K-12 Student Coursework

Highlights

Record Level: Student by course by year 
Record Count: approx. 16-19 million courses per year (3-4 million per year 2016-2018 and ~12 million in 2018 and 2019)
Years Covered: 2011-Present 
Population Coverage: Public school students in Michigan (except in 2016-2020, see Student Reporting below)

The K-12 Student Coursework dataset is course-level data that provides information on each course taken by students. Taken from the Michigan Department of Educations Teacher-Student Data Link (TSDL) system and beginning in 2011-12, Michigan public schools were required to submit course taking information to the state; failure to submit information may reduce a school or district’s performance scorecard. Within the coursework data, we can observe the courses students take, the grade received, credits earned, and the assigned teacher and course section.

Approximately 95% of students in the main K12 student enrollment data are accounted for in the coursework data during the years for which we have comprehensive data (2012-2015 and 2021-present). The student’s unique ID (RIC) can be linked to the student and assessment databases. The teacher’s unique id (RPIC) can be linked to the Employment database, which includes more detailed data on the teacher’s background) and certifications.

Student Reporting

For years 2015-16 to 2019-2020, Michigan public schools were only required to report students that fit into the following categories: 

• Migrant education participants (grades 9-12)
• Dual enrollment participants (grades 9-12)
• Early middle College participants (grades 9-12)
• Advanced and accelerated learning (AP/IB) participants (All Grades)
• Virtual/online learning participants (All grades).

In 2018-2019, schools were also required to report students in shared time programs. This meant if a district claimed FTE for any shared-time (nonpublic/homeschool) students in membership, then all K-12 students claimed with FTE in membership (including the shared-time students) for the district must have been reported with their coursework in TSDL.

In years before 2015-16 and starting again in 2020-2021, schools are required to report all students in TSDL. The full effect of the above is that there are many fewer records per year in year between 2015-2016 and 2019-2020

Coursework Data Challenges

There are numerous challenges to using the coursework data. First, there are more than 15 million course-level observations for each academic year (in which all students are reported), which means a large and often messy file. Given that local variables such as course ID, course name, course section, and course grade are subject to local definitions and processes that are not standardized across district, trying to wrangle this large file can be difficult.

Second, a “course” does not have the same clear meaning for students in grades K-8 (especially K-5) as it does for students in high school. Indeed, over 95% of courses in grades K-5 yield zero credits earned compared to 15-20% of courses yielding zero credits in high school (mostly for receiving a failing grade). Nearly two-thirds of course observations in grades K-5 have a missing grade, compared to 10% missing in grades 6-8 and less than 1% missing in grades 9-12. There are other challenges in assigning course grades, credits, and a “main” teacher (for value-added projects and other purposes).

There are also issues with the fact that there is not a "credits attempted" variable, which also impacts attempts to calculate GPA. While a researcher can take the maximum credits earned per course as a proxy for credits attempted, there are a number of unique district issues too look out for, such as courses that are connected to another course where the grade is listed for both but only one receives credits attempted.

For many potential projects, researchers may wish to use the coursework file to create a student-by-year level file, where the observations includes the student’s GPA, total credits earned, courses attempted and passed, class sizes, teacher assignments in core academic subjects, and levels of courses taken (AP, honors, etc.).