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July 30, 2008

New IES report from the National Center for Education Statistics: "Descriptive Summary of 2003-04 Beginning Postsecondary Students: Three Years Later"

This NCES report provides a description of the characteristics and enrollment patterns of a nationally representative sample of students who began postsecondary education for the first time during the 2003-04 academic year. Using data from the 2004/06 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, the report describes the background, academic preparation, and experience of these beginning students over three academic years, from July 2003 to June 2006, and provides information about rates of persistence, program completion, transfer, and attrition. The focus is on differences among students beginning at either 4-year, 2-year, or less-than-2-year institutions. Some highlights: Most of the first-time students who began at 4-year institutions in 2003-04 were age 19 or younger (85 percent) compared to 54 percent of students who began at 2-year institutions and 32 percent who began at less than 2-year institutions. Among those under age 24 who began at a 4-year institution,
nearly all (94percent) had taken algebra II or higher mathematics courses in high school, and about one-fourth had taken calculus. Of students who began at a 4-year institution, about one-half had a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher, and about one-fourth had earned credit for courses taken at a college while still in high school. Eighteen percent of the students who began at a 4-year institution in 2003-04 transferred from the institution where they had started.

To view, download and print the report as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008174

Posted by ronbo at 10:48 AM

Recent ICPSR updates and additions - New Releases through 2008-07-27

Below is a list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive along with a list of released data collections that have been updated:

New Additions

4494 CBS News Lying Poll, May 1997
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04494.xml

4507 CBS News Monthly Poll, January 1996
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04507.xml

4509 CBS News Monthly Poll #2, March 1996
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04509.xml

4511 CBS News Olympic Bombing/Terrorism Poll, July 1996
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04511.xml

21320 Current Population Survey, October 2006: School Enrollment Supplement
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/21320.xml

21340 Current Population Survey, November 2006: Voting and Registration Supplement
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/21340.xml

21962 Current Population Survey, December 2006: Food Security Supplement
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/21962.xml

21984 Current Population Survey, March/April 2006 Match Files: Child Support Supplement
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/21984.xml

22040 Multiple Cause of Death Public Use Files, 2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22040.xml

22169 Washington Post Virginia Poll, October 2006
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22169.xml

22408 National Survey of Adolescents, 2004: Burkina Faso
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22408.xml

22409 National Survey of Adolescents, 2004: Ghana
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22409.xml

22410 National Survey of Adolescents, 2004: Malawi
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22410.xml

22411 National Survey of Adolescents, 2005: Uganda
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22411.xml

22781 Current Population Survey, August 2007: Veterans Supplement
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22781.xml

Updates

2155 Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area Drug Study (DC*MADS), 1991: Household and Nonhousehold Populations
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02155.xml

2346 Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area Drug Study (DC*MADS), 1991: Homeless and Transient Population
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02346.xml

2522 Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (8th- and 10th-Grade Surveys), 1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/02522.xml

4372 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children, 2001-2002 [United States]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04372.xml

4650 Public Opinion and Foreign Policy in the United States, China, India, Australia, and South Korea, 2006
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04650.xml

4699 National Crime Victimization Survey, 1992-2005: Concatenated Incident-Level Files
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04699.xml

6677 ABC News/Washington Post Poll, September 1995
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06677.xml

6794 State Risk Pool Utilization and Cost Data, 1988-1991: [Connecticut, Florida, Minnesota, Nebraska, Washington, and Wisconsin]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06794.xml

6844 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1985
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06844.xml

8585 ABC News/Washington Post Hostage Release Poll, June 1985
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08585.xml

8889 ABC News/Washington Post Persian Gulf/Stock Drop Poll, October 1987
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08889.xml

8894 ABC News/Washington Post Poindexter Testimony Poll #1, July 1987
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/08894.xml

9066 ABC News/Washington Post Iran Airliner Poll, July 1988
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09066.xml

9241 ABC News/Washington Post John Tower Poll, February 1989
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09241.xml

9522 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1988
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09522.xml

9562 ABC News/Washington Post Iraq Poll, November 1990
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09562.xml

9833 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1990
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/09833.xml

22600 Global Terrorism Database II, 1998-2004
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22600.xml

You can also view a list of all studies added and updated in the last ninety days by visiting the ICPSR Web site at
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ICPSR/access/recent.html.

Posted by ronbo at 01:19 AM

July 29, 2008

New IES report from the National Center for Education Statistics: "Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts: School Year 2005-06"

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts: School Year 2005-06."

