{"id":737,"date":"2015-05-04T18:28:33","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T18:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=737"},"modified":"2015-10-13T18:58:02","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T18:58:02","slug":"advanced-placement-testing-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2015\/05\/04\/advanced-placement-testing-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Advanced Placement Testing Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Students<\/a>
Students take the AP Statistics test. Photo by Adrian Sampson via Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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As senioritis infects graduating classes across the U.S., one group of students is denied the thrill of the \u201csenior slide\u201d: those enrolled in Advanced Placement courses. These students look forward to a grueling gauntlet of 3-hour exams on topics ranging from Computer Science to Studio Art to Chinese Language and Culture. The tests are rigorous, cumulative assessments of each student\u2019s mastery of an entire year\u2019s worth of class content, and they have extremely high stakes. College Board<\/a>, the organization that creates and scores the exams (as well as the SAT), claims high AP scores help students \u201cstand out in the admissions process.\u201d While these tests only seem to target elite, high achieving students, they also impact educational processes school-wide.<\/p>\n

AP classes are a source of inequality in educational attainment. Minority and low-income students are more likely to attend schools offering fewer AP courses. Even when courses are available, these students are also more likely to be underrepresented in them relative to their more affluent and white peers.<\/h5>\n