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Pulling at Racist Threads: 

High School Advanced Placement Programs

Sandra Saucedo-Falagan

Minnesota State University-Mankato

EDLD 747- 01/82

Organizational and Critical Race Theory & Analysis

Natalie D. Rasmussen, Ph.D.

Courtney Bell-Duncan, Ph.D.

November 10, 2021

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The Advanced Placement program and testing officially began in 1955, during the cold war

with the Soviet Union, and is said to have been inspired by a fear that American high school

students were falling behind the rest of the world. (Tugent, 2017) Others believe that it has

roots as far back as the early 1900s eugenics movement.  The program was initially funded

by the Ford Foundation and eventually taken over by the College Board. (Tugent, 2017) The

College Board had previously created standardized tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test

(SAT) and the American College Testing (ACT) exam. Along with other aptitude tests (i.e.:

military), all three of the exams were developed by Carl C. Brigham Ph.D.  Brigham had

written a book in 1923, called A Study of the American Intelligence, where he argued that the

white (Nordic) race was superior to the black race in all aspects including intelligence. He

also believed that “testing” would prove this idea. Brigham warned of new immigrants

“intermingling” and diluting the “superior” gene pool and thought that the decline in

American education would accelerate the dilution. (Walker, n.d.)

Regardless of how the program started, one must ask oneself, “Is the current Advanced

Placement Program beneficial to all students? There are mixed points of view regarding the

current AP programs and testing. 

According to the College Board, the administrator of the program, there are many advantages

to the program that can benefit all students. The College Board lists four main benefits on

their homepage as “getting familiar with college-level work,” “developing college skills such
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as writing, time management, and critical thinking,” “discovering a possible passion they

might want to explore as a career,” and “boost high school GPA”. (College Board, 2021)

Another benefit from taking an advanced placement course is the possibility of earning

college credit saving on tuition and being able to skip an introductory course.  Taking

advanced placement classes can make a student’s academic record look more attractive to

prospective colleges and universities. (Writers, 2021)

In an interview with a local school district’s director of talent development, a question was

presented,” What reason could be given not to change the Advanced Placement program as it

exists right now?”  Their reasoning that the program should be kept as it currently stands is to

keep to the original intent that it is an “honor” to take a true college course in high school. 

Changing the program would also lessen the “rigor”.  It is important that these courses keep a

standard of challenge and that only students that are truly ready for the rigor should be able to

take and receive credit for it. Not all students are ready for the rigor and that will only impede

the progress of others. The last reason proposed why some people would be against changing

the program is that the pacing of the courses closely aligns with the skills and content that are

needed in college. Changing this would cause a rippling effect and cause delineation from the

course content. (E. McElgrath, personal communication, October 27, 2021).

A recent study published in January 2020 by The Education Trust, a non-for-profit

organization that works to the close the opportunity gap between students of color and

students of low-income families, found that students of color, specifically Black and Latine

students, have shown great success when given the opportunity to participate in an advanced

placement program. The study’s next largest finding is that Black and Latine students are not

fairly represented and that there are several barriers in place that inhibit Black and Latine

students to participate in these advanced courses to reap the benefits. (Trust, 2020)
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“Advanced coursework opportunities can place students on the path toward college and

career success. Yet too many Black and Latino students never receive the opportunity to

enroll through no fault of their own. No student should forfeit future success because there

were not enough seats in the class or because the seats were not available,” said Kayla

Patrick, Ed Trust’s P-12 data and policy analyst and lead author of the report. (Patrick, 2021)

According to The Ed Trust study some of the major factors that presented as barriers to Black

and Latine students were resource and funding gaps, educator bias when recommending

students for AP courses, assessment and grading biases, lack of educators of color and

students of color who identify as gifted and talented.  (Trust, 2020)

After these findings, The Education Trust recommended strategies of change to address the

issue and as well did other organizations that include the racist disparities of the AP exam and

other standardized tests.  The College Board began to make changes to the exam in 2016,

when it redesigned it to be less memorization, yet it found that the racial gaps could still be

found in the new version. (Gates, n.d.)

Ed Trust’s recommendations include “setting clear, measurable goals for creating access of

the coursework as well as to commit to publicly measuring progress (disaggregated by race

and income) toward those goals.” (Trust, 2020)

They also include identifying barriers, expand advanced coursework opportunities in schools

that have limited courses, require and support districts to expand eligibility and increase

access to advanced courses where Black and Latine students already offered. Sufficient

support for students to prepare for advanced coursework and providing the resources for

advanced coursework opportunities. (Patrick, 2021)

Although in its current form the Advanced Placement Program has been proven to be

beneficial to some students, and even beneficial to those students of color who take the

courses, it has also been proven to be difficult make the program equitably accessible to all
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students.  It continues to hold the power that the initial creator, Carl C. Brigham, of the

program and pull the racist thread that he began to weave. It became a gatekeeper of who

should and who should not be in higher education.

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References

Closing Advanced Coursework Equity Gaps for All Students. (2021, June 30). Center for

American Progress. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/closing-advanced-coursework-equity-gaps-

students/

Gates, M. (n.d.). A Civil Rights Challenge to Standardized Testing in College Admissions |

Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Https://Harvardcrcl.Org. Retrieved

October 29, 2021, from https://harvardcrcl.org/a-civil-rights-challenge-to-

standardized-testing-in-college-admissions/

Patrick, K. (2021, April 26). Inequities in Advanced Coursework. The Education Trust.

Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://edtrust.org/resource/inequities-in-

advanced-coursework/?emci=ed0b9936-4232-ea11-a1cc-

2818784d084f&emdi=ea000000-0000-0000-0000-

000000000001&ceid={{ContactsEmailID}}

Silvarole, J. U. M. A. G. T. (2019, February 8). Fewer AP classes suspended more often:

Black students still face racism in suburbs. USA TODAY. Retrieved October 21,

2021, from https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2019/02/04/black-history-

month-february-schools-ap-racism-civil-rights/2748790002/

Top 5 Benefits of Taking AP Classes. (2021). Princetonreview.Com. Retrieved October 27,

2021, from https://www.princetonreview.com/college-advice/ap-classes

Trust, E. (2020, June 4). Black and Latino Students Shut Out of Advanced Coursework

Opportunities. The Education Trust. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from

https://edtrust.org/press-release/black-and-latino-students-shut-out-of-advanced-

coursework-opportunities/
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Tugend, A. (2017, September 7). Who Benefits from the Expansion of A.P. Classes? The New

York Times. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/magazine/who-benefits-from-the-expansion-of-

ap-classes.html

United Negro College Fund. (2020, March 20). K-12 Disparity Facts and Statistics. UNCF.

Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://uncf.org/pages/k-12-disparity-facts-and-stats

Walker, J. R. A. T. (n.d.). The Racist Beginnings of Standardized Testing | NEA.

Https://Www.Nea.Org/Advocating-for-Change/New-from-Nea/Racist-Beginnings-

Standardized-Testing. Retrieved October 30, 2021, from

https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/racist-beginnings-

standardized-testing

What Is AP? – AP Students | College Board. (2021). Collegeboard.Org. Retrieved November

2, 2021, from https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/what-is-ap

Writers, S. (2021, July 27). AP Classes: Are They Worth It? BestColleges.Com. Retrieved

November 2, 2021, from https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/ap-classes-are-they-

worth-it/