Social Science Data and Software (SSDS) Blog

From IES Newsflash: NCES Releases Report on the Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:58:50 -0800

The average student/teacher ratio in U.S. public schools was 15.8 in 2007-08 -- a ratio that ranged from 9.0 in Maine to 23.5 in Utah. This National Center for Education Statistics First Look report presents findings on the numbers and types of public elementary and secondary schools in the United States and the territories in the 2007-08 school year, using data from the Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey of the Common Core of Data (CCD) survey system. Other findings include:

* About 48.9 million students attended 98,916 operating public elementary/secondary schools in the 2007–08 school year.

* Almost 1.3 million students, approximately 3% of public school students, were enrolled in 4,388 charter schools in 2007-08.

* The largest percentage of students attended suburban schools (35 percent), followed by schools in cities (29 percent), rural areas (23 percent), and towns (13 percent).

To view the full report please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2010305

From SPSS Technical Support: SPSS Proactive Notification - SPSS Statistics 17.0.3 Patch Availability Notice

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:13:44 -0800

The latest SPSS Statistics patch is now available for download from the SPSS Support Website. This patch will upgrade your existing SPSS Statistics 17.0.2 for Windows to version 17.0.3. This patch incorporates any previously released hot fixes since PASW Statistics 17.0. This is an incremental patch only. You MUST have PASW Statistics 17.0.2 installed prior to applying this patch.

Note: This patch does not apply to the student version.

For detailed information on the description of this patch, installation instructions, and downloading information, please browse to: http://support.spss.com and log in to the web site. After entering your login information, select the "Statistics" menu link then click on "Patches".

You will need your Support Web site User Id and Password to access this information. If you have forgotten your user id or password you can use the Find Password feature on our Web site. This can be found at: http://support.spss.com/password.html

We are continually striving to improve our communication to our clients. However, if you do not wish to receive further proactive e-mails from SPSS Support, please reply to this message with REMOVE on the subject line.

Thank you,
SPSS Technical Support

SAS Institute TS: New Hot Fixes for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3)

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:01:35 -0800

New Hot Fixes are available on the Technical Support Hot Fix Web site for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3).

The latest SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) Hot Fixes are for:

SAS/ACCESS INTERFACE TO R/3
E9R305 (z/OS, Windows, Windows for IPF (64bit), HPUX,
Solaris (64bit), AIX, Tru64, Linux, HPUX for Itanium)

SAS/GRAPH
E9GR17 (z/OS, Windows, Windows for IPF (64bit), OpenVMS Alpha, HPUX,
Solaris (64bit), AIX, Tru64, Linux, HPUX for Itanium,
Linux for Itanium)

SAS/IML
E9ML03 (z/OS, Windows, Windows for IPF (64bit), OpenVMS Alpha, HPUX,
Solaris (64bit), AIX, Tru64, Linux, HPUX for Itanium,
Linux for Itanium, Solaris for x64)

For more information, please review the SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) Hot Fix "What's New" page:
http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/e9_SBCS_whats_new.html

If you are running SAS 9.1.3 with Asian Language Support (DBCS), please review the DBCS "What's New" page:
http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/e9_DBCS_whats_new.html

A comprehensive list of all Hot Fixes is available at:
http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/hotfix.html

SAS Institute TS: Hot Fixes for Additional SAS Products and Solutions

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:59:54 -0800

New Hot Fixes are available on the Technical Support Hot Fix Web site for:

SAS BI Dashboard 9.1.3
Hot Fix: 31BIDASHMID03
http://ftp.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/bid31.html

SAS Merchandise Intelligence 3.2
Hot Fix: 32ROM501
http://ftp.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/ro32.html

A comprehensive list of all Hot Fixes is available at:
http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/hotfix.html

Recent ICPSR updates and additions - New Releases through 2009-10-04

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:58:07 -0800

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

22405 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age, Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 2006
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR22405

25106 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age, Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 2007
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR25106

26146 CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll, March 2008
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26146

26162 CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll, May 2008
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26162

Updates

3729 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 2001
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03729

3997 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 2000
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03997

4068 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 2002
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04068

4461 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 2004
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04461

4716 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 2005
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04716

7041 Brazilian University Students' Images of the United States, 1963
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07041

9152 CBS News Pre-Election Tracking Poll, October 30-November 1, 1988
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09152

From Census Product Update (October 2, 2009): Hot Tip - October 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS) School Enrollment Public Use File

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:01:12 -0800

The October 2008 CPS October School Enrollment Supplement Public Use File is now available to the public. This file contains 150,957 records that are 1,040 bytes in length. Data should be available on our web site any day now. For questions or additional information, contact our Current Population Survey staff at 301-763-3806.

From IES Newsflash: 2009 Nation's Report Card in Mathematics Coming Soon!

