The 1990 High School Transcript Study (HSTS) was conducted by Westat, Inc. for the U.S. Department of Education's. This study provides the Department of Education and other educational policymakers with information regarding current course offerings and students' course-taking patterns in the nation's secondary schools. Since similar studies were conducted of course-taking patterns of 1982, and 1987 graduates, one research objective was to study changes in these patterns. Another research objective was to compare course-taking patterns to study results on the 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). NAEP is a Federally-funded, ongoing, periodic assessment of educational achievement in the various subject areas and disciplines taught in the nation's schools. Since 1969, NAEP has gathered information about the levels of educational achievement of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students across the country.
