Research Underscores Need For Tough Courses

By Lynn Olson

Washington

Most students would benefit from taking more rigorous and challenging courses in high school, according to a set of papers presented here last week at a conference on the American high school.

The papers, introduced at the Brookings Institution, a public-policy research center, show that taking more advanced coursework—particularly in mathematics and science—was linked to higher college-going and college-graduation rates and better scores on admission exams.

"The effects for course sequence could be staggering," said Barbara L. Schneider, the co-director of the Alfred P. Sloan Center on Parents, Children, and Work at...