| In the research literature, terms such as challenging curriculum, academic environment, and academic press are used to denote rigor. While “challenging curriculum” generally refers to course taking, “academic press” refers to schools having strong goals emphasizing academic achievement, an area where research is relatively new.
Parsing, page 8
WAYS TO MEASURE
- Percentage of High School Graduates with Substantial Credits in Academic Courses
- Distribution of Advanced Placement Examinations Compared with the Distribution of the High School Population by Ethnicity
Additional Ways to Measure
- Percent of students taking challenge courses, ALL core courses v. 1 or 2 courses (core courses: English, math, science and social studies)
- Percent of students taking national college entrance examinations (ACT and SAT) and mean scores, by income and ethnicity.
- Percent of high school graduates going on to postsecondary by income and ethnicity
November 2008 - A Counseling Dilemma - Minnesota has our nation's second highest student-to-school counselor ratio. That's why counselors didn't find new results by the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership surprising: The achievement gap is as vast as it ever was, Minnesota 2020.
June 2007 - Improving course rigor important to state - To preserve the health of the state’s economy, we need to take new steps to increase the number of students moving into and graduating from college. Greater course rigor is part of the solution, Minnesota Private College Council.
May 2006 - Ready for College and Ready for Work: Same or Different? - Results of a new ACT study provide empirical evidence that, whether planning to enter college or workforce training programs after graduation, high school students need to be educated to a comparable level of readiness in reading and mathematics. Graduates need this level of readiness if they are to succeed in college-level courses without remediation and to enter workforce training programs ready to learn job-specific skills, ACT, Inc. (Press Release).
October 2004 - Crisis at the Core: Preparing All Students for College and Work, concludes, "The more courses students take and the more challenging those courses, the more likely these students will be college ready and will persist to a college degree," ACT Newsroom.
October 2004 - A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students - Provides research to debunk myths about acceleration: moving through the traditional curriculum at rates faster than typical by matching the level and complexity of the curriculum with the readiness and motivation of the student, University of Iowa.
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