Digest of Education Statistics
2003 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest

Table 139. Percent of public high school graduates taking selected mathematics and science courses in high school, by sex and race/ethnicity: Selected years, 1982 to 2000

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
                                |    |    |    |    |    |                                 2000
                                |    |    |    |    |    |________________________________________________________________________________________
                                |    |    |    |    |    |          |            Sex      |           Race/ethnicity
             Course             |    |    |    |    |    |          |_____________________|_______________________________________________________
       (Carnegie credits)       |1982|1987|1990|1994|1998|   Total  |  Male    |  Female  |  White   |  Black   | Hispanic |  Asian/   | American
                                |    |    |    |    |    |          |          |          | Hispanic | Hispanic |          | Pacific   | Indian/
                                |    |    |    |    |    |          |          |          |          |          |          | Islander  | Alaska
                                |    |    |    |    |    |          |          |          |          |          |          |           |  Native
________________________________|____|____|____|____|____|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|___________|__________
               1                | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | 6  |   7      |   8      |   9      |  10      |  11      |  12      |   13      |   14
________________________________|____|____|____|____|____|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|___________|__________
         Mathematics\1\         |    |    |    |    |    |          |          |          |          |          |          |           |
                                |    |    |    |    |    |          |          |          |          |          |          |           |
Any mathematics (1.0) ..........|98.5|99.0|99.9|99.8|99.8|99.8(0.04)|99.8(0.08)|99.9(0.04)|99.8(0.06)|99.8(0.09)|99.8(0.07)|100.0(0.02)|100.0(#)
  Algebra I (1.0)\2\ ...........|55.2|58.8|63.7|65.8|62.8|61.7(1.66)|60.0(1.62)|63.4(1.82)|60.5(1.95)|66.5(3.25)|69.5(2.14)| 48.8(2.47)| 65.2(5.43)
  Geometry (1.0) ...............|47.1|58.6|63.2|70.0|75.1|78.3(1.09)|74.9(1.33)|81.4(1.02)|79.2(1.23)|77.9(1.95)|72.8(3.23)| 80.6(2.16)| 65.0(6.18)
  Algebra II (0.5) \3\ .........|39.9|49.0|52.8|61.1|61.7|67.8(1.43)|64.8(1.45)|70.5(1.68)|68.9(1.51)|64.8(2.30)|59.8(5.17)| 80.4(1.92)| 60.3(5.51)
  Trigonometry (0.5) ...........| 8.1|11.5| 9.6|11.7| 8.9| 7.5(1.31)| 7.3(1.30)| 7.7(1.37)| 8.5(1.62)| 4.1(1.02)| 2.9(0.77)| 14.5(5.33)|  4.3(2.07)
  Analysis/pre-calculus (0.5)...| 6.2|12.8|13.3|17.3|23.1|26.7(1.40)|25.4(1.39)|27.9(1.61)|28.2(1.74)|16.2(1.53)|19.3(2.97)| 48.8(2.68)| 12.6(2.80)
  Statistics/probability (0.5) .| 1.0| 1.1| 1.0| 2.0| 3.7| 5.7(0.86)| 5.8(0.97)| 5.6(0.86)| 6.1(1.00)| 3.8(1.25)| 2.3(0.53)| 11.5(2.45)|  2.1(1.10)
  Calculus (1.0) ...............| 5.0| 6.1| 6.5| 9.3|11.0|11.6(0.73)|12.2(0.79)|11.1(0.77)|12.5(0.77)| 4.7(0.55)| 5.6(0.87)| 30.8(5.07)|  2.4(0.90)
