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This report describes the methodology and findings for the field test of the 2004/06 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06). These students, who started their postsecondary education during the 2002-03 academic year, were first interviewed as part of the 2004 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:04) field test. BPS:04/06 is the first follow-up of this cohort. The BPS:04/06 field test was used to plan, implement, and evaluate methodological procedures, instruments, and systems proposed for use in the full-scale study scheduled for the 2005-06 school year. The report provides the sampling design and methodologies used in the field test. It also describes data collection outcomes, including response rates, interview burden, and results of incentive and prompting experiments. In addition, the report provides details on the evaluation of data quality for reliability of responses, item nonresponse, and question delivery and data entry error. Recommendations for the full-scale study are provided for the sampling design, locating and tracing procedures, interviewer training, data collection, and instrumentation.

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This report presents initial findings about the employment and educational experiences of bachelor's degree recipients 1 year after they completed their degrees. These findings are based on data from the first follow-up of the 2016/17 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:16/17), a nationally representative longitudinal study of students who completed the requirements for a bachelor's degree during the 2015–16 academic year. The study addresses questions related to bachelor's degree recipients' education and employment experiences. The first follow-up, which was conducted in 2017, one year after their graduation, explored both undergraduate education experiences and early postbaccalaureate employment and enrollment.

The Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) series of data collections allows researchers to address questions regarding bachelor's degree recipients' undergraduate experiences, including their participation in various financial aid programs, undergraduate debt, and repayment of that debt; entrance into and progress through postbaccalaureate education; and employment, particularly for graduates who became elementary or secondary teachers. B&B includes items specifically for teachers to help researchers better understand the teacher pipeline and experiences and outcomes of teachers. B&B:16/17 is unique from previous B&B studies in that prekindergarten teachers were also asked about their teaching experiences, and all respondents were asked to provide a complete employment history beginning with the date they completed their bachelor's degree requirements. This First Look focuses on a subset of topics that can be examined with the B&B:16/17 data: undergraduate time to degree and student loan borrowing, postbaccalaureate enrollment, employment outcomes, and steps toward a teaching career.

The purpose of this report is to illustrate the range of information available in B&B:16/17. The selected findings present examples of the estimates that can be obtained from the data and are not intended to emphasize any particular issue. Readers are cautioned not to make causal inferences about the data presented here. Many of the variables presented are related to one another, and complex interactions and relationships have not been explored.

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