The School District Finance Survey for School Year 2005-06 (fiscal year 2006), part of the Common Core of Data (CCD), presents data submitted annually to NCES by state education agencies (SEAs) in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. All financial transactions associated with assets, expenditures, revenues, and indebtedness are accounted for, including revenues from federal, state, and local sources and expenditures in categories such as instruction and instruction-related activities, student support services, administration, operation, capital outlay, and debt services. While agencies whose only function is to collect and allocate funds or to provide certain administrative services for a group of districts are also included on the file, this report focuses on school districts that operate public schools and charter school districts.

The survey found that regular school districts had median total revenues per pupil of $10,173 in FY 06. The federal range ratio was 1.9, which indicates that the magnitude of the difference between total revenues per pupil at the 5th ($7,349) and 95th ($21,048) percentiles of districts was approximately 190 percent. Independent charter school districts had median total revenues per pupil of $8,357 in FY 06, with a federal range ratio of 1.9. For regular school districts, median current expenditures per pupil were $8,587 in FY 06. Median expenditures per pupil on instruction and instruction-related activities in regular school districts were $5,528. For independent charter school districts, median current expenditures per pupil were $7,499 in FY 06. Median expenditures per pupil on instruction and instruction-related activities in independent charter school districts were $4,123.

To view, download and print the report as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008345

Posted by ronbo at 06:26 PM

New IES report from the National Center for Education Statistics: "Career and Technical Education in the United States: 1990-2005"

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Career and Technical Education in the United States: 1990-2005," the fourth volume to describe trends in career and technical education (CTE, formerly known as vocational education). The compendium looks over time at CTE offerings, who participates in CTE, what types of CTE students take, who teaches CTE, and the labor market and further education outcomes attained by CTE participants. The report documents that between 1990 and 2005, the number of CTE credits earned by public high school graduates remained steady, despite the national trend of increased academic coursetaking in high school. The report also found that at both the high school and college level, student participation increased in the occupational areas of health care and computer science, and decreased in business. Other highlights include:

* Just over 90 percent of public high school graduates from the class of 2005 took at least one occupational course in high school. About one in five graduates took at least three courses within one of the 18 CTE occupational program areas.

* Among the public high school class of 1992, the more occupational credits that graduates earned in high school, the lower were their postsecondary enrollment rates eight years after graduating. Nevertheless, 70 percent of the most intensive occupational course takers (those earning four or more occupational credits) in high school had enrolled in postsecondary education by 2000.

* Among students who started postsecondary education in 1995-96, 70 percent of CTE completers working in 2001 reported their job was related to their field of study.

* Thirty-nine percent of employed adults participated in work-related courses in 2004-05, with business, health, and computer science being the most common subjects.

To view, download and print the report as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008035

Posted by ronbo at 05:42 PM

July 25, 2008

SPSS Webcast: Get Higher Performance with Structural Equation Modeling Using Amos 17

Aug 20, 2008
United States
Begins at: 11:00 a.m. CT
Duration: 1 hour

Answer your toughest questions with “high performance” analysis
Traditional analysis can only take you so far. Join us for this free webcast and discover how to use Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to explore complex relationships involving mediating effects and latent variables.

Amos makes SEM easy
The webcast will introduce you to Amos 17.0, the easy-to-use program for visual SEM. Amos’ rich, visual framework enables you to specify, estimate, assess, and present your model in an intuitive path diagram to show hypothesized relationships among variables.

Gain new insights using observed and latent variables
Discover how to build models that more realistically reflect complex relationships—using observed variables such as survey data or latent variables like “satisfaction” to predict any other numeric variable. With Amos, you can test and confirm the validity of claims such as "value drives loyalty" in minutes, not hours.

Who will benefit from the webcast
Join us and see why researchers in market research, social sciences, health care, program evaluation and management, and organizational studies are discovering SEM—and Amos—as the perfect high performance modeling tool.

Register Today!

Find out more, visit the organizer Web site: http://spssevents.webex.com

Posted by yan at 09:10 PM

July 18, 2008

SPSS Event: See it in SPSS - Anaheim, CA

Aug 28, 2008
Hyatt Regency Orange County
Garden Grove, CA
United States
Begins at: 8:30 a.m.
Duration: 5 hours

Register Today!

Our customers said they wanted to learn about getting more value with SPSS products, but they also don't have a lot of time to spare. Based on your feedback, SPSS has launched the See it in SPSS on-line and in-person seminar series. See it in SPSS is our commitment to provide SPSS customers with opportunities for practical online and in-person educational experiences with SPSS products.

These events are quick, up close presentations of SPSS products. Take a look at all upcoming events and sign up for those that focus on your area of interest.

Register Today!

