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Digest of Education Statistics: 2011
Digest of Education Statistics: 2011

NCES 2012-001
May 2012


Table 162. Percentage of public and private high school graduates earning minimum credits in selected combinations of academic courses, by sex and race/ethnicity: Selected years, 1982 through 2009
Year of graduation and course combination taken1 All students2 Sex Race/ethnicity
Male Female White Black Hispanic Asian/ Pacific Islander American Indian/ Alaska Native
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1982 graduates                                
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math,
   and 2 FL3 
9.5 (0.57) 9.1 (0.70) 9.9 (0.71) 10.9 (0.69) 5.2 (1.02) 3.9 (0.57) 17.0 (2.49) 3.3 (1.68)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math 14.3 (0.66) 15.2 (0.86) 13.4 (0.79) 15.9 (0.79) 11.0 (1.39) 6.7 (0.79) 21.1 (2.65) 8.1 (3.02)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 2 Sci, 2 Math 31.5 (1.07) 31.7 (1.26) 31.3 (1.22) 32.4 (1.21) 30.8 (2.32) 25.6 (1.76) 32.0 (3.40) 23.6 (5.39)
                               
1987 graduates                                
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math,
   and 2 FL3 
18.1 (0.91) 18.0 (1.13) 18.3 (1.01) 19.0 (1.10) 12.7 (1.15) 10.8 (1.70) 35.7 (4.49) 4.9 (1.40)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math 24.8 (1.03) 25.9 (1.27) 23.7 (1.07) 26.1 (1.21) 19.6 (1.99) 14.5 (1.69) 39.8 (4.51) 24.3 (3.69)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 2 Sci, 2 Math 48.1 (1.74) 48.0 (2.22) 48.4 (1.56) 48.1 (2.15) 48.3 (2.63) 43.9 (1.92) 57.9 (4.82) 61.8 (5.56)
                               
1990 graduates                                
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math,
   and 2 FL3 
29.9 (1.26) 28.8 (1.38) 31.0 (1.36) 31.7 (1.46) 22.9 (2.27) 25.4 (2.41) 42.6 (2.95) 9.9 (3.70)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math 38.2 (1.50) 38.5 (1.69) 37.9 (1.54) 39.2 (1.63) 39.0 (3.57) 29.8 (2.51) 47.4 (3.04) 19.2 (4.70)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 2 Sci, 2 Math 65.5 (1.96) 64.3 (2.09) 66.4 (1.98) 64.9 (2.28) 71.3 (3.00) 63.7 (3.01) 69.1 (3.90) 46.3 (6.39)
                               
1994 graduates                                
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math,
   and 2 FL3 
39.0 (1.12) 35.0 (1.11) 42.7 (1.33) 41.6 (1.32) 29.6 (1.52) 35.6 (2.94) 50.1 (2.39) 22.5 (4.31)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math 49.3 (1.45) 47.0 (1.45) 51.5 (1.58) 52.4 (1.67) 43.7 (2.39) 40.3 (3.25) 54.9 (2.46) 46.0 (3.30)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 2 Sci, 2 Math 73.9 (1.50) 71.2 (1.63) 76.4 (1.46) 75.1 (1.69) 74.5 (2.32) 74.7 (2.61) 72.3 (3.62) 76.3 (3.60)
                               
1998 graduates                                
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math,
   and 2 FL3 
44.2 (1.92) 40.5 (2.19) 48.2 (2.05) 46.2 (2.16) 40.0 (3.41) 32.0 (2.94) 57.8 (4.51) 28.3 (4.53)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math 55.0 (2.44) 52.9 (2.64) 57.8 (2.48) 56.8 (2.69) 55.6 (4.39) 40.0 (3.28) 66.1 (5.69) 40.0 (4.73)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 2 Sci, 2 Math 74.5 (2.18) 72.8 (2.34) 77.0 (2.14) 74.7 (2.64) 76.0 (3.21) 70.1 (2.57) 79.5 (4.76) 76.4 (5.21)
                               
2000 graduates                                
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math,
   and 2 FL3 
47.8 (1.53) 41.5 (1.68) 53.4 (1.65) 48.9 (1.60) 45.6 (2.27) 40.3 (5.47) 58.2 (3.48) 26.8 (3.63)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math 58.6 (1.64) 54.4 (1.70) 62.3 (1.75) 59.2 (1.74) 64.1 (2.51) 48.3 (5.74) 62.7 (3.44) 42.5 (5.84)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 2 Sci, 2 Math 78.2 (1.60) 74.9 (1.88) 81.2 (1.43) 78.3 (1.85) 82.5 (2.26) 75.4 (3.16) 75.0 (3.27) 72.6 (4.48)
                               
2005 graduates                                
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math,
   and 2 FL3 
54.7 (0.96) 49.0 (1.14) 60.1 (0.94) 55.5 (1.19) 54.3 (1.87) 46.3 (2.08) 66.7 (2.10) 38.1 (3.37)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math 67.4 (1.02) 63.5 (1.22) 71.0 (0.94) 68.5 (1.29) 72.3 (1.76) 53.5 (2.20) 72.2 (2.05) 60.9 (3.40)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 2 Sci, 2 Math 83.0 (1.02) 80.3 (1.19) 85.4 (0.94) 82.1 (1.34) 89.7 (0.91) 79.6 (1.38) 85.0 (1.68) 81.0 (3.10)
                               
2009 graduates                                
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math,
   and 2 FL3 
61.8 (0.84) 57.4 (1.06) 66.0 (0.82) 62.4 (0.94) 58.4 (1.71) 58.4 (1.65) 73.1 (2.28) 43.0 (3.44)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 3 Sci, 3 Math 74.3 (0.81) 72.1 (0.96) 76.4 (0.77) 75.0 (1.04) 78.1 (1.20) 67.2 (1.49) 76.9 (2.08) 64.7 (4.23)
4 Eng, 3 SS, 2 Sci, 2 Math 87.7 (0.74) 86.2 (0.82) 89.1 (0.73) 86.8 (0.97) 92.0 (0.63) 88.0 (0.87) 86.1 (1.52) 86.6 (2.99)
1 Eng = English; SS = social studies; Sci = science; and FL = foreign language.
2 Totals include other racial/ethnic groups not separately shown.
3 In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education recommended that all college-bound high school students take these courses plus 0.5 credits of computer science as a minimum.
NOTE: Data differ slightly from figures appearing in other NCES reports because of differences in taxonomies and case exclusion criteria. 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, 2005, and 2009 High School Transcript Study (HSTS). (This table was prepared October 2011.)