America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007
High School Academic Coursetaking
Since A Nation at Risk was published in 1983, school reforms have emphasized increasing the number of academic courses students take in high school. More recent reforms have emphasized increasing the rigor, as well as the amount, of coursetaking. Research suggests a relationship between the level of difficulty of courses students take and their performance on assessments.106
Indicator ED3: Percentage of high school graduates who had completed advanced coursework in mathematics, science, English, and foreign language, selected years 1982–2004
NOTE: Data are available for 1982, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2000, and 2004. Advanced coursework includes the following: mathematics: courses above Algebra II; science: chemistry, physics, or advanced biology; English: more courses at the honors level than at the low academic or regular level; and foreign language: a year 3, year 4, or advanced placement course. For a detailed listing of courses, see Tables ED3.A, ED3.B, ED3.C, and ED3.D.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, High School and Beyond Survey, National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, National Assessment of Educational Progress Transcript Study, and Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 High School Transcript Study.
- Half of students who graduated from high school in 2004 had taken at least one advanced mathematics course (defined as a course above Algebra II), almost double the percentage in 1982 (26 percent). The percentage of graduates in 2004 who had taken a nonacademic or low-level academic course as their most advanced mathematics course was 5 percent, compared with 24 percent for graduates in 1982.
- In science, two-thirds (68 percent) of all high school graduates in 2004 had taken a physics, chemistry, or advanced biology course, almost twice the percentage of graduates in 1982 who had taken this level of science course (35 percent). The percentage of graduates whose most advanced science course was classified as a low-level academic course dropped from 27 percent in 1982 to 6 percent in 2004.
- In English, 33 percent of all high school graduates in 2004 had taken honors-level courses, an increase from 13 percent of graduates in 1982. There was no measurable difference between the percentage of graduates in 1982 and 2004 who had taken low-level academic courses in English (10 and 11 percent, respectively).
- In foreign languages, 35 percent of high school graduates had taken a year 3, year 4, or advanced placement course in 2004, double the percentage in 1982 (15 percent). Fifteen percent of high school graduates in 2004 had not taken any foreign language course, compared with 46 percent of graduates in 1982.
- While the level of high school academic coursetaking has risen since 1982, there has not been any improvement during this time in 12th-graders' scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.107
ED3A HTML Table, ED3B HTML Table, ED3C HTML Table, ED3D HTML Table
ED3A Excel Table, ED3B Excel Table, ED3C Excel Table, ED3D Excel Table
106 Downing, J., Bozick, R, Ingels, S., Dalton, B, Daniel, B., and Owings, J. (Forthcoming). Moving beyond the basics: Mathematics and science coursetaking in the high school classes of 1982, 1992, and 2004. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics; Leow, C., Marcus, S., Zanutto, E., and Boruch, R. (2004). Effects of advanced course-taking on math and science achievement: Addressing selection bias using propensity scores. American Journal of Evaluation, 25, 461–478.
107 Shettle, C., Roey, S., Mordica, J., Perkins, R., Nord, C., Teodorovic, J., Brown, J., Lyons, M., Averett, C., Kastberg, D. (2007). The Nation's Report Card: America's High School Graduates (NCES 2007-467). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.