Figure 1. Percentage of public and private high school graduates who completed selected mathematics and science courses in high school: 2009 and 2019
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A confidence interval is a range of values that describes the uncertainty surrounding an estimate. Throughout the Condition of Education, confidence intervals are calculated as the estimate +/- the margin of error, based on a 95 percent level of confidence. This means that there is 95 percent certainty that the range includes the true or actual value of the statistic.
Confidence Interval
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1 Includes courses that are generally taken before or with algebra I. Occupational and technical mathematics courses may cover basic elements of algebra and geometry.

2 Includes courses that taught both algebra II and trigonometry.

3 Taken as a separate course.

4 Includes courses such as discrete and finite mathematics.

5 Includes general life science and physical science courses.

6 Includes astronomy, geology, and marine science courses.

7 Indicates graduate completed both biology and chemistry courses.

8 Indicates graduate completed all three subjects of biology, chemistry, and physics.

NOTE: To estimate the margin of error, the standard error is scaled based on the desired level of confidence in the estimate. Throughout the Condition of Education, margins of error are produced based on a 95 percent level of confidence. Margin of error is calculated as 1.96*standard error. Completion of a mathematics or science course means that the graduate earned credits in a course within the category. It differs from graduates who took a course but did not pass or complete the course. For a high school graduate to be included in the analyses, their transcript had to meet five requirements: (1) the graduate received either a standard or honors diploma, (2) the transcript had three or more years of delineated courses, (3) at least one course on the transcript was taken during the NAEP and HSTS assessment year, (4) the graduate’s transcript contained 16 or more Carnegie credits, and (5) the graduate’s transcript contained at least 1 Carnegie credit in English courses. Although rounded numbers are displayed, the figures are based on unrounded data.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2009 and 2019 High School Transcript Study (HSTS). See Digest of Education Statistics 2021, tables 225.40 and 225.45.