The Road to Educational Equity: What Advanced Placement Results Tell Us

This spring, even as the pandemic raged and so many across the city and country gave up on meaningful learning, our scholars were tenaciously studying and preparing for the May Advanced Placement exams. These exams are the cumulative assessments of rigorous, college-level courses. Taking and passing them is strongly correlated with college preparedness, persistence, and completion. 

 Unfortunately, too few students from historically underserved communities have access to these courses and exams, either because they attend schools where such courses are not offered, or because they have not had access to the kind of rigorous K-8 curriculum that prepares kids for advanced high school coursework. A core tenet of our high school design is ensuring that all of our scholars, who are predominantly low-income and Black or Latino, have access to AP courses: each SA student takes at least three AP courses in high school and sits for the exams. 

 This year, our high school’s sixth since its founding, the largest number ever of SA scholars, in grades 10 through 12, sat for the tests: 425 took one or more, across 10 subjects. Even as many more of our students took these exams, their collective performance also reached a new high. Some highlights of their achievements:

• Of the 205 HSLA scholars who took the AP World History exam, 62% of them passed (scored a 3 or above), with 28% scoring a 4 or 5 (three times as many as last year). Most of the test takers were tenth graders.
• Of the 68 SA scholars who took the AP Macroeconomics test, 66.2% passed and 46.6% scored 4 or 5.
• Of the 153 SA scholars who took the AP English Literature & Composition exam, 51.6% passed and 14.4% earned top scores of 4 or 5.
• 153 SA scholars sat for the Biology exam; 51% passed, with 14.4% earning top scores of 4 or 5.
• 32 SA scholars took the AP Art History exam; 81% passed, with 50% receiving scores of 4 or 5. 

These results are a powerful testimony to the studiousness and talent of our scholars, and to the work SA educators have done since our high school’s founding to increase scholar preparedness by growing the rigor, depth, and breadth of our curriculum. But they also lay bare the injustice of unequal access that pervades our public education system. Consider the following national statistics from last year’s exams:

• Of the 2 million Black high school students in the United States, only about 24,000 or 1%, took the AP World History exam. Only about one-third of these students passed, with 11% scoring at the advanced level of 4 or 5.
• Less than 0.1% of Black high school students in the U.S. — only 1,210 students— took the AP Art History exam, with 40% passing and 17% scoring a 4 or 5.
• Fewer than 7,000 Black students nationally — 0.4% — took the AP Macroeconomics exam; 31% passed; 18% scored a 4 or 5.
• Roughly 32,000 Black students — less than 2% — took the AP Lit exam last year, with 21% passing and 6% scoring a 4 or 5.

The opportunity gaps revealed in these numbers are stark. Success Academy high schoolers have demonstrated the excellence of which they are capable. Too many kids in our country are denied the same opportunities to fulfill their own great potential because of the schools they attend. These egregious disparities should galvanize all of us to support local and national education reforms — particularly regarding parent choice and public charter schools — so that many more children can attend schools where they flourish and excel.