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:36:34 -0800

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) will release the 2009 Nation's Report Card in mathematics on October 14, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. EDT. The Nation's Report Card will present scores for fourth- and eighth-graders from all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense schools, and the nation.
A webcast of the release event will be broadcast live at 10:00 at
http://nationsreportcard.gov

Then at 3:00, join Associate Commissioner Peggy Carr for Ask NAEP, an hour-long, online Q&A session about the results. Submit your questions online either during the chat or in advance at
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard

For more information about the report, and to view recent results from the 2007 assessment, visit
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/mathematics/

NAEP is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences.

From IES Newsflash: NCES Releases Report on Teacher Reading Strategies from an International Perspective

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:34:03 -0800

Presenting data from the United States and the 44 other jurisdictions that participated in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006, this Statistics in Brief describes international patterns in the strategies reported by teachers to help fourth-graders falling behind in reading. The National Center for Education Statistics has released Teacher Strategies to Help Fourth-Graders Having Difficulty in Reading: An International Perspective. Findings include:

- The most common teacher response to a question about what they usually do if a student begins to fall behind in reading was to ask parents to help (among the highest responses in 44 of the 45 jurisdictions).

- The study found that the second most common teacher response for what they usually do if a student begins to fall behind in reading was spend more time working with the student individually (among the highest responses in 20 of the jurisdictions).

- The least common response was to have the student work with a reading specialist in a regular classroom (among the lowest responses in 40 jurisdictions).

PIRLS assesses the reading achievement of fourth-graders and collects data on teachers' reading instruction practices and strategies. These strategies include: (a) waiting to see if performance improves with maturation, (b) spending more time working on reading individually with that student, (c) having other students work on reading with the student having difficulty, (d) having the student work in the regular classroom with a teacher-aide, (e) having the student work in the regular classroom with a reading specialist, (f) having the student work in a remedial reading classroom with a reading specialist, (g) assigning homework to help the student catch up, (h) and asking the parents to help the student with reading.

To view the full report please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009013

ICPSR Free Webinars starting October 5, 2009!

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:14:55 -0800

At this time next week (Oct 5, 2009), ICPSR will be broadcasting live! Register today to attend!

Below are just a few of the topics we’ll cover next week:

· Data on minority populations
· Graphing quantitative data & Web 2.0 tools for visualization
· Protecting respondent confidentiality
· American Community Survey
· American National Election Survey
· Adolescent Health
· Fertility behavior of American women
· Harmonized data sets
· Documentation of research data
· Quantitative literacy/Using data in teaching
· Online analysis of data
· And more!

Visit http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/or/ormeet/program/index.jsp to review the abstracts, slides, and to register to attend the webinars.

These webinars are free and open to the public – please share this link with your colleagues!

Recent ICPSR updates and additions - New Releases through 2009-09-27

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:07:20 -0800

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

23321 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1980
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23321

23323 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1981
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23323

23325 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1982
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23325

23327 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1983
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23327

23329 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1984
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23329

23331 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1985
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23331

23333 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1986
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23333

23335 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1987
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23335

23337 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1988
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23337

23339 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1989
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23339

23341 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1990
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23341

23343 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1991
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23343

23345 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1992
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23345

23347 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1993
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23347

23361 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1994
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23361

23362 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1995
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23362

23363 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1996
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23363

23364 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1997
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23364

23365 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1998
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23365

23366 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data [United States]: Arrests by Age,
Sex, and Race, Summarized Yearly, 1999
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR23366

24601 Washington Post Virginia Poll, October 2007
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR24601

24610 Affect, Reason, and Decision Making
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR24610

25041 Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the
Elderly (HEPESE) Wave 5, 2004-2005 [Arizona, California, Colorado, New
Mexico, and Texas]
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR25041

26141 CBS News South Carolina Primary Call-Back Poll, January 2008
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26141

26142 CBS News Monthly Poll #1, January 2008
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26142

26143 CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll, February 2008
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26143

Updates

2075 CBS News/New York Times Monthly Poll #1, June 1995
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02075

2494 ABC News "Nightline" Smokers Poll, June 1997
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02494

2547 CBS News Monthly Poll #1, May 1998
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02547

4697 General Social Surveys, 1972-2006 [Cumulative File]
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04697

9150 CBS News Pre-Election Tracking Poll, October 29-31, 1988
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09150

21120 Japan 2000 National Survey on Family and Economic Conditions (NSFEC)
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR21120

25221 Treatment Episode Data Set -- Admissions (TEDS-A) -- Concatenated,
1992 to Present
http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR25221

From IES Newsflash: NAEP State Comparisons Tool: Now With Maps

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:07:41 -0800

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) State Comparisons online data tool helps you compare a variety of data: NAEP scores, achievement gaps, school lunch (NSLP) eligibility, and percentiles for your state, the nation, and other states. Now, interactive U.S. maps have been added to represent complex data in a clear, graphical form.

