| Peter Teitelbaum
University of California, Berkeley
The impact of graduation requirements on student coursetaking and achievement
FINAL REPORT:
One of the most widely implemented educational reform efforts of the last two decades has been the adoption of increased high school graduation requirements, especially in mathematics and science. This study examines the effect of that reform. More particularly, this dissertation examines the relationships between a commonly adopted requirement that students complete three credits in mathematics and science and three expected outcomes: increases in the number of credits students earned in mathematics and science, increases in the level of mathematics and science classes completed by students, and increased student achievement in math and science, as measured by 8th to 12th grade test score gains. In order to test these relationships, I drew a national representative sample of 1992 public high school graduates from the National Educational Longitudinal Study conducted in 1988.
Analysis of these data indicates that many schools that required their students to complete three courses in math or science in order to graduate did not strictly enforce this policy, allowing a substantial percentage of students to graduate without earning three credits in these subjects. Nevertheless, three-course requirements influenced students to earn more credits in mathematics and science and at least some completed this additional coursework in advanced classes. However, student test score gains did not vary by high school graduation requirement policy. These findings suggest that increasing the number of credits students have to earn in mathematics and science to graduate from high school by itself may not be sufficient to improve student proficiency in these subjects.
Back to Funded Dissertation Grants Page |