Indicator: College preparatory coursework completion

Definition

High school students meet typical coursework requirements for admission to a four-year college.

RECOMMENDED METRIC(S)

Percentage of high school graduates who successfully complete the coursework required for admission to a four-year college or university, which includes:

  • Four years of English classes
  • Four years of math classes (including at least four of the following: pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, Algebra II or trigonometry, precalculus, calculus, statistics, quantitative reasoning, and data science)
  • Three years of laboratory science (including biology, chemistry, and physics)
  • Two years of social sciences
  • Two years of foreign language
  • One year of visual or performing arts

Type(s) of Data Needed

Student transcripts

Why it matters

A high school education should ensure that students are eligible to pursue their chosen pathway after graduation. In many states, however, the requirements for a high school diploma fall short of the admissions criteria at many four-year colleges and universities. Thus, completing a full set of college preparatory coursework is a key milestone on students’ pathways to higher education. Moreover, when students enter postsecondary education without first completing the necessary courses, they may be placed in remedial or developmental courses, and thus spend time and financial resources without advancing toward a degree. Many high school graduates do not meet the eligibility requirements for four-year colleges. For example, 52 percent of all California high school graduates in 2020–2021 met course requirements for admission into the University of California and California State University systems (that is, passed college preparatory courses, known as A-G courses, with a grade C or higher). These rates differed by race, ethnicity, and household income. Seventy-seven percent of Asian students and 57 percent of White students met the California A-G course requirements, compared to 45 percent of Latino students, 43 percent of Black students, and 33 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native students.

What to know about measurement

As part of their operations, schools regularly record student course enrollment and grade data, making this indicator feasible to measure if courses that meet these requirements are consistently defined and identified in data systems. Although reporting of student transcript data to higher levels (district, state, federal) varies, as do course names and definitions, reporting data on whether students are meeting course requirements would be feasible at different levels. Our recommended metric follows recommendations by the National Association for College Admission and Counseling (NACAC). Some of these recommendations are also aligned to states’ high school graduation requirements—for example, 45 states require four years of English. High school graduation requirements in other subjects, however, often fall short, particularly in math where the requirements in nearly one in five states are misaligned to the admissions criteria at their respective flagship university.

Source frameworks

Several frameworks reviewed for this report discussed the importance of academic rigor in high school; however, only two source frameworks, the Urban Institute’s Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools (REMIQS) and the National Education Association’s (NEA) Great Public Schools Indicators Framework, specifically referenced completion of college preparatory courses. As discussed above, our recommended metric draws on recommendations by the NACAC.

References

The framework's recommendations are based on syntheses of existing research. Please see the framework report for a list of works cited.