Advanced Courses Gatekeeping? Estimating Teacher Racial Bias in Advanced Placement and Honors Recommendations

• In Event: Restricted From Rigor: Race, Class, and the Challenge of Equity in Advanced Placement

Abstract

Over the past decade, the share of high schools offering Advanced Placement courses has increased and race-based gaps in AP course offerings have decreased substantially (College Board, 2013; Conger et al., 2009). However the race-based gaps in AP course-taking have doubled in the past decade (National Center for Education Statistics, 2014)—suggesting that while students of color are more likely than ever before to attend a high school that offers at least one AP course, they are not gaining access to these courses at the same rate as their White peers. Relatively little is known about the ways in which students are selected for AP coursework, although the literature on academic tracking and recent studies on teacher racial bias suggest that students of color less likely to be considered college-bound than White students and steered away from college-preparatory coursework (Chen, Wu & Tasoff, 2010; Gershenson, Holt & Papageorge, 2016; Oakes & Guiton, 1995). This study uses data from a cohort of high school sophomores in 2002 to examine the extent of racial bias in teachers’ recommendations into college preparatory coursework, with special attention to variations in race. Early findings show that while differences in academic achievement account for some of the differences in the rates at which White students and students of color are recommended for college-prep courses, race and family income also play statistically significant roles in the probability of recommendation, net of other variables.

Author

• Awilda Rodriguez, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor