The Benefits of Advanced Math Placement in High School

• In Event: 32.048 - College and Career Readiness: Evidence on Standards, Vocational Education, and Advanced Placement

Abstract

Prior research shows that students who take more rigorous coursework in high school have better secondary and postsecondary outcomes, but that access to advanced course-taking is often unequal. This study uses data from the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009 to estimate the extent to which similar students placed into different math courses in 9th grade differ in terms of their 11th grade math achievement. Results show that even when accounting for prior ability and the nonrandom selection of students into different 9th grade courses, students placed into geometry instead of algebra or pre-algebra score higher on an 11th grade math assessment. This finding underscores the need to examine tracking policies that may unfairly privilege certain types of students.

Author

• Brendan Bartanen, Vanderbilt University