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Digest of Education Statistics: 2010
Digest of Education Statistics: 2010

NCES 2011-015
April 2011


Table 159. Percentage of public and private high school graduates taking selected mathematics and science courses in high school, by sex and race/ethnicity: Selected years, 1982 through 2005
Course (Carnegie units) 1982 1987 1990 1994 1998 2000 2005
Total Sex Race/ethnicity
Male Female White Black Hispanic Asian/ Pacific Islander American Indian/ Alaska Native Other
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Mathematics1                                                             
Any mathematics (1.0) 98.5 (0.21) 98.9 (0.24) 99.9 (0.05) 99.8 (0.05) 99.8 (0.06) 99.8 (0.04) 99.9 (0.02) 99.9 (0.03) 100.0 (†) 99.9 (0.02) 100.0 (†) 99.9 (0.05) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†)
Algebra I (1.0)2  55.2 (1.01) 58.8 (1.19) 63.7 (1.54) 65.8 (1.31) 62.8 (1.42) 61.7 (1.66) 62.8 (1.04) 61.5 (1.09) 64.1 (1.13) 60.9 (1.19) 71.8 (1.67) 65.6 (1.73) 58.0 (2.61) 67.9 (4.89) 69.3 (3.49)
Geometry (1.0) 47.1 (0.99) 58.6 (0.97) 63.2 (1.38) 70.0 (1.26) 75.1 (1.06) 78.3 (1.09) 83.3 (0.65) 81.4 (0.71) 85.2 (0.68) 83.4 (0.80) 84.7 (1.03) 80.5 (1.18) 86.1 (1.31) 74.2 (3.20) 89.2 (2.04)
Algebra II (0.5)3  39.9 (0.93) 49.0 (1.69) 52.9 (1.32) 61.1 (1.39) 61.7 (1.77) 67.8 (1.43) 70.3 (1.00) 67.1 (1.11) 73.3 (1.02) 71.2 (1.21) 69.2 (1.64) 62.7 (1.54) 78.3 (3.40) 67.5 (3.58) 81.8 (3.43)
Trigonometry (0.5) 8.1 (0.54) 11.5 (1.54) 9.6 (1.07) 11.7 (1.16) 8.9 (1.07) 7.5 (1.31) 8.3 (0.88) 8.1 (0.91) 8.6 (0.91) 9.6 (1.18) 3.9 (0.59) 4.8 (0.83) 9.4 (1.59) 10.4 (4.80) 13.9 (3.18)
Analysis/pre-calculus (0.5) 6.2 (0.46) 12.8 (0.92) 13.3 (0.95) 17.3 (0.86) 23.1 (1.44) 26.7 (1.40) 29.5 (0.98) 28.0 (1.02) 30.8 (1.05) 32.0 (1.18) 17.9 (1.61) 20.5 (1.42) 48.8 (2.85) 15.9 (3.04) 31.6 (5.16)
Statistics/probability (0.5) 1.0 (0.16) 1.1 (0.31) 1.0 (0.21) 2.0 (0.33) 3.7 (0.54) 5.7 (0.86) 7.7 (0.53) 7.7 (0.57) 7.8 (0.55) 8.5 (0.65) 5.8 (0.84) 3.4 (0.48) 13.0 (1.21) 2.8 (0.99) 12.0 (3.04)
Calculus (1.0) 5.0 (0.43) 6.1 (0.49) 6.5 (0.46) 9.3 (0.56) 11.0 (0.85) 11.6 (0.73) 13.6 (0.53) 14.0 (0.63) 13.2 (0.59) 15.3 (0.62) 5.5 (0.53) 6.3 (0.65) 29.8 (1.65) 7.9 (2.59) 16.6 (2.49)
AP calculus (1.0) 1.6 (0.26) 3.4 (0.47) 4.1 (0.44) 7.0 (0.53) 6.7 (0.49) 7.9 (0.58) 9.2 (0.44) 9.8 (0.54) 8.7 (0.44) 10.1 (0.52) 2.9 (0.35) 5.0 (0.51) 24.6 (1.75) 2.8 (1.42) 10.9 (1.78)
                                                             
