This robust mixed-methods study examines ninth-grade advanced course placement in Arkansas, revealing disparities rooted in race and socioeconomic status. Utilizing a logit analysis for a five-year pooled sample (n = 163,616), we find persistent enrollment gaps for Black ninth-grade students after controlling for prior academic achievement,…

This study evaluates a curriculum policy that required college preparatory coursework for all students, using data from Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Beginning in 1997, CPS ended remedial coursework and required all students to complete a college-preparatory course sequence for graduation. In this study, the authors constrain their analysis to the…

Although the Illinois school attendance statute does not allow youth to drop out of school before the age of 16 years, many of the students listed as chronic truants are actually dropouts. Computer analyses of school records in the Chicago Public Schools were conducted to assess the number of eighth graders who never entered ninth grade. Later,…