Find out more, visit the organizer Web site: http://www.spss.com/seeit/

Posted by yan at 10:16 PM

Survey Research in a Multi-Modal World: Opportunities and Challenges

Aug 5, 2008
United States
Begins at: 11 am CT

Register Today!

If your organization conducts surveys and is concerned about rising costs and declining response rates, SPSS can help you meet these challenges by minimizing the time you spend in the field and giving you back the time that adds value to your research results. Attend this webcast and learn how you can maximize your survey research efforts online, in the phone center, and beyond.

Dimensions^TM provides the breadth you need to connect to any respondent, in any language, efficiently. Use mrInterview^TM for Web interviewing and mrInterview CATI^TM to reach respondents by phone and on the Web interchangeably, and maximize your phone center’s productivity. Discover how Dimensions allows you to leverage remote resources and predictive and power dialing, while still giving respondents a choice of interaction.

This single interviewing system enables you to:

• Field surveys by phone, online, or by using both modes
• Conduct surveys in multiple languages
• Design questionnaires that incorporate multiple question types and sophisticated logic
• Field, manage, and monitor surveys from a central location or from multiple dispersed sites
• Choose from a variety of reporting options.

Dimensions offers advanced security, participant management, and quota features to ensure you are productive and get the results you need. In addition, call center managers can monitor sample usage while surveys are being conducted. They can also see—and hear—whether interviewers are reading questions correctly and entering responses accurately.

Plan to attend this webcast today, and discover how to gain full value from your research productively.

Register Today!

Find out more, visit the organizer Web site: http://www.spss.com/mrinterview/

Posted by yan at 10:14 PM

Stata Users Group meeting in San Francisco: Call for papers

[From Stata News: 2008 Fall North American Stata Users Group meeting]

The 2008 Fall North American Stata Users Group meeting will be held November 13 and 14 at Handlery Union Square Hotel, located in downtown San Francisco.

Stata Users Group meetings started in Britain in 1995 and have been spreading to more and more countries, including Italy, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Poland, and the United States. Talks are intended for a general audience with mixed levels of expertise in Stata and statistics. Stata developers will also attend the meeting, both to present and to take notes during the popular “wishes and grumbles” session. We hope you will consider joining us in November, as a presenter or an attendee.

Submission information

We encourage submissions on any topic highlighting the use of Stata in research, teaching, or any other field, such as the following topics:

• Using Stata for modeling and analysis
• User-written Stata programs
• Case studies of research or teaching using Stata
• Using Stata to import and manage data
• Teaching Stata
• Teaching statistics with Stata
• Surveys or critiques of Stata facilities in specific fields
• Software comparisons

You may choose to give

• a 10-minute talk (followed by a 5-minute discussion),
• a 20-minute talk (followed by a 5-minute discussion), or
• a 45-minute review or tutorial (followed by a 5-minute discussion).

Please submit an abstract and contact information (your name, affiliation, postal address, email address, and fax and phone numbers) online at http://repec.org/fnasug08/fnasug1.php by September 30, 2008. The abstract should be no longer than 200 words. Please also indicate how long your talk will be. Members of the scientific organizing committee will review abstracts. Conference fees will be waived for presenters.

Presenters will be asked to provide materials related to their talk (slides and programs/datasets, where applicable) in electronic form, preferably before the meeting, to the organizing committee, so that the materials can be posted on our web site and in the Stata Users Group RePEc archive.

For more details and registration information, visit Stata website: http://stata.com/meeting/fnasug08/index.html

Posted by yan at 10:13 PM

July 14, 2008

Recent ICPSR updates and additions - New Releases through 2008-07-13

Below is a list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive along with a list of released data collections that have been updated:

New Additions

4134 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES): 1997 Cohort [United States]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04134.xml

4149 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES): 2000 Cohort [United States]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04149.xml

4491 CBS News Clinton/Ethics Poll, June 1997
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04491.xml

4492 CBS News/New York Times Kosovo Poll, April 1999
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04492.xml

4577 Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence in a Sample of Arrestees in Sacramento, California, 1999
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04577.xml

20000 Growth of American Families, 1955
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20000.xml

20350 Preventing Firearm Violence Among Victims of Intimate Partner Violence in North Carolina, 2003-2004
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20350.xml

20461 Evaluating the Impact of a Specialized Domestic Violence Police Unit in Charlotte, North Carolina, 2003-2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20461.xml

22021 Afrobarometer 3: The Quality of Democracy and Governance in Botswana, 2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22021.xml

22160 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) -- Israel, 2005-2006
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22160.xml

22201 Afrobarometer 3: The Quality of Democracy and Governance in Ghana, 2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22201.xml

