Concerns that higher standards and demanding high-stakes tests will disadvantage students who have attended weak, unsuccessful, or under-resourced schools have typically been met with the counter-claim that poorly prepared students will be provided with the extra help and support they need to succeed. Efforts to provide extra help are in their…

Little is known about the feasibility and rapidity with which the academic learning of students who enter high school multiple years behind grade level can be accelerated. This study uses multiple regression analyses of standardized test and survey data from high-poverty high schools in two large urban districts to evaluate initial effects of the…