  AP calculus (1.0) ............| 1.6| 3.4| 4.1| 7.0| 6.7| 7.9(0.58)| 8.5(0.71)| 7.3(0.57)| 8.4(0.62)| 2.6(0.41)| 3.6(0.68)| 24.0(4.20)|  1.7(0.70)
                                |    |    |    |    |    |          |          |          |          |          |          |           |
            Science             |    |    |    |    |    |          |          |          |          |          |          |           |
                                |    |    |    |    |    |          |          |          |          |          |          |           |
Any science (1.0) ..............|96.4|97.8|99.3|99.5|99.5|99.5(0.11)|99.3(0.17)|99.7(0.08)|99.6(0.13)|99.5(0.16)|99.1(0.34)| 99.7(0.18)| 99.6(0.33)
  Biology (1.0) ................|77.4|86.0|91.0|93.2|92.7|91.2(1.00)|89.0(0.32)|93.3(0.80)|91.8(1.15)|92.3(1.02)|89.7(2.70)| 88.3(2.70)| 88.4(2.88)
  AP/honors biology (1.0) ......|10.0| 9.4|10.1|11.9|16.2|16.3(1.46)|13.8(1.41)|18.5(1.63)|17.9(1.78)|10.8(1.39)|10.8(1.36)| 25.9(4.17)|  8.0(3.06)
  Chemistry (1.0) ..............|32.1|44.2|48.9|55.8|60.4|62.0(1.47)|58.0(1.42)|65.7(1.74)|63.0(1.67)|59.9(2.40)|52.4(4.08)| 75.4(2.59)| 43.6(4.03)
  AP/honors chemistry (1.0) ....| 3.0| 3.5| 3.5| 3.9| 4.7| 5.8(0.85)| 5.8(0.91)| 5.7(0.83)| 6.1(1.19)| 2.8(0.46)| 3.4(1.28)| 16.2(1.44)|  1.7(1.20)
  Physics (1.0) ................|15.0|20.0|21.6|24.5|28.8|31.4(1.16)|34.2(1.29)|29.0(1.22)|32.4(1.34)|25.2(1.98)|23.2(2.32)| 54.0(2.68)| 17.5(4.07)
  AP/honors physics (1.0) ......| 1.2| 1.8| 2.0| 2.7| 3.0| 3.9(0.61)| 5.4(0.94)| 2.5(0.38)| 4.0(0.78)| 2.2(0.78)| 2.0(0.70)| 11.0(1.91)|  0.5(0.37)
  Engineering (1.0) ............| 1.2| 2.6| 4.2| 4.5| 6.7| 3.9(0.91)| 4.3(1.04)| 3.5(0.85)| 4.2(1.14)| 2.7(0.78)| 2.4(0.85)|  3.1(0.95)|  1.8(1.36)
  Astronomy (0.5) ..............| 1.2| 1.0| 1.2| 1.7| 1.9| 2.8(0.59)| 3.0(0.65)| 2.6(0.57)| 2.8(0.68)| 1.8(0.54)| 3.7(1.54)|  2.0(0.69)|  3.8(1.67)
  Geology/earth science (0.5) ..|13.6|13.4|24.7|22.9|20.7|17.4(1.86)|18.4(1.98)|16.6(1.82)|17.5(2.34)|18.8(2.59)|15.9(1.88)| 11.1(1.50)| 16.0(3.06)
  Biology and chemistry (2.0) ..|29.3|41.4|47.5|53.7|59.0|59.4(1.49)|54.5(1.49)|63.8(1.74)|60.3(1.72)|58.0(2.31)|50.4(4.27)| 71.1(2.67)| 39.4(3.81)
  Biology, chemistry, and       |    |    |    |    |    |          |          |          |          |          |          |           |
   physics (3.0) ...............|11.2|16.6|18.8|21.4|25.4|25.1(1.09)|26.4(1.23)|24.0(1.13)|25.7(1.20)|20.1(1.75)|17.6(2.20)| 47.2(2.53)| 11.9(3.29)
________________________________|____|____|____|____|____|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|___________|___________

# Rounds to zero.
\1\These data only report the percentage of students who earned credit in each mathematics course while in high school and do not count those students who took these courses prior to entering high school.
\2\Excludes prealgebra.
\3\Includes algebra/trigonometry and algebra/geometry.

NOTE: Data differ slightly from figures appearing in other NCES reports because of differences in taxonomies and case exclusion criteria. Standard errors appear in parentheses.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "High School and Beyond," First Followup survey; "1990 High School Transcript Study," and "High School Transcript Study," various years. (This table was prepared November 2002.)


2003 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest