From Algebra to Zoology: How Well Do Students Report Mathematics and Science Coursetaking?

This study measures the validity of the mathematics and science coursetaking information reported by high school students by comparing it to information obtained from the NAEP High School Transcript Study (HSTS). The HSTS is an administrative data collection of transcripts belonging to high school graduates who took the NAEP twelfth-grade mathematics and science assessments. The HSTS provides NAEP with an opportunity to compare the official coursework recorded on students' high school transcripts to their self-reported high school coursetaking and identify any differences. Such differences are important to consider when exploring the relationship between student reported coursetaking and other measures of student educational performance, such as NAEP twelfth-grade assessment scores.

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