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I-10a: Mean Number of High School Course Credits Earned in Broad Subject Areas, Graduation Years 1990–2019

* Includes civics/government/politics, economics, psychology, sociology, U.S. and world history, and world geography.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), "2019 NAEP High School Transcript Study Results: Coursetaking—Academic Course Credits,” https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/hstsreport/#coursetaking_0_2_el (accessed 4/19/2022). Data presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

This indicator focuses on trends in course-taking in public and private high schools. To ensure that the estimates are consistent over time and across institutions, credits are reported in Carnegie units (one of which is equal to 120 hours of classroom instruction).

Social studies, as defined by the National Center for Education Statistics (the collector of the data on which this indicator is based), includes history, as well as several subjects that are not treated as part of the humanities for the purposes of the Humanities Indicators. (For an explanation of the way in which the “humanities” is conceptualized by the Humanities Indicators, please see the scope statement.)

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