Incentives to Participate
Postsecondary Achievement
The U.S. Department of Education has conducted three long-term studies that track students from the sophomore year of high school through age 30. The research shows that there is a strong link between the courses completed in high school and postsecondary degree completion. Students who took Algebra 2, for example, earned a bachelor's degree 39.5 percent of the time, while students who stopped at geometry earned a bachelor's degree only 23.1 percent of the time. (Adelman, chapter 1, table 6) The rigor of academic courses completed has proved to be a better predictor of success in postsecondary education than a student's GPA or class rank.
Adelman, Clifford, Answers in the Tool Box: Academic Intensity, Attendance Patterns, and Bachelor's Degree Attainment (Washington, DC; U.S. Department of Education, 1999.) http://www.ed.gov/pubs/toolbox/
