When ninth graders enter an honors classroom, they are stepping onto a pathway that can shape their high school experience and beyond. Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate, dual credit, and other honor courses often open doors to academic success, college enrollment, and persistence. Students who take advanced coursework are more likely to succeed in postsecondary education, and completing advanced math is linked to higher future earnings.
Expanding access and aligning instruction and supports to meet the needs of all learners are key steps to improving rates of postsecondary education for all students. Some districts, including Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) in Nebraska, have adopted open enrollment for high school honors courses. In LPS, fewer than half of students enrolled in at least one honors class in 2022–23, raising an important question: What would help more students start and stay on an honors pathway in high school?
To help LPS understand how students access and succeed in honors courses, REL Central is studying students’ pathways into ninth‑grade honors under open enrollment. The project examines earlier academic patterns and middle school characteristics to identify what characteristics are associated with enrolling and succeeding in high school honors coursework.
A Focus on the Transition to High School
The transition from middle school to high school is a pivotal moment in a student’s academic journey. As they adapt to a new environment and make early course decisions, these choices can shape their path for years. Evidence from Tennessee suggests that enrolling in advanced coursework earlier in high school increases the likelihood of taking additional advanced courses later, reinforcing LPS leaders’ focus on grade 9 as a key entry point into sustained honors participation. REL Central’s study will examine which students enroll and succeed in honors courses in grade 9 through LPS’s open enrollment policy.
What Matters Most for Grade 9 Honors Participation?
REL Central and LPS are examining three broad categories of predictors for this study.
Student Characteristics. Prior research indicates that earlier academic achievement and experiences predict later advanced course enrollment. The study will examine how early achievement and other characteristics relate to grade 9 honors enrollment and course success.
Student Experiences. Students are more likely to take advanced courses when they receive encouragement, see an academic benefit, and feel they belong. Teachers’ encouragement (such as recommendation for a gifted program) can be especially influential for students who may be less aware of or less likely to pursue these options. Attendance and disciplinary experiences can also affect students’ readiness for rigorous coursework. The study will explore how students’ middle school experiences, such as prior honors participation, attendance patterns, and other academic experiences, relate to grade 9 honors outcomes.
Middle School Characteristics and Practices. School conditions can also shape advanced course participation. Lower student‑to‑counselor ratios are linked to stronger college‑going behaviors, and staffing patterns and teachers’ level of experience influence students’ achievement. Because achievement is tied to advanced course enrollment, these contextual factors may help explain how middle school environments shape later honors participation.
Examining Success Under Open Enrollment
Open enrollment policies remove formal barriers, but not differences in preparation, confidence, or access to information. Students’ prior preparation and instructional alignment can shape their experiences and outcomes in open enrollment courses, and students new to honors courses may need more support. National data also show participation and performance gaps on AP exams across student groups. In LPS, honors enrollment rose in the first year of open enrollment, but the district aims to further broaden access.
This study will define grade 9 honors success as taking and passing an honors course in grade 9 and continuing in honors coursework in grade 10. It will examine how predictors of enrollment and success vary for specific groups of students that have the greatest opportunity for LPS to increase participation rates. Understanding whether certain pathways are especially predictive for specific groups can help districts consider targeted supports rather than one-size-fits-all strategies.
Identifying School-Level Patterns
A distinctive feature of the study will be its analysis of middle schools’ adjusted rates of sending students into and through grade 9 honors coursework. This approach builds on the methods used in prior research examining school-level contributions to later student outcomes. By statistically accounting for differences in students’ backgrounds and prior achievement, the study will identify variation across middle schools in their average rate of graduating students who go on to take and succeed in grade 9 honors courses. It will then explore whether schools’ characteristics, such as staffing ratios, course availability, or other contextual factors, are associated with those differences. In other words, this study asks not only which students enroll in honors courses but also whether some middle school environments are particularly effective at preparing and launching students into those pathways.
From Research to Action
Although open enrollment may expand access, the key is understanding how those opportunities unfold in course selection conversations, school contexts, and students’ experiences in honors classrooms. By examining students’ experiences before and during the transition to high school, this study will explore how early academic signals and middle school environments shape who enrolls in and succeeds in grade 9 honors courses.
The goal is not just to describe patterns but to identify how to help more students engage with and thrive in rigorous coursework. These insights can help LPS district leaders, educators, and families strengthen honors pathways and offer lessons for other districts pursuing similar goals.
