Analysis of School-Level Equity Gaps in Advanced Placement Enrollment, Assessment, and Success

• In Event: 75.042 - MTCC Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 75.042-7 - Educational Assessments and Equity in U.S. Schools

Abstract

This paper explores equity gaps between traditionally disadvantaged students in the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) program. The College Board has worked to reduce these disparities, but nationwide gaps persist. We examine these gaps at the school-level, focusing on within-school differences in educational opportunity for advanced students. We develop a metric to examine gaps in three levels of AP access: AP enrollment, AP test taking, and AP test passing, and find that within-school, as opposed to between-school, disparities in AP access are prevalent throughout the nation. We furthermore examine the effects of several school characteristics, such as school size and overall AP participation rate, on these gaps, as well as the interrelated effects of gaps at each level of access.

Authors

• Sarah C. McKenzie, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

• Roy McKenzie, University of Chicago

• Gary W. Ritter, Saint Louis University