These new maps let you see how your selected state compares with other states or the nation in NAEP performance at grades 4 and 8 in public schools. To use the tool, simply follow the steps laid out on each page, and use the Help button if needed. Once you are finished with your comparison, you can save the map to share it with others, or bookmark it and come back to it later.

Explore this new interactive feature at
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/statecomparisons/

NAEP is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences.

From IES Newsflash: NCES Releases High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2007

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:06:35 -0800

Some 73 percent of high school freshman nationwide graduated on time with their peers, but this four-year graduation rate in 2006 varied widely across states--from a low of 55.9 percent to a high of 87.5 percent, according to "High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2007." The report, released by the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences, builds upon a series of NCES reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It includes national and regional population estimates for the percentage of students who dropped out of high school between 2006 and 2007, the percentage of young people who were dropouts in 2007, and the percentage of young people who were not in high school and had some form of high school credential in 2007.

Annual data from 1972-2007 reveals trends by race, gender, income and other characteristics. It also includes state from national level estimates for public school students for the end of the 2005-06 school year showing estimates of how many beginning freshmen in the 2002-03 school year had graduated with their class in 2006, and how many students had dropped out between 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Other key findings include:

* Among reporting states, fourteen states had freshman graduation rates of 80 percent or higher, and 10 states had rates below 70 percent. Twenty-three states had higher AFGRs in 2005-06 compare with 2004-05, and 23 had lower rates.

* Students living in low-income families were approximately ten times more likely to drop out of high school between 2006 and 2007 than were students living in high-income families.

* One-year dropout rates have declined since 1972 among all racial/ethnic groups, although the decreases happened at different times over this 35-year period for these groups.

* About 3.3 million 16- through 24-year-olds were not enrolled in high school and had not earned a high school diploma or alternative credential, as of October 2007.

* The percentage of young White and Hispanic females who completed high school by earning a diploma or GED was higher than their male counterparts. Specifically, 94.6 percent of White females and 77.6 percent of Hispanic females had completed high school in 2007, compared with 92.4 percent of White males and 68.1 percent of Hispanic males. Overall, 89 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds nationwide have completed high school.

To view the full report please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009064

From MAPSS: Need Study Subjects? Apply to Winter 09 REP!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:19:54 -0800

The Research Experience Program (REP) is now accepting Winter 2009 applications. Applications are due Friday October 23rd at 5:00 pm.

The REP is a program worked in joint with local community colleges to help Stanford faculty and students do experimental social science research more easily and effectively. The REP helps provide access to human participants at local community colleges. Participating in REP not only enhances your research by giving you access to a wider subject pool, it is also a great opportunity for students at local community colleges to gain first-hand exposure to experimental research in the social sciences. We accept both laboratory, especially laboratory experiments that can take place up at Foothill College, and online studies.

The website for applications can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/apply-to-rep

For information about the program and how to apply, please go to this website: iriss.stanford.edu/rep and click on the Researcher-Applicant link.

If you have any questions at all, please contact: research-exp-program@stanford.edu

Thanks!

SAS Institute Technical Support: Hot Fixes for Additional SAS Products and Solutions

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:32:00 -0800

New Hot Fixes are available on the Technical Support Hot Fix Web site for:

SAS Merchandise Intelligence 3.2
Hot Fix: 32RO05
http://ftp.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/ro32.html

A comprehensive list of all Hot Fixes is available at:
http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/hotfix.html

From SAS Technical Support: New Hot Fixes for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3)

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:27:58 -0800

The latest SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) Hot Fixes are for:

BASE SAS

E9BC91 (z/OS, Windows, Windows for IPF (64bit), OpenVMS Alpha, HPUX,
Solaris (64bit), AIX, Tru64, Linux, HPUX for Itanium,
Linux for Itanium, Solaris for x64)

E9BD08 (z/OS, Windows, Windows for IPF (64bit), OpenVMS Alpha, HPUX,
Solaris (64bit), AIX, Tru64, Linux, HPUX for Itanium,
Linux for Itanium)

E9BD09 (z/OS, Windows, Windows for IPF (64bit), OpenVMS Alpha, HPUX,
Solaris (64bit), AIX, Tru64, Linux, HPUX for Itanium,
Linux for Itanium)

For more information, please review the SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) Hot Fix "What's New" page:
http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/e9_SBCS_whats_new.html

If you are running SAS 9.1.3 with Asian Language Support (DBCS), please review the DBCS "What's New" page:
http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/e9_DBCS_whats_new.html

A comprehensive list of all Hot Fixes is available at:
http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/hotfix.html