Conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics, this study provides the second wave of data in a longitudinal multi-cohort study of American youth. The first wave of data was collected in 1980 (ICPSR 7896). There are three files currently available: student information files for the sophomore and senior cohorts, and a transcript survey file for a portion of the sophomore cohort. The base year (1980) study incorporated student data from both cohorts into one file, but due to the more complex design of the First Follow-Up and a resulting increase in the volume of available data, separate files have been created for the two cohorts in the Follow-Up. The First Follow-Up student questionnaires sampled approximately 30,000 1980 sophomores and 12,000 1980 seniors. All students selected during the base year had a probability of inclusion in the First Follow-Up. NORC attempted to survey all 1980 sophomores and a subsample of 1980 seniors. The First Follow-Up survey questionnaire for 1980 sophomores replicates nearly all of the items used in the base year questionnaire. Content areas of the sophomore Follow-Up questionnaire included education, postsecondary education, work/labor force participation, demographics, and values.

Supplementary questionnaires were utilized for those 1980 sophomores who were not currently attending any school, had transferred to other schools, or had graduated early. The sophomore cohort was administered the same cognitive test in both the base year and the First Follow-Up. The senior cohort First Follow-Up questionnaire differed from the sophomore questionnaire in that it emphasized postsecondary school and work experiences rather than high school experiences. Content areas in the senior questionnaire included education, work, financial status, marital status, and demographics. The cognitive test was not administered to the senior cohort in the First Follow-Up. The student files consist of nine distinct files: for each cohort there is a data file, plus documentation files containing SAS and SPSS control cards and the text of the Users Manual. There is an additional documentation file for the sophomore cohort. Data in the student files are augmented by a transcript survey administered to a sub-sample of the sophomore cohort. Every secondary-school course taken by each of 15,941 students is documented in this survey.

There are two distinct types of records in the transcript data file. Type 1 records, which are 320 characters long, each contain information for a single student. Included for each student are type of high school program, grade-point average, absenteeism, class rank and size, participation in specialized educational programs, and standardized test scores. Immediately following each Type 1 record are a number of 40-character Type 2 records, each of which provides data on a single course taken by the student. The Type 2 records provide data on the year the course was taken, the type of course, length of enrollment, credit earned, and grades received. Because the number of courses taken varies from one student to another, the length of the combined records for each student varies as well. Therefore the data file is written in Variable Blocked format, with records of different lengths physically grouped into multiple-record blocks. Student identification numbers included in each record permit data from this survey to be merged with other High School and Beyond files. The data file is accompanied by two files containing SPSSx control cards and one file of SAS control cards.

There is also a documentation file containing codes for the "Classification of Secondary School Courses" (CSSC) devised by the National Center for Educational Statistics.