diff --git a/cms/static/js/spec/views/pages/course_outline_spec.js b/cms/static/js/spec/views/pages/course_outline_spec.js
index a7a3c2639a..9800a3261b 100644
--- a/cms/static/js/spec/views/pages/course_outline_spec.js
+++ b/cms/static/js/spec/views/pages/course_outline_spec.js
@@ -635,6 +635,7 @@ define(['jquery', 'edx-ui-toolkit/js/utils/spec-helpers/ajax-helpers', 'common/j
                     saveHighlights();
 
                     expectServerHandshakeWithHighlights(updatedHighlights);
+                    expectHighlightLinkNumberToBe(updatedHighlights.length);
 
                     openHighlights();
                     expectHighlightsToBe(updatedHighlights);
diff --git a/cms/static/js/views/xblock_outline.js b/cms/static/js/views/xblock_outline.js
index 578ea70218..28312802ca 100644
--- a/cms/static/js/views/xblock_outline.js
+++ b/cms/static/js/views/xblock_outline.js
@@ -224,7 +224,11 @@ define(['jquery', 'underscore', 'gettext', 'js/views/baseview', 'common/js/compo
             },
 
             onSync: function(event) {
-                if (ViewUtils.hasChangedAttributes(this.model, ['visibility_state', 'child_info', 'display_name'])) {
+                var hasChangedAttributes = ViewUtils.hasChangedAttributes(
+                    this.model,
+                    ['visibility_state', 'child_info', 'display_name', 'highlights']
+                );
+                if (hasChangedAttributes) {
                     this.onXBlockChange();
                 }
             },