Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Taking advanced courses during high school gives students an advantage when applying to and entering college. There have been many papers about eligibility for advanced coursework, but less is known about how access to these courses varies across schools. The few existing studies found that school size, and specifically the number of students who enter high school with test scores far above average, has been the strongest predictor of whether a high school offers advanced coursework in a face-to-face format (Barker, 1985; Iatarola, Conger, & Long, 2011). The increased opportunities to a variety of courses has been an argument for consolidating high schools (Nitta, Holley, & Wrobel, 2010).

Additionally, the use of online courses is growing rapidly among K-12 students. Online courses can supplement courses otherwise not offered at the school (Holian, Alberg, Strahl, Burgette, & Cramer, 2014). This promises to increase access to advanced coursework, however, the literature documenting the differences in course offerings across high schools has not been updated to account for uptake of online courses.

This study addresses the gap in understanding access to advanced coursework in high school. We use student-level transcript administrative data from Michigan to observe the patterns of advanced course taking at the 1,056 public high schools. We find that 59 percent of students who passed precalculus by the end of their junior year take calculus or AP statistics before they graduate high school.

We explore the determinants of advanced course taking and make use of indicators of whether a course was taking virtually. Linking this data to student-test scores, we will further identify students that could succeed in advanced courses but do not have access to these courses. Preliminary findings indicate that at schools that offer calculus face-to-face, 66 percent of students whose eighth grade math test scores was at or above the 95 percentile take calculus. At schools that do not offer calculus face-to-face, 18 percent of students with similar scores take the course. Documenting these gaps in course availability will help us better understand the challenges students face during the transition to college.