Though AP courses are becoming more widespread and readily available for high school students, the composition of students who receive credit for the courses is very uniform and predictable...white and Asian kids. While the courses are very successful for these students, there is a continuous misrepresentation of minorities within the list of passing students. We will touch on the very sizable achievement gap that exists between the different ethnicities of test takers as well as conducting research in order to better understand why these inequalities exist and what in particular may cause them in order to see if there is a correlation between race and students chances in passing the tests in order to receive college credit.
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| The College Board,
Advanced Placement Program, National
Summary Report, 2008 |
What Is AP?
Advanced Placement or “AP” courses are classes offered within traditional high school buildings, that with the completion of the course and proficiency on an end of the year exam, results in students receiving college credit for the class they have taken. This leaves those students with an enormous advantage when it comes to colleges deciding who they want to permit access into their university. These courses are offered to students for free by The College Board, who is also famous for their well-known SAT test which is seen as a requirement to build the profile of incoming college freshman.
AP courses can be seen as an amazing resource by many as these courses are free for students. Unfortunately, just like most opportunities that host “equal opportunity”, there are several other underlying factors that can be found within the structure and the policies of the AP courses and exams that go against this equality initiative. When looking at the results of the end of year exams there can be a huge, very visible achievement gap found between the different ethnicities and races of test takers. Examiners continue to see more and more students participating in these exams each year but the constant increase in numbers of students earning credit for the courses does not reflect in the new found diversity of test takers.
AP courses can be seen as an amazing resource by many as these courses are free for students. Unfortunately, just like most opportunities that host “equal opportunity”, there are several other underlying factors that can be found within the structure and the policies of the AP courses and exams that go against this equality initiative. When looking at the results of the end of year exams there can be a huge, very visible achievement gap found between the different ethnicities and races of test takers. Examiners continue to see more and more students participating in these exams each year but the constant increase in numbers of students earning credit for the courses does not reflect in the new found diversity of test takers.
Table 4. Logit estimates of student AP participationa
| White | Hispanic | Black | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | |
| Sophomore | 1.58∗∗∗ | 1.26∗∗∗ | 1.53∗∗∗ | 1.59∗∗∗ | 1.48∗∗∗ | 1.79∗∗∗ |
| (0.06) | (0.06) | (0.08) | (0.07) | (0.21) | (0.18) | |
| Junior | 3.96∗∗∗ | 4.19∗∗∗ | 3.53∗∗∗ | 3.74∗∗∗ | 4.05∗∗∗ | 4.52∗∗∗ |
| (0.06) | (0.05) | (0.07) | (0.07) | (0.18) | (0.16) | |
