Public schools in the District of Columbia offer various types of specialized coursework. Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) and Dual Enrollment (DE) courses provide college credit and college preparation, while Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses provide preparation for both career and postsecondary education as well as potential opportunities for college credit.
These different types of specialized courses have a common goal of providing academically challenging content and opportunities to earn course credits and gain experiences that may improve secondary and postsecondary outcomes. For example, high-quality is correlated with improved employability skills, college readiness and enrollment in postsecondary education.
Furthermore, historically marginalized groups of students who participate in dual enrollment are more likely to earn a . College enrollment, retention, degree completion rates and income earnings are also higher for students who have participated in advanced in high school. With these known potential benefits, the number of students across the country who participate in and rapidly grew in the last decade.
In the 2024-25 school year, the 乌鸦传媒 of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) collected Course Catalog data from local education agencies (LEAs) for the second year. This analysis uses LEA-reported specialized course statuses in Course Catalog data to examine the availability of specialized course offerings at public high schools in DC. A course that is listed as an offering in an LEA’s Course Catalog submission may not necessarily be taught in that school year. The data in this blog show that individual high schools and also different wards varied in how many, what types and what subjects of specialized courses they reported offering.
Almost All DC High Schools Offer Specialized Coursework, But the Number and Type of Specialized Coursework Offerings Varied Across Schools.
In the 2024-25 school year, all DC Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter high schools in the analysis universe reported at least some specialized coursework offerings.* The most frequently reported specialized course offerings are in CTE (638), followed by AP (409), dual enrollment (404) and IB (141). Most high schools also reported a substantial number of specialized courses: nearly three out of four high schools offer more than 10 courses that were AP/IB, CTE or dual enrollment (Table 1).
Table 1. Number and Percentage of High Schools with Different Number of Specialized Course Offerings, by Specialized Course Type
*High schools that only serve students with individualized education programs (IEPs) generally reported fewer specialized course offerings and were omitted from this analysis for comparability. Education programs provided by state public agencies that serve justice involved populations generally reported fewer AP/IB offerings and more CTE offerings and were also omitted from this analysis for comparability.
Availability of Different Types of Specialized Coursework Varies Across District Wards
When examining specialized course offerings geographically, the data show that the availability and frequency of specialized coursework offerings are not evenly distributed across the District. High schools’ number of AP/IB, CTE and dual enrollment course offerings varied based on schools’ ward, and the geographic areas where high schools typically had the most and fewest offerings of each type also varied (Table 2). For wards with zero median offerings, at least half of the high schools in the ward reported no course offerings of that type. Though, other schools in the ward may have reported that type of course offering as indicated by the share of high schools with specialized coursework.
The high school’s ward used here does not necessarily reflect students’ ward of residence, as allows students to attend . Additionally, courses at the in Ward 5—and also at the in the future—are listed at students' home school.
Table 2. The Percentage of High Schools Offering the Course Type and the Median Number of Course Offerings by Course Type and Ward.
Availability of Specialized Coursework Varies by Subject Areas Across District
The likelihood of high schools offering specialized coursework in academic subjects (e.g., English, math, science, and social science) and the median number of offerings in these subjects also varied by high school ward (Table 3). Similarly, the availability and median number of specialized course offerings in industry-oriented subjects (e.g., information technology/engineering, business/marketing, and health sciences) differed across Wards (Table 4) with geographic patterns mirroring those of CTE course offerings.
Table 3. The Percentage of High Schools Offering Specialized Courses and the Median Number of Course Offerings of Any Type, by Academic Subject Area and Ward.
Table 4. The Percentage of High Schools Offering Specialized Courses and the Median Number of Offerings of Any Type, by Industry-Oriented Subject Area and Ward.
The course data collection is one of OSSE’s commitments to modernize data infrastructure to improve data quality and better measure impact, a part of OSSE’s 2023-2025 Strategic Plan. This blog highlights some of the inequities that exist in LEAs’ course catalog offerings. While more than 90 percent of high schools reported four or more specialized course offerings (AP/IB, CTE or dual enrollment) in the 2024-25 school year, the availability and number of courses offered for different types and subject of specialized coursework varied based on high schools’ ward.
Future blogs in this series will leverage data on the specialized coursework offerings available to students with different backgrounds and data on the actual courses offered by schools, instructors teaching them and the students enrolled in those courses. This information will shed further light on where specialized coursework is available and who it is serving and identify potential gaps and opportunities for policy and action.