ECLS

ECLS-B: The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort

  • Longitudinal study focused on children’s health, development, care, and education during the formative years from birth through kindergarten entry.
  • Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education
  • Data collection began with a nationally representative sample of children born in 2001.
    • Five waves of data collection

.                    

  • Data was collected from children, parents, early care and education providers, and teachers about many aspects of the children’ s developmental skills in the cognitive, socioemotional, and physical domains, for example:
    • Information on children’s height, weight, gross motor skills , and social interactions
    • Data about children’s home environment, nonparental care and education arrangements, and kindergarden experiences
  • Click here for more information about data collection procedures.
  • Click here to access ECLS-B questionnaires by year.

ECLS-B data are only available in restricted-use form.

Restricted-Use Data

  • Due to NCES’ confidentiality legislation, researchers must obtain (or amend) a restricted data license to access restricted data from the ECLS-B.
  • ECLS-B restricted-use data are provided to license holders on a password-protected DVD.
    • The DVD includes raw data files, Electronic Codebook (ECB) software, user manuals, sampling reports, the survey instruments, and the data file record layout.

ECLS-K: The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99

  • Longitudinal study focused on children’s early school experiences beginning with kindergarten and following the same children through 8th grade
  • Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education
  • Data collection began with a nationally representative sample in the 1998–99 school year
    • Five waves of data collection

.                     

  • Data was collected from children, parents, teachers, and school administrators about many aspects of the children’ s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development, for example:
    • Information on children’s home environment and home educational activities
    • Data about children’s classroom environment, classroom curriculum, and teacher qualifications
  • Click here for more information about data collection procedures.
  • Click here to access ECLS-K questionnaires by year.

ECLS-K data are available in two forms, public-use and restricted-use.

Public-Use Data

  • Public-use data sets are currently available for all waves.
  • Click here to download data, documentation, and setup files for SAS, SPSS, and Stata.
  • Online versions are available through the EDAT system. Click here to access the EDAT system.
  • Information on other data releases, including supplemental and restricted-use files, can be found here.

Restricted-Use Data

  • Due to NCES’ confidentiality legislation, researchers must obtain (or amend) a restricted data license to access restricted data from the ECLS-K.
  • Unlike the public-use data, restricted-use data are released only as cross-sectional, grade-level files.
    • To analyze restricted data from more than one grade, researchers must request the cross-sectional files for each grade of interest.

Return to Secondary Data Homepage