Explaining race, poverty, and gender disparities in advanced course-taking

Posted by on October 19, 2009

For higher minority AP enrollment, the long view

The latest research from the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management explores the wide disparities in advanced high school course-taking among race, poverty, and gender groups in Florida. The study finds that black and Latino students are less likely to enroll in advanced courses like Advanced Placement than their white peers because they arrive to high school with lower scores on eighth-grade statewide exams. When black and Latino students have the same eighth-grade test scores as whites, they are more likely than white students to enroll in these courses. Gaps in pre-high school performance explain much of the advantage of non-poor students over poor students, but don’t appear to drive the higher rates of advanced course-taking among Asians and females. Despite concerns that schools serving minority and low-income students don’t offer advanced courses, the report found few such disparities in Florida. In fact, Florida’s black and Latino students attend schools more likely to offer advanced courses than do white students. The authors therefore support greater investments in disadvantaged children long before they enter high school, and suggest that a reallocation of students to different high schools is unlikely to remedy racial disparities in course-taking and may, in fact, increase them.

See an abstract of the report: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122590952/abstract