Why Are Credits Increasing? What We Can Learn From the NAEP High School Transcript Study

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

Abstract

In 2022, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that high school graduates in 2019 earned an average 28.1 Carnegie credits, which is equivalent to successfully completing seven year-long courses for each of their four years in high school. The 2019 average was 0.9 Carnegie credits more than the 2009 average (27.2) and 4.4 Carnegie credits more than the 1990 average (23.6). During that three decade span, neither the length of the high school day nor the number of days of instruction in U.S. high schools have significantly changed. So how are high school graduates earning more Carnegie credits? This presentation looks at various reasons, using the data from the 2019 NAEP High School Transcript Study (HSTS).


The NAEP HSTS collects student transcripts from a nationally representative sample of U.S. public and private high schools. Courses on the transcripts are coded, and the credits and grades the graduates earn for the courses are analyzed to produce a variety of coursetaking measures. Among the information collected on the student transcripts are the grade level and school year a course was taken, as well as the course term (i.e., year, semester, quarter, etc.). This information, along with the credits and grades earned, can be analyzed to examine four possible reasons for the increase in Carnegie credits earned – less failed or incomplete courses, more summer school courses taken, more courses taken online for credits, and more courses taken for high school credit in 8th grade or earlier. The information can also be analyzed by school and student demographics to see if there are differing patterns.


Overall analyses from the NAEP HSTS data show a smaller percentage of high school graduates with at least one failed or incomplete course in 2019 compared to 2009. There was also an increase in the percentage of graduates taking online courses for high school credits, from 3 percent in 2009 to 8 percent in 2019. Of those graduates who did take online courses, the number of Carnegie credits earned through online courses in 2019 was double the number of online Carnegie credits earned in 2009. As for high school credits earned in courses taken before 9th grade, about 23 percent of graduates earned such credits in 2019, compared to 15 percent of graduates in 2009. There was also an increase in the number of Carnegie credits earned among the graduates who earned pre-high school credits.


Identifying the ways that high school graduates take more courses and earn more credits is important in determining the ways high school students are learning. This work also establishes a baseline for the 2024 NAEP HSTS, as the 2019 high school graduating class was the last set of graduates not to be affected by COVID-19-related school closures. How online courses are used in earning high school credits will change for the 2024 high school graduating class, while the school closures will also affect high school credit courses taken before ninth grade.

Authors

• Robert Colby Perkins, Unemployed
  Presenting Author

• Ying Chen, Westat
  Non-Presenting Author