| Senior | 4.30∗∗∗ | 4.43∗∗∗ | 3.79∗∗∗ | 3.87∗∗∗ | 4.56∗∗∗ | 4.81∗∗∗ |
| (0.06) | (0.05) | (0.07) | (0.07) | (0.18) | (0.16) | |
| Ever low income | −0.72∗∗∗ | −0.80∗∗∗ | −0.62∗∗∗ | −0.57∗∗∗ | −0.66∗∗∗ | −0.79∗∗∗ |
| (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.03) | (0.03) | (0.05) | (0.04) | |
| Ever special education | −1.40∗∗∗ | −1.36∗∗∗ | −1.31∗∗∗ | −1.38∗∗∗ | −1.39∗∗∗ | −1.57∗∗∗ |
| (0.03) | (0.03) | (0.05) | (0.05) | (0.08) | (0.09) | |
| Enrollment/1000 | −0.48∗∗∗ | −0.59∗∗∗ | −0.68∗∗∗ | −0.94∗∗∗ | −0.87∗∗∗ | −1.28∗∗∗ |
| (0.04) | (0.04) | (0.08) | (0.07) | (0.14) | (0.11) | |
| (Enrollment/1000)2 | 0.04∗∗∗ | 0.06∗∗∗ | 0.09∗∗∗ | 0.16∗∗∗ | 0.16∗∗∗ | 0.25∗∗∗ |
| (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.03) | (0.03) | |
| Ever limited English proficient | – | – | −0.45∗∗∗ | −0.50∗∗∗ | – | – |
| (0.03) | (0.02) | |||||
| >75 percent students own ethnic group | – | – | 0.29∗∗∗ | 0.45∗∗∗ | −0.11 | −0.05 |
| (0.04) | (0.03) | (0.08) | (0.06) | |||
| Number of AP teachers own ethnic group | – | – | −0.01 | 0.03 | −0.03 | −0.07 |
| (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.07) | (0.05) | |||
| (AP teachers own ethnic group)2 | – | – | 0.01∗∗∗ | 0.01∗∗∗ | 0.003 | 0.01 |
| (0.003) | (0.002) | (0.02) | (0.01) | |||
| Magnet school | 0.41 | 0.07 | 0.50∗∗∗ | 0.24∗∗∗ | -0.08 | -0.11 |
| (0.09) | (0.09) | (0.10) | (0.09) | (0.10) | (0.08) | |
| AP science and math classes | 0.09∗∗∗ | 0.04∗∗∗ | 0.03∗∗∗ | 0.01 | -0.01 | -0.01 |
| (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.01) | |
| AP English classes | 0.14∗∗∗ | 0.27∗∗∗ | 0.15∗∗∗ | 0.22∗∗∗ | 0.17∗∗∗ | 0.22∗∗∗ |
| (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.04) | (0.03) | |
| AP arts classes | 0.04∗∗∗ | 0.02∗∗∗ | 0.04∗∗ | 0.03∗∗ | 0.04 | -0.07∗∗∗ |
| (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.02) | (0.01) | (0.03) | (0.02) | |
| AP foreign language classes | 0.05∗∗∗ | 0.08∗∗∗ | – | – | 0.04∗∗ | 0.10∗∗∗ |
| (0.01) | (0.005) | (0.02) | (0.01) | |||
| AP Spanish language classes | – | – | 0.23∗∗∗ | 0.29∗∗∗ | – | – |
| (0.02) | (0.02) | |||||
| AP non-Spanish foreign language classes | – | – | 0.08∗∗∗ | 0.09∗∗∗ | – | – |
| (0.01) | (0.01) | |||||
| AP social science classes | 0.10∗∗∗ | 0.08∗∗∗ | 0.06∗∗∗ | 0.07∗∗∗ | 0.14∗∗∗ | 0.09∗∗∗ |
| (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.01) | (0.02) | (0.02) | |
| School in large urban area | 0.52∗∗∗ | 0.63∗∗∗ | 0.19∗∗∗ | 0.09∗∗∗ | 0.30∗∗∗ | 0.37∗∗∗ |
| (0.03) | (0.03) | (0.03) | (0.03) | (0.07) | (0.05) | |
| School in small urban area | 0.23∗∗∗ | 0.27∗∗∗ | 0.16∗∗∗ | 0.16∗∗∗ | −0.43∗∗∗ | −0.29∗∗∗ |
| (0.03) | (0.03) | (0.05) | (0.04) | (0.11) | (0.08) | |
| School in rural area | 0.02 | 0.07∗∗∗ | −0.18∗∗∗ | −0.20∗∗∗ | −0.44∗∗∗ | −0.61∗∗∗ |
| (0.03) | (0.02) | (0.04) | (0.04) | (0.10) | (0.08) | |
| Dallas: AP incentives | 0.30∗∗∗ | 0.63∗∗∗ | 0.30∗∗∗ | 0.46∗∗∗ | 0.97∗∗∗ | 0.86∗∗∗ |
| (0.08) | (0.08) | (0.07) | (0.06) | (0.08) | (0.06) | |
| N | 194,289 | 188,754 | 129,774 | 125,365 | 49,998 | 50,111 |
- a
- Standard errors are in parentheses. ∗∗∗p≤0.01; ∗∗p≤0.05; ∗p≤0.10.
- Klopfenstein, Kristin. “Advanced Placement: Do Minorities Have Equal Opportunity?” Economics of Education Review, Pergamon, 17 Sept. 2003, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775703000761.
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