22202 Afrobarometer 3: The Quality of Democracy and Governance in Kenya, 2005
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22202.xml

22401 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Supplementary Homicide Reports, 2006
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22401.xml

22580 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES): 2003 Cohort [United States]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22580.xml

Updates

3199 Community Tracking Study Household Survey, 1998-1999, and Followback Survey, 1998-2000: [United States]
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/03199.xml

3740 American National Election Study, 2002: Pre- and Post-Election Survey
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/03740.xml

3808 Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, 2001-2006
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/03808.xml

4559 Current Population Survey: Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Survey, 2006
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04559.xml

4701 Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/04701.xml

6693 National Comorbidity Survey: Baseline (NCS-1), 1990-1992
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/06693.xml

20541 National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP)
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/20541.xml

22627 Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles (IIMMLA), 2004
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22627.xml

You can also view a list of all studies added and updated in the last ninety days by visiting the ICPSR Web site at
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ICPSR/access/recent.html.

Posted by ronbo at 03:48 PM

From IES Newsflash: America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2008 Available Online

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has released America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2008. The annual report profiles the status of the nation's children and youth, presenting up-to-date federal statistics in one convenient reference. The National Center for Education Statistics in the Institute of Education Sciences is one of the 22 federal agencies that participate in the Forum and contribute to the report. The report documents that mathematics and reading scores of fourth and eighth graders have increased, but shows as well that the adolescent birth rate and the proportion of infants born at low birthweight have also risen. The report also includes indicators on child poverty, health care, housing, and at-risk behavior.

You can view, download, and print the report at http://www.childstats.gov/

Posted by ronbo at 03:27 PM

July 10, 2008

SPSS webcast: Preview: What's New in SPSS Statistics 17.0

Posted by yan at 05:09 PM

SPSS webcast: Clementine demonstration

Clementine demonstration

Jul 17, 2008
United States
Begins at: 11:00 a.m. CT
Duration: 45 minutes

Register Today!

Data mining uncovers patterns in data using predictive techniques. These patterns play a critical role in decision making because they reveal areas for process improvement. Using data mining, organizations can increase the profitability of their interactions with customers, detect fraud, and improve risk management. The patterns uncovered using data mining help organizations make better and timelier decisions.

By viewing this demonstration you’ll learn how to:

• Create profiles and multiple modeling techniques to predict customer behavior
• Deploy results in real-time to the right people
• Easily integrate Clementine into your existing systems

Register Today!

Find out more, visit the organizer Web site: http://www.spss.com/clementine/clem_partnerplus.htm

For future dates for the same web seminar, visit http://www.spss.com/events/view_more.cfm?Type=Webinar&Country=US

Posted by yan at 04:49 PM

SPSS webcast: mrInterview Demonstration

mrInterview Demonstration

Jul 16, 2008
United States
Begins at: 11 a.m. CT
Duration: 45 minutes

Register Today!

Now Conduct Real, Industrial-Strength, Real-Time, Online Survey Research

To maximize response and collect the most reliable data for business planning, today’s researchers must be able to create and administer surveys quickly and easily. Businesses around the world meet and exceed this challenge with mrInterview, a complete data collection solution for managing large or small web-based projects with maximum efficiency.

SPSS’ mrInterview allows businesses to fully engage with customers, prospects, employees, suppliers, and more; and to use the data and insights gathered throughout the organization for reporting, planning, and prediction. All this, without sacrificing the sophistication that professional researchers rely on.

Unlike many Web survey options available, mrInterview includes the security, access, permissions and features you need to easily create and administer surveys and report on data through a web browser (or company server). It can also be used for phone, paper, text message, and IM modes.

This online seminar will show you how to begin your survey project on the Web and work online through the entire project including:

For future dates of the same web seminar, visit http://www.spss.com/events/view_more.cfm?Type=Webinar&Country=US.

Posted by yan at 04:46 PM

July 08, 2008

New Report from the National Center for Education Statistics: "Academic Libraries: 2006 First Look"

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Academic Libraries: 2006 First Look."

This report provides a statistical profile of the libraries serving postsecondary, two- and four-year degree-granting institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report includes information on services, collections, staff, revenue, and expenditures. The data were collected through the Academic Libraries Survey (ALS), conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The public-use and restricted-use data files and documentation are also available.

The full report, including supplemental tables, is available at:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008337

The public-use data file is available at:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008348

For information about obtaining a restricted-use data license to use the 2006 ALS restricted-use data:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/licenses.asp

For more information about this survey, please go to the Library Statistics Program home page at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/

Posted by ronbo at 06:12 PM