i3 Grant Increases Success of Under-Represented Advanced Placement Students

Guest Blogger
Office of Innovation and Improvement
May 8, 2014

Across Colorado, students who don’t normally attend Advanced Placement (A.P.)* classes are not only attending, but also are earning passing scores in those classes. This is thanks to the Colorado Legacy Schools Initiative (CLSI) and its outreach to 23 high schools throughout the state. The Initiative’s purpose is to dramatically increase the number and diversity of students succeeding in math, science, and English A.P. courses.

A 2013 report by the Education Trust, Finding America’s Missing AP and IB Students, notes that while 91 percent of American public school students in 2010 attended high schools that offered A.P courses, only about 12 percent of those students participated in the courses. Moreover, that participation disproportionally favored middle- and high-income students, who were three times more likely to enroll in A.P. courses as low-income students. Similar advanced course participation disparities were found between racial and ethnic student groups. White students participated at the 12-percent national average for A.P. enrollment and Asian students at more than twice that rate. By contrast, the A.P. participation rates for black, American Indian, and Hispanic students ranged from six to nine percent. The “real advanced-course opportunity gap lies … not between schools, but within them,” the report noted, estimating that “if all groups of students attending AP schools were served equally, more than 640,000 additional low-income students and students of color would benefit.”

To read the full article, click here.