To: / Dr. Hilary Loeb and Ms. Jennifer Flaming, Puget Sound Educational Services District
From: / Mr. AlexanderBentz, Ms. Stacey Cataylo, and Dr. Jennifer Laird, RTI International
Subject: / Course Availability Study –Methodology and Key Findings
Attachments: / Course Availability Tables and Figures.xlsx(referenced)
The Race to the Top District Consortium (RTT-D) grant aims to strengthen district and school capacity to provide rigorous courses to high school students. The grant created an investment fund that districts may access to increase academic rigor and broaden the variety of college and career ready courses available to better prepare their students for their lives after high school. The rationale for this investment is located in scholarshipindicating that students completing rigorous courses have greater likelihood of college acceptance and success in college (Gollub, Bertenthal, Labov, and Curtis 2002; Adelman 2006). Other analyses illustrate that low income students and students of color have less access to courses that are academically challenging (Theokas and Saaris2013).
The Race to the Top Stay Strong team and the Puget Sound Coalition for College and Career Readiness commissioned a study to better understand the availability of academically challenging courses in the high schools in South King County. This memorandum presents the methodology used by RTI to examine course offerings and dual credit course taking for students attending Race to the Top Region secondary schools. A second section summarizes key findings.The third section provides conclusions and discusses next steps in better understanding the factors that contribute to course availability in districts served by the Race to the Top (RTT-D) grant.
- Study Methodology
To assess variation in course availability and dual credit enrollment across secondary schools within the Race to the Top Region, RTI International analyzed data provided by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and master schedules provided by seven school districts in South King County (Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Kent, Renton, Seattle and Tukwila). The results are presented in descriptive tables and figures illustrating variation between high-need and non-high-need schools in the Race to the Top Region. A high-need school is defined by the RTT-D Road Map District Consortium Application as a high school with 55% or more students qualifying for free or reduced price lunch. The methodology used to analyze course availability is described first, followed by the methodology used to examine dual credit enrollment.
- Course Availability
RTI International identified with the Puget Sound Coalition for College and Career Readiness, areas and courses that were of particular interest for students, schools, districts, and other stakeholders committed to improving college readinessand success for all students, particularly those attending high-need schools. These courses help to satisfy college admission requirements of Washington state bachelor-granting institutions. To focus the scope of this study, the partners identified four areas of analysis: 1)College Academic Distribution Requirements (CADR)-satisfyingmath courses, 2) CADR-satisfyinglab science courses, 3) second-level world language courses, and 4) dual credit courses that were a part of the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) program or the International Baccalaureate (IB) program.
College Academic Distribution Requirements (CADR)
The Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) adopted the College Academic Distribution Requirements (CADR) as a set of common requirements for admission into state baccalaureate-granting programs. CADRs include requirements for course credits earned while in a graduating class in secondary school. Each district determines which courses qualify for these requirements and each postsecondary institution determines its own admission requirements; however, these requirements serve as a guide for the courses required to attend a bachelor degree-granting institution in Washington State. For the purpose of this study, we focused on the math, science and world language requirements. In order for students to earn these credits, courses must be readily available to students – this study assesses the extent of that availability.
CADR Math Requirement
To satisfy CADR, students must earn one credit in each of three core classes: Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II or their Integrated Math counterparts. In addition, they must earn one credit in a quantitative course during their senior year. The course can be one of the core math classes or a math-based quantitative course, e.g. Statistics, an appropriate Career and Technical Education (CTE) course, or an algebra-based science course. The master schedules do not indicate when students are taking a class so we chose to count core CADR satisfying classes and high-level math courses that students may choose to enroll in in order to prepare themselves for college-level math coursework and to improve their college admission chances. To assess availability of these courses, RTI counted the number of sections of each core class offered as well as offerings of other CADR satisfyingcourses and AP/IB (see “Dual Credit Courses” below) math courses. The Puget Sound Coalition for College and Career Readiness asked RTI to specifically look for Engineering courses that districts note as fulfilling CADR. Based on the master schedules provided, RTI did not see any Engineering courses that were noted as fulfilling the CADR requirements butengineering courses taught through the CTE department or other departments could be used for the senior year math requirement (
CADR Science Requirement
CADR requires students to earn two credits in a lab science course including at least one credit in an “algebra-based” science course. Each district determines which course offerings satisfy this lab science requirement. To assess availability of lab science courses, RTI counted the number of sections of each of three “standard” science courses (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics) and other lab science courses and AP/IB (see “Dual Credit Courses” below) science courses.
