The 1990 High School Transcript Study provides information regarding current course offerings and students' course-taking patterns in the nation's secondary schools. Since similar studies were conducted of the course-taking patterns of 1987 and 1982 graduates, changes can be studied. Transcripts were collected from 21,589 students who graduated from 330 nationally representative high schools in 1990. About three-fourths had participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The study produced the following nine data files that are available on tape: (1) the Classification of Secondary School Courses (CSSC) Master File; (2) the CSSC Text File; (3) the Course Offerings File; (4) the School File; (5) the Student File; (6) the Linked Weights File; (7) a file with information on limited English proficiency and handicapped students; (8) the Test and Honors File; and (9) the Transcript File (list of all courses). This user's manual describes sampling, data collection, data processing, weighting and variance estimation, and the data files. Seventeen tables, three figures, and two exhibits present information about the study. Fifteen appendixes describe the files and include the questionnaires. (SLD)