When 9th grade students who performed below grade level in math were placed in Algebra I rather than a remedial course in California’s Sequoia Union High School District, 11th grade math achievement rose significantly, according to a working paper published in October by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University.
“Because incoming Black and Hispanic freshmen were disproportionately likely to be classified as having ‘below grade-level’ proficiency, this practice resulted in ethnoracially stratified math enrollment,” wrote study authors Thomas Dee, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, and Elizabeth Huffaker, a research fellow with the National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford.