Two Advanced Placement (AP) Programs, One Urban Neighborhood: The Policies and Pedagogies of AP Success

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

Abstract

Schools serving predominantly low-income students have added Advanced Placement (AP) courses rapidly over the last decade. As more students from marginalized backgrounds have enrolled in these courses, the rates at which they pass AP exams have dropped precipitously (Judson & Hobson, 2015). These harrowing statistical patterns suggest that AP expansion to students from marginalized backgrounds might be counterproductive, or as one scholar argued, “a disaster” (Lichten, 2010, p. 240). However, significant differences in AP outcomes exist between schools in the same urban neighborhoods serving very similar student populations. Through interviews of students, teachers, and administrators, as well as classroom observations at two schools in the same urban neighborhood, this study assesses why at one school students consistently pass AP tests at about 1.5 times the rate of students at the other school despite very similar rates of AP participation. This comparative case study seeks to understand how different policies and pedagogies can impact AP outcomes at urban schools, implying possibilities for AP success amongst marginalized student populations.

Author

• Suneal Kolluri, University of Southern California