Table 139

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Table 139. Percentage of public and private high school graduates taking selected mathematics and science courses in high school, by sex and race/ethnicity: Selected years, 1982 through 2005
2005
Sex Race/ethnicity
Asian/ American
Pacific Indian/
Course (Carnegie units) 1982 1987 1990 1994 1998 2000 Total Male Female White Black Hispanic Islander Alaska Native Other
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Mathematics\1\
Any mathematics (1.0) ..............
98.5 (0.21) 98.9 (0.24) 99.9 (0.05) 99.8 (0.05) 99.8 (0.06) 99.8 (0.04) 99.9 (0.02) 99.9 (0.03) 100.0 (0.02) 99.9 (0.02) 100.0 (0.02) 99.9 (0.05) 100.0 (#) 100.0 (#) 100.0 (#)
Algebra I (1.0)\2\ ...............
55.2 (1.01) 58.8 (1.19) 63.7 (1.54) 65.8 (1.31) 62.8 (1.42) 61.7 (1.66) 62.8 (1.04) 61.5 (1.09) 64.1 (1.13) 60.9 (1.19) 71.8 (1.67) 65.6 (1.73) 58.0 (2.61) 67.9 (4.89) 69.3 (3.49)
Geometry (1.0) ...................
47.1 (0.99) 58.6 (0.97) 63.2 (1.38) 70.0 (1.26) 75.1 (1.06) 78.3 (1.09) 83.3 (0.65) 81.4 (0.71) 85.2 (0.68) 83.4 (0.80) 84.7 (1.03) 80.5 (1.18) 86.1 (1.31) 74.2 (3.20) 89.2 (2.04)
Algebra II (0.5)\3\ ................
39.9 (0.93) 49.0 (1.69) 52.9 (1.32) 61.1 (1.39) 61.7 (1.77) 67.8 (1.43) 70.3 (1.00) 67.1 (1.11) 73.3 (1.02) 71.2 (1.21) 69.2 (1.64) 62.7 (1.54) 78.3 (3.40) 67.5 (3.58) 81.8 (3.43)
Trigonometry (0.5) ..............
8.1 (0.54) 11.5 (1.54) 9.6 (1.07) 11.7 (1.16) 8.9 (1.07) 7.5 (1.31) 8.3 (0.88) 8.1 (0.91) 8.6 (0.91) 9.6 (1.18) 3.9 (0.59) 4.8 (0.83) 9.4 (1.59) 10.4 (4.80) 13.9 (3.18)
Analysis/pre-calculus (0.5) ....6.2 (0.46) 12.8 (0.92) 13.3 (0.95) 17.3 (0.86) 23.1 (1.44) 26.7 (1.40) 29.5 (0.98) 28.0 (1.02) 30.8 (1.05) 32.0 (1.18) 17.9 (1.61) 20.5 (1.42) 48.8 (2.85) 15.9 (3.04) 31.6 (5.16)
Statistics/probability (0.5) ....
1.0 (0.16) 1.1 (0.31) 1.0 (0.21) 2.0 (0.33) 3.7 (0.54) 5.7 (0.86) 7.7 (0.53) 7.7 (0.57) 7.8 (0.55) 8.5 (0.65) 5.8 (0.84) 3.4 (0.48) 13.0 (1.21) 2.8 (0.99) 12.0 (3.04)
Calculus (1.0) ...................
5.0 (0.43) 6.1 (0.49) 6.5 (0.46) 9.3 (0.56) 11.0 (0.85) 11.6 (0.73) 13.6 (0.53) 14.0 (0.63) 13.2 (0.59) 15.3 (0.62) 5.5 (0.53) 6.3 (0.65) 29.8 (1.65) 7.9 (2.59) 16.6 (2.49)
AP calculus (1.0) ...............
1.6 (0.26) 3.4 (0.47) 4.1 (0.44) 7.0 (0.53) 6.7 (0.49) 7.9 (0.58) 9.2 (0.44) 9.8 (0.54) 8.7 (0.44) 10.1 (0.52) 2.9 (0.35) 5.0 (0.51) 24.6 (1.75) 2.8 (1.42) 10.9 (1.78)

