中高三学年。本次调查的核心为学生高三学年的活动与高中毕业后的规划。本研究的一项重要内容为将高二队列划分为“留存者”与“转学者”。留存者指2002年基线调查至2004年第二届追踪调查期间，始终就读于同一所高中的学生。针对留存者的分析将用于判断学生对前十名法案的认知是否提升，以及其大学就读意愿是否随学业推进发生变化。转学者指在基线调查至第二届追踪调查期间转学或辍学且未返回原高中就读的学生。针对转学者的分析将用于判断是否存在学生为获取前十名法案的政策福利而刻意转学，以及此类学生的数量与群体特征。对于已辍学的学生（无论是否返回原校就读），将通过一系列问题调研其辍学原因与离校期间的活动情况。其中，辍学后返回原高中就读的学生被归为留存者；辍学后未返回原校或转学至其他学校的学生则被归为转学者。“第三届高三追踪调查”为8345名基线高三学生子样本的第二次追踪访谈。本次调查旨在了解学生高中毕业四年后的教育追求与学业成就水平，以及其他人生选择。对于遵循四年制学制就读大学的学生，其毕业时间应为2006年。第三届追踪调查的一大独特优势在于，其能够识别延迟入学、转至高等教育机构（包括转入/转出社区学院）、退学，以及不同班级排名学生的校-职过渡轨迹差异。德克萨斯高等教育办公室（THEOP）行政数据涵盖从9所德克萨斯大学（7所公立院校与2所私立院校）获取的大学申请数据与入学学生成绩单。对于公立院校，新生申请数据的时间跨度覆盖1998年德州前十名法案实施前的数年，且至少延伸至2002年。两所私立院校的申请数据仅可获取至该自动录取法案实施后的时间段。