Academic math and science courses have been long shown to increase learning and educational attainment, but are they sufficient on their own to prepare youth for the challenges and rigor of the STEM workforce? Or, are there distinctive benefits to complementing these traditional academic courses with applied ones? Answers to these questions are particularly critical as schools try to balance the competing demands of providing youth with the applied skills and knowledge to thrive in the adult labor force while at the same time ensuring they are meeting high standards of academic competency that are required for college. With respect to the latter, the emphasis on standardized testing has exacerbated these concerns, and in some cases, test preparation and an over emphasis on academic subjects has "crowded out" other components of the curriculum. With these competing demands and faced with limited resources, education policy makers must make informed choices regarding how to best structure their curriculum to meet the needs of a diverse student population. To this end, the proposed project will address three research questions: (1) What applied STEM courses are most commonly taken by high school students?; (2) To what extent are high school students taking both academic and applied STEM courses?; and (3) Do applied STEM courses in high school improve achievement in math? (Contains 2 tables and 3 footnotes.)