“Traditional identification processes [for advanced courses] often rely on teacher or counselor recommendations,” said Megan Austin, a principal researcher at AIR and co-author of the study. “They can be less accurate and rely on information that reinforces [existing] course-taking patterns.”
About 25,000 9th-grade students at 110 high schools in 44 districts who tested proficient or advanced on state tests in math or English language arts were slotted into three groups: those who received a short notification, those who received a longer notification, and those who received no notification at all. Researchers controlled for student and school characteristics related to race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and English learner status.