High School Curriculum Structure: Effects on Coursetaking and Achievement in Mathematics for High School Graduates. An Examination of Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988

摘要

In this study, the authors investigated how the structure of the high school curriculum influences how far graduates get in the secondary mathematics course pipeline and their level of achievement in that subject by the end of high school. The study draws on data from the High School Effectiveness Supplement (HSES) of NELS:88, a broad-based longitudinal study of U.S. adolescents experiences and accomplishments in public and private secondary schools in and around our nation's 30 largest cities, as well as from the students high school transcripts. Data are available from the U.S. Department of Education through its National Center for Education Statistics. Using a two-stage stratified sample of 3,430 high school students in 184 high schools, the study used the Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM) statistical software to estimate school effects on individual students behaviors and achievement.