Understanding Student Enrollment in Advanced Courses: The Implementation of Washington’s Academic Acceleration Policy

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  In Roundtable Session: Opening Doors or Shifting Barriers? Policy Implementation and Futures of Educational Access

Abstract

This study examines the implementation of Academic Acceleration, a Washington policy aimed at increasing participation in advanced courses. In theory, if the policy were fully implemented as intended, nearly all eligible students would be expected to be enrolled in an advanced course. However, in practice, while the policy did increase enrollment among eligible students, many eligible students did not enroll in an advanced course and some not-eligible students did. We consider student- and school-level factors and theories of within-school sorting to understand the implementation of the policy. Our findings suggest that students’ prior coursetaking and grades and schools’ capacity constraints were strongly related to enrollment in advanced courses among eligible students.

Authors

• Megan Austin, American Institutes for Research

• Preeya Pandya Mbekeani, American Institutes for Research