NAEP High School Transcript Study: Past, Present, and Future

• In Event: Research Into High School Coursework and Achievement Using the NAEP High School Transcript Study

Abstract

After a ten-year absence, the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) High School Transcript Study (HSTS) was released in April 2022 as both a web report and a public-use database available through the NAEP Data Explorer. The web report focused on the change in high school coursetaking trends over the past three decades, from 1990 to 2019. The HSTS has undergone a number of changes during that time in all aspects of data collection, coding, and analysis, with the most consequential changes occurring in 2019. This presentation looks at the history of the NAEP HSTS, how the 2019 HSTS changed how the transcript data are generated and analyzed, and the importance of the NAEP HSTS in the immediate future.

The NAEP HSTS started as transcript studies held in conjunction with the 1982 High School and Beyond and 1987 NAEP assessments. The linking of available NAEP twelfth-grade assessment scores to the HSTS coursetaking measures started in 1990. In 1994, the Classification of Secondary School Courses (CSSC) system used to code the HSTS catalog and transcript courses was realigned with the Secondary School Taxonomy, simplifying how coursetaking measures were calculated and reported. In 2000, the NAEP HSTS shifted to being linked to only the NAEP twelfth-grade mathematics and science assessments. The 2000 HSTS was also when the reporting of analyses switched from tabulation tables to more-publicized analysis reports.

There were three major changes to the NAEP HSTS in 2019. First, the collection of school catalogs and student transcripts through electronic means was available to all sampled schools. Although there had been some limited electronic data collection in the 2005 and 2009 HSTS, opening electronic submissions to all schools simplified the data collection process, although the quality of the collected electronic data varied. Second, the HSTS went to school districts and states to collect catalogs and transcripts, whereas before it was done almost exclusively through in-person visits to the sampled schools. This change reduced the burden of work that fell on the sampled schools. Finally, there was a switch of secondary course coding systems from the CSSC to the School Courses for Exchange of Data (SCED). The SCED coding system provides many benefits to the HSTS, but the switch of coding systems required revising the HSTS coursetaking trends as the CSSC and SCED code a number of courses to different subject areas (Perkins, 2020).

The focus of the next NAEP HSTS in 2024 will include coursetaking comparisons of pre- and post-COVID high school graduates. The 2019 NAEP HSTS was comprised of students who graduated in 2018-2019 school year, which was the last graduating class unaffected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The 2024 NAEP HSTS will look at student who graduate in the 2023-2024 school year, whose courses in eighth, ninth, and possibly later grades will be affected by COVID-related school closures and new teaching models. Coursetaking comparisons between 2019 and 2024 HSTS will enlighten researchers on how COVID-19 affected high school coursework and achievement.

Authors

• Kavemuii Murangi, Westat
  Presenting Author

• Lisa Hamilton, Westat
  Presenting Author

• Robert Colby Perkins, Unemployed
  Non-Presenting Author