Science1                                                             
Any science (1.0) 96.4 (0.39) 97.8 (0.32) 99.3 (0.14) 99.5 (0.07) 99.5 (0.09) 99.5 (0.11) 99.6 (0.09) 99.5 (0.11) 99.6 (0.10) 99.7 (0.07) 99.7 (0.12) 99.1 (0.30) 99.3 (0.34) 98.3 (0.73) 100.0 (†)
Biology (1.0) 77.4 (0.87) 86.1 (1.01) 90.9 (0.97) 93.2 (0.97) 92.7 (0.67) 91.2 (1.00) 92.3 (0.63) 90.8 (0.71) 93.7 (0.61) 92.6 (0.72) 93.6 (0.59) 89.1 (1.24) 92.1 (1.83) 92.1 (1.80) 93.9 (2.41)
AP/honors biology (1.0) 10.0 (0.64) 9.4 (0.72) 10.1 (1.02) 11.9 (0.93) 16.2 (1.31) 16.3 (1.46) 16.0 (0.83) 13.9 (0.81) 18.0 (0.94) 17.0 (0.99) 12.0 (1.37) 11.8 (1.38) 24.0 (2.14) 8.3 (1.87) 21.6 (3.61)
Chemistry (1.0) 32.1 (0.84) 44.2 (1.29) 48.9 (1.23) 55.8 (1.04) 60.4 (1.29) 62.0 (1.47) 66.2 (0.92) 62.5 (1.04) 69.7 (0.99) 67.1 (1.04) 63.6 (1.61) 59.2 (2.13) 79.4 (1.60) 49.3 (4.75) 77.8 (3.11)
AP/honors chemistry (1.0) 3.0 (0.33) 3.5 (0.42) 3.5 (0.47) 3.9 (0.53) 4.7 (0.50) 5.8 (0.85) 7.6 (0.53) 7.6 (0.59) 7.6 (0.55) 8.0 (0.58) 4.0 (0.98) 5.7 (0.82) 17.2 (1.41) 4.8 (1.67) 10.5 (2.57)
Physics (1.0) 15.0 (0.62) 20.0 (0.88) 21.5 (0.81) 24.5 (0.87) 28.8 (1.49) 31.4 (1.16) 32.7 (0.92) 34.8 (0.91) 30.8 (1.11) 34.6 (0.88) 25.8 (2.31) 23.3 (1.68) 49.9 (2.42) 18.2 (3.91) 42.7 (4.08)
AP/honors physics (1.0) 1.2 (0.17) 1.8 (0.30) 2.0 (0.38) 2.7 (0.34) 3.0 (0.37) 3.9 (0.61) 5.3 (0.33) 6.6 (0.42) 4.1 (0.34) 5.6 (0.41) 2.5 (0.37) 3.4 (0.50) 14.2 (1.64) 1.5 (0.89) 8.3 (2.24)
Engineering (1.0) 1.2 (0.21) 2.6 (0.63) 4.2 (1.01) 4.5 (0.78) 6.7 (1.75) 3.9 (0.91) 4.3 (0.51) 4.6 (0.59) 4.0 (0.47) 4.4 (0.62) 4.8 (0.87) 3.3 (0.58) 3.7 (1.11) 3.8 (2.15) 4.2 (1.58)
Astronomy (0.5) 1.2 (0.24) 1.0 (0.17) 1.2 (0.31) 1.7 (0.50) 1.9 (0.46) 2.8 (0.59) 2.8 (0.37) 2.9 (0.42) 2.7 (0.34) 3.3 (0.47) 1.4 (0.24) 1.2 (0.25) 3.1 (0.68) 3.5 (1.61) 1.2 (1.19)
Geology/earth science (0.5) 13.6 (1.04) 13.4 (1.66) 24.7 (2.42) 22.9 (2.41) 20.7 (2.34) 17.4 (1.86) 23.1 (1.48) 23.9 (1.51) 22.4 (1.54) 24.0 (1.86) 24.3 (1.88) 19.6 (1.67) 16.2 (2.39) 22.7 (4.39) 23.2 (4.80)
Biology and chemistry (2.0) 29.3 (0.83) 41.4 (1.22) 47.5 (1.23) 53.7 (1.20) 59.0 (1.22) 59.4 (1.49) 64.3 (0.97) 60.3 (1.08) 68.0 (1.03) 65.3 (1.10) 62.0 (1.60) 57.2 (2.29) 75.5 (2.16) 48.0 (4.74) 73.9 (3.97)
Biology, chemistry, and physics (3.0) 11.2 (0.51) 16.5 (0.77) 18.8 (0.70) 21.4 (0.84) 25.4 (1.32) 25.1 (1.09) 27.3 (0.88) 28.2 (0.85) 26.5 (1.10) 29.0 (0.85) 21.3 (2.25) 18.9 (1.63) 42.8 (2.49) 14.1 (3.33) 33.2 (4.02)
†Not applicable.
1 These data only report the percentage of students who earned the indicated credit (0.5 = one semester; 1.0 = one academic year) in each course while in high school and do not count those students who took these courses prior to entering high school.
2 Excludes pre-algebra.
3 Includes courses where trigonometry or geometry has been combined with algebra II.
NOTE: The Carnegie unit is a standard of measurement that represents one credit for the completion of a 1-year course. Data differ slightly from figures appearing in other NCES reports because of differences in taxonomies and case exclusion criteria. Some data have been revised from previously published figures. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Standard errors appear in parentheses.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, High School and Beyond Longitudinal Study of 1980 Sophomores (HS&B-So:80/82), "High School Transcript Study"; and 1987, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2000, and 2005 High School Transcript Study (HSTS). (This table was prepared January 2007.)