CADR World Language Requirement
To fulfill CADR, students must earn two credits in the same World Language, Native American Language, or American Sign Language. To assess availability of courses to meet this requirement, RTI counted the number of second-level language courses offered at each school. To complete the requirement, students must take a second-level course or higher at some point during their secondary studies. In this study, second-level course availability is considered the most important indicator of opportunities to complete this requirement. Separately, RTI counted the number of AP/IB language courses offered (see “Dual Credit Courses” below).
Dual Credit Courses
Completing a dual credit course offers secondary students the opportunity to gain experience in college-level coursework, earn college credit, and potentially improve their college admission chances. RTI counted courses that prepared students for tests in two major dual credit programs: Advanced Placement (AP, administered by The College Board) and International Baccalaureate (IB). Each of these programs offer curriculum in math, science, world languages, English/literature, social science, art and other academic disciplines preparing students for college coursework.
Course Availability Coding
With help from Puget Sound Coalition for College and Career Readiness, master schedules were collected from each comprehensive public secondary school in the Race to the Top Region, listing each course offered at each school. Schedules were sent from districts in a variety of formats including spreadsheets and PDF tables. Some districts sent schedules for all of their schools in a consistent format exported from a digital management system while others sent individual schedules for each school.
Using information from these schedules, RTI International counted the number of sections offered in each school for the four areas of analysis identified above (CADR math, CADR lab science, world languages, and AP/IB dual credit enrollment). When possible, course catalogs were collected from each school’s website or from district or school contacts to clarify characteristics of course offerings. Courses offered virtually (e.g. Apex courses in Auburn) were not counted.
District and School Follow-ups
In the majority of cases where updated course catalogs were not available or where course catalogs did not sufficiently identify course attributes of interest (e.g. whether a science course qualified as a lab science), with the help of Puget Sound Coalition for College and Career Readiness, RTI set up follow-up phone calls or emails with district and/or school contacts. These contacts were asked to confirm details about their schools’ curriculum and course offerings. Unfortunately this study fell during a particularly busy time for districts so assumptions were made during counts that are noted in the methodology and footnotes. In particular, Seattle Public Schools, which serves the largest number of students, was unable to respond to all the questions about the Microsoft Excel version of their master schedule and as such a conservative approach was adopted to count courses and there is likely underrepresentation of Seattle Public School secondary course offerings in our counts.
Potential Issues
There were several aspects to course schedule coding that proved difficult and may have affected the accuracy to which RTI was able to represent each school’s course offerings and comparability between schools and districts. These issues arise because of wide variation in the curricula, course sequences and support programs each school offers. Each school organizes its courses and schedule in the way that makes the most sense for their situation. For example, in some schools Algebra II will be named “Algebra 3-4” as it is the third and fourth semester of Algebra taken. Science courses are taken in much different standard sequences in different schools and some schools require Physical Science while others do not offer it at all. Readers are cautioned in the interpretation of results for individual courses because the expectation or requirement to take a particular course at each school varies widely.
Another issue arises in how schools offer dual credit courses to students with special education needs and English language learners (ELL).For the purposes of this study, RTI does not include any courses offered by Special Education or ELL staff. We also did not include any courses that are designated as “support” or “learning lab” courses which are meant as a complement to enrollment in a standard math or science course. These courses do not satisfy CADR requirements for college admission and thus do not directly affect college readiness in the way this report defines it. However, this methodological choice may punish schools that serve larger populations of special education or ELL.
Because counts were restricted to courses taught in the Math, Science, and other departments teaching AP or IB courses, Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses were not considered despite the STEM focus of many CTE courses (e.g. Drafting Engineering) and the potential use of CTE courses in the senior year math requirement.
Additionally, there are gaps in capturing advanced course studies when high school level course offerings in middle school are accounted for. While we are counting the number of Algebra 1 classes as an indicator of CADR math course availability, it is known that Algebra 1 is offered to middle school students. The same limitationapplies to students with advanced language skills who can skip levels of a language course sequence or test out of the language requirement.
Analysis Methodology
Number of Sections
Using the coding process outline above (see “Course Availability: Coding”), RTI counted the number of year-long sections offered at each secondary school within the Race to the Top Region. Sections that were split between two different subjects were each counted as one half of a section. These results are presented in table and figures aggregated to the Race to the Top Region and each district by school high-need status (see “Identifying High-need Schools” below).
