More Kids in the A.P. Pool, But Blacks Still Lagging

More kids are taking — and passing — A.P. exams, but white students far outperform black ones. (Maybe it’s their names?) [NYT]

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.

Latest posts by G.D. (see all)

  • I was one of two black students in all of my AP classes. The other student was also female. The white kids did well (especially the Mormons!), but those Asians ran it.

    My parents’ focused efforts are responsible for my achieving. Had I been left to the tender mercies of the white female teachers as so many black children are, I probably would have thought average was good enough.

    (I really want to put some lotion on that baby’s elbows.)

  • LH

    Having taught AP English Lit and Composition, I can’t say I’m surprised to read this.

    My black students were unprepared to do the work and, for the most part, displayed a glaring (and deeply troubling) lack of concern regarding their progress.

    My white and Hispanic students, on the other hand, were both studious and diligent. Their work ethic was beyond reproach and they were eager to be challenged.

    When I met my students’ parents everything made sense. I wish I couldn’t say this truthfully, but the black parents … I was embarrassed for them. They didn’t care–for whatever reason(s). They didn’t know what their kids were reading in class and weren’t keeping up with their homewrok assignments. Further, it was apparent to me that they’d never heard of the authors whose works we were covering. It isn’t the case that all of the white and Hispanic parents had read Orwell, Sanchez, Camus, et al., but they cared about what their children were doing. It showed.

  • Being one of few black students in AP Classes in HS I know the feeling. LH does have a point though. My mother worked so hard to keep us afloat financially, she never questioned what I did once I got into HS. As long as I did what I was supposed to, she stayed out of it. I wish she would have put forth the effort to ask me what was learning in class, but I digress. Also, although I was in AP classes, I did not sit for the exams because I got the payment deadlines mixed up.

  • I took two AP exams way back when and I gotta say the reason is that kids have to be on the right course track to take those classes coming into hihg school. I remember before coming into high school many counselors were trying to put me into basic classes instead of Honors and AP classes despite my grades. I had to fight to get put into honors classes while many of my classmates, mostly black were put into basic classes. By the time thye could take AP classes, they were too far behind because of their basic course tracks to even think about taking AP exams.

  • Steve

    As someone who worked at schools that were 100% black/latino, even when AP courses were OFFERED… the teachers were 1. Not good or 2. Not trained (IE. wealthier school districts can send teachers to AP conferences to learn how to teach to the test etc.). So you can OFFER the classes and kids can SIGN up but it don’t mean they gonna do well on the test if they class isnt taught properly