America's High School Graduates: Results of the 2009 NAEP High School Transcript Study

Conducted in conjunction with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the High School Transcript Study collected transcripts from a nationally representative sample of over 37,000 high school graduates from over 700 public and private schools. The study presents information about the types of courses that high school graduates in the class of 2009 took during high school, how many credits they earned, what grades they received, and how their course-taking patterns related to their performance on the 2009 NAEP mathematics and science assessments. All results are presented in the form of course credits earned, curriculum levels, GPA, and NAEP scale scores and percentages of students at the Basic, Proficient, and Advanced achievement levels. The report also includes performance of subgroups such as gender and race/ethnicity. In addition, the report contains special topics on:

• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) course taking;
• possible ways in which students found time to earn more credits (summer school, online courses, and high school courses taken in middle school); and
• the course-taking patterns of students with disabilities and English language learners.