Percent of Students Potentially Servedin a Cohort
The number of sections of a particular course cannot becomparedbetween different schools because each school serves a different number of students. A school with twice as many students may be expected to offer twice as many Algebra I courses. To control for this, RTIutilized a three-step process to estimate course availability: (1) RTI multiplied each section by 30 students to estimate the number of students that could be served; (2) divided the number of students enrolled in grades 9 through 12, from the 2012-13 Common Core of Data (CCD), by four to get the estimated size of the a class cohort; and (3)divided the estimated number of students that could be served by the estimated size of a class cohort to calculate the percentage of students potentially served in a cohort.
Sample calculation:
Puget High offers 5 Algebra I courses and 2012-13 CCD enrollment is 4,200.
1.)5 courses*30 students= 150 potential students potentially served
2.)4,200/4 = 1,050 students estimated in a class cohort
3.)150/1,050 = 14.2% of students potentially served in a class cohort
It is important to recognize that RTI does not have data on actual enrollment in these courses. This part of our study measures only course availability.
Identifying High-need Schools
To look at differences in course availability between high-need and non-high-need schools, RTI used a list of schools designated as high-need schools for the 2011-12 school year by the Puget Sound Race to the Top Road Map Region project. By their definition, a high-need school is a secondary school with 55% or more of its students qualifying to free or reduced price lunch. A full list is available at the Road Map Region website:
ii. Dual Credit Course Enrollment
As a complement to the course availability study, RTI International analyzed dual enrollment data available from the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. In contrast to the course availability measures analyzed in the other sections of this report, these data measure actual student enrollment in dual-credit courses or programs. These data give a picture of the relative degree to which students in different schools within the Race to the Top region enroll in dual-credit programs including The College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Running Start, Tech Prep, Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education, as well as students enrolled in college courses attending secondary school.
Analysis Methodology
Number of Students Enrolled
For each individual program (i.e. AP, IB, etc.), this is the number of students who are taking one or more courses or are enrolled at all in that particular program. If a student is taking more than one course in a particular program, they are counted only once. Similarly, the Number of Students in All Dual Credit programs is the number of students enrolled in one or more dual-credit program. If a student is enrolled in more than one program, they are counted only once.
Percent of Students Enrolled
The number of students enrolled in a program is not meaningfully comparable between different schools because each school serves a different number of students. A school with twice as many students may be expected to have twice as many students enrolled in a dual-credit program.To control for this, RTI divided the number of students enrolled in dual credit enrollment courses by the total enrollment in grades 9 through 12, from the 2012-13 Common Core of Data (CCD).
Sample calculation:
Puget High has 1,200 students enrolled in Advanced Placements courses and 2012-13 CCD enrollment is 4,200.
1,200/4,200 = 28.6% of students enrolled.
This gives a clearer picture of variation in dual credit enrollment between schools within the Race to the Top region.
- Key Findings
This section of the memorandum provides a high-level summary of the key findings of the course availability and dual credit enrollment analyses.
CADR-qualified Math Course Availability
Race to the Top Region secondary schools provided enough sections of CADR-satisfying Math courses (1,189) during the 2014-15 school year to potentially serve approximately 353percent of a class cohort (Table/Figure 1). At high-need schools, there were enough courses (443) to potentially serve approximately 392percent of students (or approximately 3.9 out of every 4 students in grades 9 through 12) while at non-high-need schools, these number of sections offered (746) could potentially serve only 333percent of students (or approximately 3.3 out of every 4 students in grades 9 through 12). High-need schools offered relatively more sections of the lower level Math courses required by CADR (Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II) but less sections of Integrated Math. High-need schools could potentially serve305percent of a class cohort versus the 228percent of a class cohort that could potentially be served in non-high-need schools. However, non-high-need schools offered relatively more high-level CADR satisfying Math courses (such as Pre-calculus, Calculus, and Statistics as well as AP/IB courses), potentially serving up to 105percent of a class cohort relative to 87percent of a class cohort in high-need schools.
Lab Science Course Availability
Secondary schools within the Race to the Top Region varied in their offerings of lab science courses. Of the 1,001 total lab science courses offered, 380were in high-need schools while 621were in non-high-need schools (Table/Figure 2). These courses could potentially serve 336percent and 277percent of students in a class cohort respectively. High-need schools had relatively more sections offered in Biology and Chemistry. Non-high-need schools offered relatively more (enough courses to serve nearly 29percent of students) AP science courses than high-need schools (enough courses to serve approximately 11 percent of a class cohort).