Percentage of public high school graduates taking selected mathematics and science courses in high school, by sex and race/ethnicity: 1982 to 1998

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Table 142.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
                                |     |     |     |     |                      1998
                                |     |     |     |     |__________________________________________________________
                                |     |     |     |     |     |    Sex     |      Race/ethnicity
            Courses             |     |     |     |     |     |____________|_______________________________________
       (Carnegie credits)       |1982 |1987 |1990 |1994 |Total|Male |Female|White|Black|Hispanic| Asian/ |American
                                |     |     |     |     |     |     |      |     |     |        |Pacific | Indian/
                                |     |     |     |     |     |     |      |     |     |        |Islander| Alaskan
                                |     |     |     |     |     |     |      |     |     |        |        | Native
________________________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|______|_____|_____|________|________|_________
               1                |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8   |  9  | 10  |   11   |   12   |   13
________________________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|______|_____|_____|________|________|_________
         Mathematics\1\         |     |     |     |     |     |     |      |     |     |        |        |
                                |     |     |     |     |     |     |      |     |     |        |        |
Any mathematics (1.0) ..........|98.5 |99.0 |99.9 |99.8 |99.8 |99.8 | 99.8 |99.8 |99.9 |   99.8 |  100.0 |    99.7
  Algebra I (1.0)\2\ ...........|55.2 |58.8 |63.7 |65.8 |62.8 |62.0 | 63.6 |63.5 |62.3 |   61.4 |   56.8 |    63.3
  Geometry (1.0) ...............|47.1 |58.6 |63.2 |70.0 |75.1 |73.7 | 77.3 |77.7 |72.5 |   62.3 |   75.9 |    57.2
  Algebra II (0.5) \3\ .........|39.9 |49.0 |52.8 |61.1 |61.7 |59.8 | 63.7 |64.6 |55.6 |   48.3 |   70.1 |    46.6
  Trigonometry (0.5) ...........| 8.1 |11.5 | 9.6 |11.7 | 8.9 | 8.2 |  9.7 |10.0 | 4.8 |    5.6 |   11.7 |     5.5
  Analysis/pre-calculus (0.5)...| 6.2 |12.8 |13.3 |17.3 |23.1 |23.1 | 22.8 |25.0 |13.8 |   15.3 |   41.3 |    16.4
  Statistics/probability (0.5) .| 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.7 | 3.4 |  3.9 | 4.3 | 2.1 |    1.7 |    3.8 |     3.7
  Calculus (1.0) ...............| 5.0 | 6.1 | 6.5 | 9.3 |11.0 |11.2 | 10.6 |12.1 | 6.6 |    6.2 |   18.4 |     6.2
  AP calculus (1.0) ............| 1.6 | 3.4 | 4.1 | 7.0 | 6.7 | 7.3 |  6.4 | 7.5 | 3.4 |    3.7 |   13.4 |     0.6
                                |     |     |     |     |     |     |      |     |     |        |        |
            Science             |     |     |     |     |     |     |      |     |     |        |        |
                                |     |     |     |     |     |     |      |     |     |        |        |
Any science (1.0) ..............|96.4 |97.8 |99.3 |99.5 |99.5 |99.5 | 99.6 |99.5 |99.3 |   99.3 |   99.4 |    99.4
  Biology (1.0) ................|77.4 |86.0 |91.0 |93.2 |92.7 |91.4 | 94.1 |93.7 |92.8 |   86.5 |   92.9 |    91.3
  AP/honors biology (1.0) ......|10.0 | 9.4 |10.1 |11.9 |16.2 |14.5 | 18.0 |16.7 |15.4 |   12.6 |   22.2 |     6.0
  Chemistry (1.0) ..............|32.1 |44.2 |48.9 |55.8 |60.4 |57.1 | 63.5 |63.2 |54.3 |   46.1 |   72.4 |    46.9
  AP/honors chemistry (1.0) ....| 3.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 4.7 | 4.9 |  4.7 | 4.8 | 3.5 |    4.0 |   10.9 |     0.9
  Physics (1.0) ................|15.0 |20.0 |21.6 |24.5 |28.8 |31.7 | 26.2 |30.7 |21.4 |   18.9 |   46.4 |    16.2
  AP/honors physics (1.0) ......| 1.2 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 4.0 |  2.1 | 3.0 | 2.1 |    2.1 |    7.6 |     0.9
  Engineering (1.0) ............| 1.2 | 2.6 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 6.7 | 7.1 |  6.5 | 7.9 | 4.8 |    2.3 |    5.2 |     9.6
  Astronomy (0.5) ..............| 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.4 |  1.5 | 2.4 | 0.9 |    0.8 |    1.0 |     2.1
  Geology/earth science (0.5) ..|13.6 |13.4 |24.7 |22.9 |20.7 |21.5 | 20.1 |21.5 |24.2 |   15.9 |    9.5 |    21.7
  Biology and chemistry (2.0) ..|29.3 |41.4 |47.5 |53.7 |59.0 |55.4 | 62.3 |62.0 |53.0 |   43.7 |   69.5 |    43.2
  Biology, chemistry, and       |     |     |     |     |     |     |      |     |     |        |        |
   physics (3.0) ...............|11.2 |16.6 |18.8 |21.4 |25.4 |27.4 | 23.7 |27.6 |17.4 |   15.9 |   40.2 |    14.2
________________________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|______|_____|_____|________|________|_________

\1\These data only report the percentage of students who earned credit in each mathematics course while in high school and do not count those students who took these courses prior to entering high school.
\2\Excludes prealgebra.
\3\Includes algebra/trigonometry and algebra/geometry.

NOTE: Data differ slightly from figures appearing in other NCES reports because of differences in taxonomies and case exclusion criteria.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "High School and Beyond," First Followup survey; "1990 High School Transcript Study," "National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988," Second Followup survey; "1994 High School Transcript Study;" and "1998 High School Transcript Study." (This table was prepared February 2000.)

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