Advanced Placement and Rural Schools

Abstract

Completing Advanced Placement (AP) coursework is an important part of the selective college admissions process, and access to AP coursework can be viewed as a measure of equal opportunity. Relatively little research has fully examined how access to AP coursework is mediated by school characteristics. Rural schools are at a particular disadvantage in promoting AP success due to a lack of sufficiently prepared students, teaching constraints, and other logistical challenges. This study uses regression to analyze AP access, enrollment, and success across a rich data set of U.S. school districts. We find that remote, small, and poor rural schools are considerably less likely to offer any AP courses. Even for rural schools that do offer AP coursework, enrollment and success rates lag well behind more urban and affluent schools. We explore potential policy solutions and examine alternative advanced coursework options for those rural schools that do not offer AP.