A report from the Education Trust uses a case study of two exemplary high schools to address the question of how schools might support access to and success in AP programs by low-income students and students of color.
Professor Beth C. Rubin of Rutgers University reviewed Systems for Success: Thinking Beyond Access to AP,
and praised the report’s descriptions of the intricacies of providing
access to and support for underrepresented students in AP. However, the
review also raised concerns about the report’s minimal description of
its methodological and analytical approaches.
Systems for Success contends
that a variety of interventions help promote access and success,
including teacher support and development, analysis of class
composition, careful scheduling, and provision of during- and
after-school academic support for students. The report’s qualitative
approach is well-suited to describing ways that schools can address the
complex and deeply rooted problem of inequitable access to academic
opportunity within secondary education.
Yet the report suffers,
Professor Rubin explains, from lack of rigor in its description of
methods and analysis, absence of grounding in the research literature on
learning and inequality, and an inattention to the experiences of
students from the groups least well-represented in advanced placement
courses nationwide. In lacking these features, the report misses an
opportunity to address key educational justice issues.
Overall, while it provides
some inspiring examples, more detailed and rigorous description of
methods and analysis would make a stronger case for the report’s
highlighted interventions.
Find the review, by Beth C. Rubin, at:
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