Academic Course Indicators
Wave III Education Data Users’ Guides

The Academic Courses Component of AHAA contains academic status and/or performance indicators for math, science, foreign language, English, history/social sciences, physical education (PE), and a combined category (overall) which includes all coursework taken including non-core and non-academic classes. Up to six types of Academic Course indicators were constructed for each of these subjects, and for the overall category. These include course sequence variables, course type indicators, course grade measures, course failures, semesters attempted, and credits earned variables.

Course sequence variables measure the trajectories or strands of courses taken by students in highly differentiated and sequentially ordered subjects. Because math, science, and foreign language courses are typically organized into hierarchical, linear sequences – meaning successive courses are recognized as being more advanced and generally requiring more prerequisites – variables that capture students’ location within these subjects’ course hierarchies in each year and by the end of high school were created. ‘B’ versions of the math and science course sequence variables were also constructed where students were placed at a given level in the math and science course structures only if they received credit for courses taken.

Course type variables facilitate identification of the degree of difficulty and/or type of coursework taken by students in certain subjects; specifically, analysts can explore these variables to determine if students took honors, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), or remedial courses in English and history/social science in each year of high school coursetaking.

Grade point average (GPA) variables capture students’ academic performance in the key curricular subjects (math, science, foreign language, English, history/social science, and PE) as well as across all subjects including non-core and non-academic courses (overall). Measures of students’ subject-specific and overall GPAs were produced for each year of high school course-taking and cumulatively across all years of high school.

Course failure or failure index variables were constructed to facilitate examination of the extreme low end of academic achievement. Separate failure index measures were produced for math, science, foreign language, English, and history/social science. Overall measures of the proportion of courses that students failed in each year of coursetaking and cumulatively across all years of high school are also available.

The final two sets of constructed Academic Courses indicators consist of semesters attempted and credits earned variables which convey information about the intensity of students’ exposure to course content. Specifically, these variables inform the analyst of the number of semester-length courses students attempted in each of the core academic subjects per year of high school, and the amount of credit, if any, students received for them. Overall semesters attempted and credits earned variables were also produced to enable analytical assessment of the total amount of coursework students took and received credit for in each year and cumulatively.

Users’ Guides and Associated Data Files

Math, Science, and Overall, 2008
edumsov1 and edumsov2: These data files contain indicators that capture information about students’ math, science, and overall academic experiences and achievement. Indicators include semesters attempted and credits earned. Note that course sequence (regular and ‘B’ versions), course grades (GPA), and course failure (failure index measures) variables are not included in these files. These are included in data file edu1. The 2007 version of this User Guide (referencing data file edumsov) is available under Archived Users’ Guides

English, 2007
edueng: This data file contains English Academic Courses indicators, including course type, course grades (GPA), course failures (failure index measures), semesters attempted, and credits earned.

History and Social Sciences, 2007
eduhis: This data files contains history/social sciences Academic Courses indicators, including course type, course grades (GPA), course failures (failure index measures), semesters attempted, and credits earned.

Foreign Language, 2008
eduflng1 and eduflng2: These data files contain foreign language Academic Courses indicators, including course sequence (no 'B' version), course type, course grades (GPA), course failures (failure index measures), semesters attempted, and credits earned. The 2007 version of this User Guide (referencing data file eduflng) is available under Archived Users’ Guides

Physical Education, 2008
edupe1 and edupe2: This data file contains physical education Academic Courses indicators, including course type, course grades (GPA), and credits earned. The 2007 version of this User Guide (referencing data file edupe) is available under Archived Users’ Guides