SIPP Notes

2008 Panel (Waves 2 – 5) and 2004 Panel (Waves 2 – 12) Educational Attainment User Note, Concerning Variables EEDUCATE, RGED, RCOLLVOC

Statement of Problem: - posted 08/25/2011

In the 2008 and 2004 SIPP panels, the educational attainment (EEDUCATE), GED (RGED), and educational attainment recode items (RCOLLVOC) are incorrectly coded for some respondents starting in Wave 2. An instrument design flaw led to re-asking people with less than a high school education and no GED if they had earned a GED at each wave. Educational attainment should have only been updated for respondents under age 26 or those enrolled in school at the prior wave. Although a few of these respondents may actually have earned a GED between interview waves, the magnitude of the increase in GEDs over the panel is not consistent with other data sources (including from the GED Testing Service) suggesting a large proportion of false positive responses.

This re-asking increased the count of GEDs at each subsequent wave, which led to an increase in the number of high school graduates because the instrument records GED holders as high school graduates (see Table 1 below for weighted attainment distribution). The number of respondents who were over age 25, not enrolled at school and less than a high school graduate at the prior wave, and became high school graduates at the current wave was 3,053 across the first five waves of the 2008 Panel (see Table 2 below for the unweighted attainment distribution and the count of corrected responses).

Resolution of Problem:

Starting at Wave 2, we use the prior wave EEDUCATE, RGED, and RCOLLVOC values for respondents who are 26 years and over, not enrolled in school, and who increase from having less than a high school education to being a high school graduate in the current wave. For the previously released 2008 data (Waves 2-5), we will release new files with corrected EEDUCATE, RGED, and RCOLLVOC values. Starting in Wave 6, the corrected values will already be included in the initial person-level data files. Corrected files will also be released for Waves 2-12 of the 2004 Panel.

Table 1. Recoding of Educational Attainment and GED Status for Adults 25 and Over: SIPP 2008 (weighted, numbers in thousands)
	Wave 1	Wave 2		Wave 3		Wave 4		Wave 5		Wave 6
	Original	Original	Corrected	Original	Corrected	Original	Corrected	Original	Corrected	Corrected
Educational Attainment
Less than high school	25,111	20,999	24,988	18,599	24,409	17,349	24,222	15,992	23,363	23,096
High School Graduate	49,397	53,735	49,746	55,687	49,877	57,571	50,698	58,160	50,789	51,012
More than high school	122,410	122,676	122,676	123,717	123,717	123,896	123,896	124,958	124,958	125,548

GED Status (High School Graduates Only)
High school diploma	41,776	41,999	41,646	42,005	41,472	42,474	41,850	42,184	41,504	41,383
GED	7,622	11,737	8,100	13,682	8,404	15,097	8,848	15,977	9,285	9,629

Percent High School Graduates	87.2	89.4	87.3	90.6	87.7	91.3	87.8	92.0	88.3	88.4
Percent of GEDs in High School Graduates	15.4	21.8	16.3	24.6	16.8	26.2	17.5	27.5	18.3	18.9

Table 2: Unweighted Counts of Educational Attainment and GED Status for Adults 15 and Over: SIPP 2008
	Wave 1	Wave 2	Wave 3	Wave 4	Wave 5
Total Sample -- All Ages	105,785	108,830	110,114	110,964	111,495
Educational Attainment Universe Interviews	83,310	78,553	76,246	73,418	73,022

Educational Attainment (15+)
Less than high school	15,296	14,474	13,349	12,694	12,762
High School Graduate	20,554	19,293	19,493	19,059	18,796
More than high school	47,460	44,786	43,404	41,665	41,464

GED Status (18+, High School Graduates Only)
High school diploma	17,241	15,981	15,883	15,508	15,112
GED	3,235	3,256	3,442	3,467	3,636

Count of Corrected Responses	NA	1,477	748	466	362

Page Last Modified: August 25, 2011

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