Targeted Acceleration in Middle School Math: Impacts on College Entry, Degree Completion, and STEM

We study an accelerated 3-year math curriculum offered in the middle schools of a large urban district that enables students to finish Algebra I and Geometry before high school. Entry to the program is based on 5th-grade math test scores, with a cutoff at the 80th percentile. Continuing eligibility requires at least a B grade in the previous year; successful completion of all three years is highly correlated with an index of non-cognitive skills. Following students for 6 years after high school graduation, we find that the impacts of admission vary widely by non-cognitive skill and gender. Marginally eligible boys with high non-cognitive skills have a 33 percentage point (ppt.) increase in the probability of completing calculus by 11th grade and a 12 ppt. increase in the probability of completing a major in STEM or business within 6 years; boys with lower noncognitive skills take more advanced math classes in high school but have no significant effects on their college outcomes. Like their male peers, marginally eligible girls with high non-cognitive skills are more likely to complete calculus by 11th grade (+17 ppt.). Their rate of graduating with a STEM or business major is unaffected, but they switch from social sciences to the core STEM majors (science, engineering and math). Girls in the two lower terciles of non-cognitive skill are also strongly affected by entry to the program, with higher participation in advanced math classes in high school, higher rates of entry to selective 4-year colleges, and higher rates of completing a STEM or business major (+12 ppt).