Advanced Placement Course Credit and Undergraduate Student Success in STEM Gateway Courses

• In Event: College Student Success in STEM

Abstract

Millions of students take and pass Advanced Placement (AP) examinations each year. However, departmental policies to allow students to replace introductory gateway courses with “AP credit” greatly vary within and across universities. This large-scale, quantitative study examines the impact of AP credit policies on subsequent course success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Average treatment effects of skipping introductory college courses with AP credit were calculated using inverse-probability weights with regression adjustment. The analyses indicate that students who skipped college-level introductory courses performed similarly or better in subsequent STEM gateway courses. Notably, these trends also apply to students historically underserved in college environments. Therefore, departments should feel encouraged to continue or adopt AP credit policies.

Authors

• Christian Fischer, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

• Ha Nguyen, University of California - Irvine

• Yanan Feng, McKinsey & Company

• Stefano Fiorini, Indiana University

• Yasemin Kalender, University of Pittsburgh

• Christian D. Schunn, University of Pittsburgh

• Paulette Vincent-Ruz, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Kyle Whitcomb, University of Pittsburgh

• Eben Witherspoon, University of Pittsburgh

• Mark Warschauer, University of California - Irvine