UCLA

Research has found that many high school students (particularly Black and Hispanic ones) with the academic potential to succeed in Advanced Placement courses are not taking them, with implications not only for their own college prospects but also for their teachers, schools and communities. Through descriptive and logistic analyses of College Board data on over two million students in the Class of 2012, this study mapped the heretofore unknown national contours this problem, identifying patterns by state, subject, school AP enrollment policy, and student characteristics.

It found that state- and subject-level rates of fulfilling AP potential varied widely, ranging from 42%-81% by state and 2%-41% by subject. Some states and subjects demonstrated rough parity across ethnic groups while others demonstrated large gaps, both positive and negative. Asian students with high potential to succeed in AP Math and Science engaged in those AP courses at almost double the rates of their equally qualified Black, White and Hispanic peers. Nationally, two-thirds of students with unfulfilled AP potential attended a school that offered at least one AP course for which they had high potential. This proportion varied by state, subject and race/ethnicity.

This study found an even starker problem at the point of preparation for AP. Only 10% and 14% of Black and Hispanic students who took the PSAT/NMSQT demonstrated high AP potential, compared to almost half of their Asian and White peers. Overall, Black and Hispanic students were underrepresented among students who demonstrated and fulfilled high AP potential.

Schools that used nationally standardized PSAT/NMSQT scores to identify students for AP had a higher average proportion of students fulfilling AP potential compared to schools that used exclusively local academic criteria and/or student and parent input. This positive relationship between using PSAT/NMSQT and higher fulfilled AP potential was driven primarily by the effects for White students. Using PSAT/NMSQT had inconsistent or negative effects on the rate at which schools' fulfilled Black, Hispanic or Asian students' AP potential.

Finally, this study found that after controlling for race/ethnicity, being male, being an English learner, and having a lower GPA significantly decreased a student's likelihood of fulfilling high AP potential. Meanwhile, higher father's education and higher postsecondary degree goal aspirations tended to increase a students' likelihood of fulfilling AP potential. Mother's education had mixed effects, depending on ethnicity.