Science\1\
Any science (1.0) .........................
96.4 (0.39) 97.8 (0.32) 99.3 (0.14) 99.5 (0.07) 99.5 (0.09) 99.5 (0.11) 99.6 (0.09) 99.5 (0.11) 99.6 (0.10) 99.7 (0.07) 99.7 (0.12) 99.1 (0.30) 99.3 (0.34) 98.3 (0.73) 100.0 (#)
Biology (1.0) .............................
77.4 (0.87) 86.1 (1.01) 90.9 (0.97) 93.2 (0.97) 92.7 (0.67) 91.2 (1.00) 92.3 (0.63) 90.8 (0.71) 93.7 (0.61) 92.6 (0.72) 93.6 (0.59) 89.1 (1.24) 92.1 (1.83) 92.1 (1.80) 93.9 (2.41)
AP/honors biology (1.0) .....................
10.0 (0.64) 9.4 (0.72) 10.1 (1.02) 11.9 (0.93) 16.2 (1.31) 16.3 (1.46) 16.0 (0.83) 13.9 (0.81) 18.0 (0.94) 17.0 (0.99) 12.0 (1.37) 11.8 (1.38) 24.0 (2.14) 8.3 (1.87) 21.6 (3.61)
Chemistry (1.0) .........................
32.1 (0.84) 44.2 (1.29) 48.9 (1.23) 55.8 (1.04) 60.4 (1.29) 62.0 (1.47) 66.2 (0.92) 62.5 (1.04) 69.7 (0.99) 67.1 (1.04) 63.6 (1.61) 59.2 (2.13) 79.4 (1.60) 49.3 (4.75) 77.8 (3.11)
AP/honors chemistry (1.0) .....................
3.0 (0.33) 3.5 (0.42) 3.5 (0.47) 3.9 (0.53) 4.7 (0.50) 5.8 (0.85) 7.6 (0.53) 7.6 (0.59) 7.6 (0.55) 8.0 (0.58) 4.0 (0.98) 5.7 (0.82) 17.2 (1.41) 4.8 (1.67) 10.5 (2.57)
Physics (1.0) ..............................
15.0 (0.62) 20.0 (0.88) 21.5 (0.81) 24.5 (0.87) 28.8 (1.49) 31.4 (1.16) 32.7 (0.92) 34.8 (0.91) 30.8 (1.11) 34.6 (0.88) 25.8 (2.31) 23.3 (1.68) 49.9 (2.42) 18.2 (3.91) 42.7 (4.08)
AP/honors physics (1.0) .....................
1.2 (0.17) 1.8 (0.30) 2.0 (0.38) 2.7 (0.34) 3.0 (0.37) 3.9 (0.61) 5.3 (0.33) 6.6 (0.42) 4.1 (0.34) 5.6 (0.41) 2.5 (0.37) 3.4 (0.50) 14.2 (1.64) 1.5 (0.89) 8.3 (2.24)
Engineering (1.0) ...................................
1.2 (0.21) 2.6 (0.63) 4.2 (1.01) 4.5 (0.78) 6.7 (1.75) 3.9 (0.91) 4.3 (0.51) 4.6 (0.59) 4.0 (0.47) 4.4 (0.62) 4.8 (0.87) 3.3 (0.58) 3.7 (1.11) 3.8 (2.15) 4.2 (1.58)
Astronomy (0.5) ............................
1.2 (0.24) 1.0 (0.17) 1.2 (0.31) 1.7 (0.50) 1.9 (0.46) 2.8 (0.59) 2.8 (0.37) 2.9 (0.42) 2.7 (0.34) 3.3 (0.47) 1.4 (0.24) 1.2 (0.25) 3.1 (0.68) 3.5 (1.61) 1.2 (1.19)
Geology/earth science (0.5) ...........................
13.6 (1.04) 13.4 (1.66) 24.7 (2.42) 22.9 (2.41) 20.7 (2.34) 17.4 (1.86) 23.1 (1.48) 23.9 (1.51) 22.4 (1.54) 24.0 (1.86) 24.3 (1.88) 19.6 (1.67) 16.2 (2.39) 22.7 (4.39) 23.2 (4.80)
Biology and chemistry (2.0) .........................
29.3 (0.83) 41.4 (1.22) 47.5 (1.23) 53.7 (1.20) 59.0 (1.22) 59.4 (1.49) 64.3 (0.97) 60.3 (1.08) 68.0 (1.03) 65.3 (1.10) 62.0 (1.60) 57.2 (2.29) 75.5 (2.16) 48.0 (4.74) 73.9 (3.97)
Biology, chemistry, and
physics (3.0) ..................
11.2 (0.51) 16.5 (0.77) 18.8 (0.70) 21.4 (0.84) 25.4 (1.32) 25.1 (1.09) 27.3 (0.88) 28.2 (0.85) 26.5 (1.10) 29.0 (0.85) 21.3 (2.25) 18.9 (1.63) 42.8 (2.49) 14.1 (3.33) 33.2 (4.02)
#Rounds to zero.
\1\These data only report the percentage of students who earned the indicated credit (0.5 = one semester; 1.0 = one academic year) in each course while in high school and do not count those students who took
these courses prior to entering high school.
\2\Excludes pre-algebra.
\3\Includes algebra/trigonometry and algebra/geometry.
NOTE: The Carnegie unit is a standard of measurement that represents one credit for the completion of a 1-year course. Data differ slightly from figures appearing in other NCES reports because of differences
in taxonomies and case exclusion criteria. Some data have been revised from previously published figures. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic origin. Standard errors appear in parentheses.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, High School and Beyond Longitudinal Study of 1980 Sophomores (HS&B-So:80/82), "High School Transcript Study"; and 1987, 1990,
1994, 1998, 2000, and 2005 High School Transcript Study (HSTS). (This table was prepared January 2007.)

Printed: 02/10/2008 20:56:41