Unequal Knowledge, Unequal Access: How Opportunity Without Information Limits Advanced Placement Participation Among Students From Disadvantaged Backgrounds

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

Abstract

While race and class disparities in students’ opportunities to learn have been examined extensively, less attention has been paid to how and why students differentially access available opportunities. It is not unusual for high-performing black and lower-income students to avoid taking advanced courses, especially AP classes, to protect their GPA. These students believe that a high GPA will improve their prospects for college admission; thus, even when recommended for advanced classes, the students gravitate toward less challenging courses that guarantee high grades. However, this strategy limits students’ college options, because most selective colleges and universities use advanced course-taking in admissions decisions, favoring students who have taken advantage of their school’s most challenging curricular options. Thus, while students from more advantaged backgrounds take as many advanced courses as they can to improve their chances of admission to the most selective schools, students with less knowledge of the admissions process are left behind. This paper examines why, particularly in well-resourced suburban schools—presumably with greater access to post-secondary information—black and low-income students make academic choices that undermine their college aspirations.

Author

• Karolyn D. Tyson, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill