Examining Effects of Advanced Course Automatic Enrollment Policies and Automatic Notification Tools
Taking advanced courses in high school predicts positive outcomes, but many students who are prepared to take an advanced course are overlooked for participation using current student nomination practices. Policies such as “Algebra for all” that accelerate middle school students into advanced courses are well studied, but little is known about newer academic acceleration policies for high school students that target students who are academically prepared. Academic acceleration policies use universal screening and behavioral nudges to identify and enroll students in advanced courses if they scored proficient or higher on state standardized tests.
AIR is studying the outcomes of automatic enrollment policies and an automatic notification tool designed to increase students’ access to advanced courses. This project involves two tasks:
- Analyzing data from districts in Washington state with automatic enrollment policies to examine whether these policies increased students’ access to advanced courses and their subsequent academic performance; and
- Developing and studying an automatic notification tool embedded in a student information system that identifies students who were previously overlooked for advanced courses.
The goal of both tasks is to provide insights into the effectiveness of different approaches to automating enrollment into advanced courses.
Impact of Washington State's Academic Acceleration Policy
Academic acceleration began as a district-level policy in Washington state, and a statewide policy was passed in 2019. Washington’s academic acceleration policy is designed to reduce barriers to participation in advanced high school courses.
When first implemented, the policy automatically identified all students in 11th and 12th grades as qualified for advanced courses if their scores on statewide standardized assessments in English Language Arts and/or math met the state’s proficiency standard. Students were then automatically enrolled into an advanced course in the relevant subject (e.g., Honors English instead of regular English, Advanced Placement Precalculus instead of regular precalculus). Students received information about the benefits of advanced courses and had a chance to opt out if desired.
AIR is exploring the effects of these district-level automatic enrollment policies on students' participation in advanced courses and their subsequent achievement and attainment. Additionally, AIR is examining the effects of being automatically enrolled into advanced courses on students’ postsecondary outcomes and trends over time in advanced course participation.
Effects of an Automatic Notification Tool
AIR developed an automatic notification tool as a scalable alternative to automatic enrollment policies. The tool is embedded into the course planner of a large student information system. We are conducting a large-scale randomized control trial of the tool, randomizing 110 schools in 44 districts to one of three conditions.
In the treatment schools, the tool first identified 9th grade students who scored proficient or higher on state standardized tests or whose prior course grades indicated proficiency. Students in both treatment groups received a notification encouraging them to consider selecting an advanced course for 10th grade. For students in the second treatment group, the notification also described the benefits of enrolling in an advanced course. Students in the control group did not receive either notification type. AIR is examining the effects of receiving a notification on students’ course selection, enrollment, and success.
