White paper
Do high flyers maintain their altitude? Performance trends of top students
2013
By: Yun Xiang, Michael Dahlin, John Cronin, Robert Theaker, Sarah Durant

Description
In this study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, achievement trends from NWEA’s longitudinal growth database were used to track students who scored at or above the 90th percentile on this assessment in order to see if they maintained their high achievement. The middle school/high school cohort consisted of 91,643 students from more than 800 schools in 28 states. Around three in five students identified as high-achieving in the first year of the study remained high-achieving in the last year of the study. Students who fell below the 90th percentile typically stayed at the 70th percentile or higher.
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Topics: High-growth schools & practices, Equity
Associated Research

Data visualization
Do high flyers maintain their altitude?
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