SCIENCE & ENGINEERING INDICATORS

Advanced Placement (AP): Courses that teach college-level material and skills to high school students who can earn college credits by demonstrating advanced proficiency on a final course exam. The College Board develops curricula and exams for AP courses, available for a wide range of academic subjects.

Elementary school: A school that has no grades higher than grade 8.

GED (General Educational Development) certificate: This award is received after successfully completing the GED test. The GED program, sponsored by the American Council on Education, enables individuals to demonstrate that they have acquired a level of learning comparable with that of high school graduates.

High school: A school that has at least one grade higher than grade 8 and no grade in K–6.

High school completer: An individual who has been awarded a high school diploma or an equivalent credential, including a GED certificate.

High school diploma: A formal document regulated by the state certifying the successful completion of a prescribed secondary school program of studies. In some states or communities, high school diplomas are differentiated by type, such as an academic diploma, a general diploma, or a vocational diploma.

Middle school: A school that has any of grades 5–8, no grade lower than grade 5, and no grade higher than grade 8.

National School Lunch Program (NSLP): Established by President Truman in 1946, the NSLP program is a federally assisted meal program operated in public and private nonprofit schools and residential childcare centers. To be eligible for free lunch, a student must be from a household with an income at or below 130% of the federal poverty guideline; to be eligible for reduced-price lunch, a student must be from a household with an income between 130% and 185% of the federal poverty guideline. Student eligibility for this program is a commonly used indicator of family poverty.

Postsecondary education: The provision of a formal instructional program with a curriculum designed primarily for students who have completed the requirements for a high school diploma or its equivalent. These programs include those with an academic, vocational, or continuing professional education purpose and exclude vocational and adult basic education programs.

Poverty (official measure): The U.S. Census Bureau uses a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty. If the total income for a family or unrelated individual falls below the relevant poverty threshold, then the family (and every individual in it) or unrelated individual is considered in poverty.

Scale score: Scale scores place students on a continuous achievement scale based on their overall performance on the assessment. Each assessment program develops its own scales.

Socioeconomic status (SES): Data sources for this report use family income measures based on U.S. Census Bureau poverty thresholds or participation in the National School Lunch Program as indicators of socioeconomic status. Data drawn from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 use a composite variable that includes parent education and occupation plus family income to determine socioeconomic status levels.

AP: Advanced Placement

ECLS-K:2011: Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11

GED: General Educational Development

GPA: grade point average

HSLS:09: High School Longitudinal Study of 2009

IB: International Baccalaureate

IEA: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement

IMF: International Monetary Fund

K–12: kindergarten through 12th grade

NAEP: National Assessment of Educational Progress

NAGB: National Assessment Governing Board

NCES: National Center for Education Statistics

NSF: National Science Foundation

NSLP: National School Lunch Program

PISA: Program for International Student Assessment

S&E: science and engineering

SES: socioeconomic status

STEM: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

STW: skilled technical workforce

TEL: Technology and Engineering Literacy

TIMSS: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study