Washington State's automatic-enrollment academic acceleration policy is associated with more equitable advanced course offerings, reversing the typical gap¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2020 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? In Washington, 59% of schools serving larger percentages of students of color offer Calculus, compared to 49% of schools serving smaller percentages, following an automatic-enrollment policy. → Leung 2020

Evidence¶

Leung 2020¶

Leung, M., Cardichon, J., Scott, C., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2020). Inequitable opportunity to learn: Access to advanced mathematics and science courses. Learning Policy Institute. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/crdc-course-access

q2 · i? · associational · r2

State-level CRDC analysis identifying Washington as an outlier. The report attributes the pattern to a policy in which "students meeting set academic standards are automatically enrolled in advanced courses" rather than requiring opt-in, begun in the Federal Way district in 2010 and enacted statewide as HB 1599 in 2019.

"For example, we found that 59% of schools serving larger percentages of students of color offered Calculus, compared to only 49% of schools serving smaller percentages of these students."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Florida shows more equitable advanced course offerings between high- and low-poverty schools, attributed by others to statewide opportunity efforts begun in the early 2000s — related
• U.S. high schools with high enrollments of students from low-income families are less likely to offer advanced mathematics courses than low-poverty schools — reports the opposite
• U.S. high schools with high student of color enrollment are less likely to offer advanced mathematics courses than schools with low student of color enrollment — reports the opposite
• State-level disparities in advanced course access are large, with New York showing a 54-percentage-point Calculus gap between low- and high-student-of-color-enrollment schools — related
• Automatic (opt-out) enrollment policies increase enrollment and success of students of color and low-income students in advanced courses, per research the brief cites — a broader claim this one bears on
• AP enrollment in Washington declined slightly (1-2 percentage points) from 2018-19 to 2021-22 among all student groups, with existing racial and income gaps unchanged — related
• U.S. high schools with high enrollments of students from low-income families are less likely to offer advanced science courses than low-poverty schools — related
• U.S. high schools with high student of color enrollment are less likely to offer advanced science courses than schools with low student of color enrollment — related
• Schools serving large numbers of students of color and students from low-income families have significantly fewer resources than schools serving more affluent White students — reports the opposite
• Access to computing instruction in US schools is limited and inequitable by school level and poverty — related