High school graduates are earning more credits than ever before, according to the National Assessment Governing Board’s 2009 High School Transcript Study.
According to a survey of transcripts of 37,700 high school graduates in the class of 2009, seniors earned three credits more, on average, than their 1990 counterparts. This amounted to 420 hours of additional instruction. Overall, the number of credits earned by high school graduates has increased, from 23.6 credits in 1990 to 27.2 in 2009.
Students are not only earning more credits, but they’re taking more advanced classes, earning higher GPAs in the process.
At least 13 percent of all students completed a “rigorous curriculum” in 2009, up from 5 percent in 1990. A rigorous curriculum is defined as a course load that includes additional credits in mathematics (pre-calculus or higher), biology, chemistry or physics and at least three foreign language credits.
By comparison, a standard curriculum only requires four credits of English and three courses each in social studies, math or science.
Additionally, a plurality of students — 46 percent — completed a “midlevel curriculum,” defined as having taken geometry or algebra I or II, two courses in biology, chemistry or physics, and at least one foreign language credit.
As the number of credits taken have increased, so have GPAs. GPAs for all racial and ethnic groups increased from 1990 to 2009, but Whites and Asian/Pacific Islander graduates have higher GPAs: White students have an average 3.09 GPA, while Asian/Pacific Islander students have a 3.26 GPA.
