Twentieth-century data on the numbers of students completing university matriculation examinations in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden were used to study the expansion of secondary academic education. The long-term regularity in the expansion and the differential growth curve for the two sexes suggest that the state was not…

In Israel, secondary curriculum differentiation (more diverse course offerings) was related to greater course-taking diversity, student selection of higher-level courses, higher average achievement, and greater equality of achievement. In the United States, which does not have Israel's high-stakes examination system, diverse course offerings were…