Boys in Advanced Placement: Popularity, Relationships, and Academic Rigor at an Urban School

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Beyond the Binary: Unraveling Gendered Discourses Across the Curriculum

Abstract

Advanced Placement (AP) courses offer high school students an opportunity to prepare for college. However, profound disparities exist in AP. Black and Latino boys in urban contexts take fewer AP courses than their white and female peers. While much literature has investigated the academic performance of young men, less has sought to understand their engagement in rigorous learning opportunities. This mixed-methods study employs social network analysis and relational ethnography to interrogate the relational contexts of AP participation of young men of color. The data illuminate two findings for young men at an urban high school. First, young men's friendships are important influences on academic decision-making. Second, two types of popularity - reputational and interpersonal - compel different approaches to AP participation.

Author

• Suneal H. Kolluri, University of California - Riverside