Workshop: The Need for a New National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

美国劳工部(DOL)在20世纪60年代中期开始进行国家纵向调查(NLS)，以填补全国劳动力市场信息收集的空白。劳工专家认识到，虽然当前的人口调查非常有价值，但它只提供了劳动力市场的一个快照，而劳动力市场最紧迫的问题集中在劳动力的长期行动上。NLS项目始于20世纪60年代末的四个原始队列，随后是1979年的一群年轻人和1997年的另一群年轻人。距离最新的NLS青年队首次亮相已经22年了。最近，对新队列的需求得到了共鸣，该项目发现，如果社会科学界团结起来，劳工统计局(BLS)或许能够启动一个新的队列，并对其进行纵向研究。这次研讨会将在华盛顿特区举行，将汇集来自许多学科的学者、历史上非常积极地制定NLS内容和使用的联邦机构的领导人，以及致力于国家紧迫政策问题的独立研究人员。会议的结果将被用来设计一项新的调查工作，对2000年后出生的新一代年轻人进行调查，以跟踪这一关键一代人在过渡到成年早期和中期时在教育、工作、家庭形成及其相互关系方面的经历。这项数据收集工作将支持未来30年支持美国人力资本的政策制定，最大限度地利用这一关键资源，使美国在21世纪中叶的全球竞争力达到最大。在1997年全国青年纵向调查(NLSY97)开始20多年后，美国再次面临着缺乏青年群体来研究当今年轻人的新格局的问题。该研讨会将：1)向社会科学界通报NLS的使命和迄今取得的众多成就；2)描述国家跟踪即将到来的劳动力世代从学校到工作的转变的能力的恶化；3)解释新的队列将如何帮助国家制定满足重要社会需求的计划，并帮助实现与社会相关的成果；4)确定联邦、州和地方机构之间的共同利益，以创建一个知识库，指导这些机构制定政策和采取主动行动，以影响教育和社会参与市场和非市场活动；5)鼓励努力跟踪青少年进入科学、技术、工程和数学领域的过程，以及这些模式对妇女、残疾人和少数群体有何不同；6)促进跟踪STEM学员职业生涯的计划，从而提供比目前的SESTAT计划所能提供的更详细的轨迹；7)确定艺术在教育中对以后生活幸福和成功的重要性；以及8)促进对认知和非认知技能的测量，并调查它们对成功人生轨迹的影响。会议的发现将有助于构建新的数据收集工作，最终将有助于在经济学、社会学、心理学、教育、商业、人口学、卫生、地理、犯罪学、调查方法和公共政策等领域的学术文献。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) began the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) in the mid-1960s to fill a gap in the nation's collection of labor market information. Labor experts recognized that, while the Current Population Survey was very valuable, it only provided a snapshot of the labor market, while the most pressing issues in labor markets centered on long-run actions in the workforce. The NLS project started with four original cohorts in the late 1960s, followed by a cohort of young people in 1979 and another in 1997. It is now 22 years since the latest NLS Youth Cohort was first fielded. Recently the need for a new cohort has found resonance, and the project detects the possibility that, if the social science community pulls together, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) may be able to start a new cohort that would be studied longitudinally. To be held in Washington, DC, this workshop would bring together academics from many disciplines, leaders from Federal agencies that have historically been very active in shaping the content and use of the NLS, and independent researchers working on the nation's pressing policy questions. Findings from the conference would be used to design a new survey effort with a new cohort of young people born after 2000, so as to track the experiences of this key generation regarding schooling, work, family formation and their interrelationships as they transition into early and middle adulthood. This data collection effort will support policy formulation in support of United States human capital over the next 30 years, maximizing this key resource for America's global competitiveness through the middle of the 21st century. More than two decades after the start of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), the United States again faces the lack of a youth cohort to study the new landscape for today's young people. This Workshop would: 1) inform the social science community about the mission and myriad achievements of the NLS to date; 2) describe the deterioration in the nation's ability to track the school-to-work transitions of upcoming workforce generations; 3) explain how a new cohort will help the nation frame programs that meet important societal needs and help achieve societally relevant outcomes; 4) identify commonalities of interest among Federal, state and local agencies to create a knowledge base that can guide these agencies in making policies and pursuing initiatives to shape education and social engagement in both market and non-market activities; 5) encourage an effort that tracks the process by which adolescents move into science, technology, engineering and mathematical fields and how those modalities differ for women, the disabled and minorities; 6) promote a program that tracks the careers of STEM trainees, thereby providing a more detailed trajectory than the current SESTAT program is able to achieve; 7) identify the importance of the arts in education for later life happiness and success; and 8) promote the measurement of cognitive and non-cognitive skills and the investigation of their impact on successful life trajectories. Findings from the conference will help frame a new data collection effort, which will ultimately contribute to scholarly literatures in fields including economics, sociology, psychology, education, business, demography, health, geography, criminology, survey methodology and public policy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.