Is AP or Dual-Enrollment Best at Ensuring BIPOC Student Academic Success?

    In the United States, the two largest programs that allow high school students to receive college credit are the Advanced Placement program from the College Board, and dual enrollment credit courses provided to public schools by local community colleges and universities. Students of color are consistently left behind within academic spaces, and often pushed out of and not encouraged to enroll in higher-level courses. However, with the recent push to make academic spaces more equitable and representative for students of color, educators are working to better understand their students and their needs. By finding out which of the two options is most equitable, representative, and beneficial in the long-term, schools are able to understand which programs to invest in and how to best support their students of color. This led to my research question: Does Advanced Placement or Dual Enrollment coursework better prepare BIPOC students for post-secondary academic success? To conduct this research, one needs to understand the environment, impact, and implications of both Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses and compare them. 

    The research question is derived from a modern trend of studies working to understand the implications and impacts of Advanced Placement and dual enrollment coursework on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) students individually. Due to my own school offering both types of coursework, and the lack of existing research comparing the two different types of courses, I became interested in understanding the benefits of these two programs as a student of color. 

    Using grade-point averages and averages, I displayed the survey results by dividing the responses into two main sections and three subsections. In order to answer my main research question, I collected data that spoke directly to high school academic success and post-secondary academic success, which make up my two main sections. Next, I collected the data regarding representation, equity, and overall opinion of the two different course types, which made up my three subsections. Students that took a majority of Advanced Placement classes had an average high school grade-point average of 3.565. Students in the survey were given a space to reflect on their Advanced Placement experiences, the environment of their Advanced Placement classes, and the representation within their class’ curriculum. Students that took a majority of dual enrollment had an average high school grade-point average of 4.019. For students that took a majority of Advanced Placement classes, the average post-secondary grade-point average was 3.141. Students that took a majority of dual enrollment classes had an average post-secondary grade-point of 3.154. For students that took both Advanced Placement and dual enrollment, the survey asked the participants which of the two different course types they considered to be more equitable and more representative. 

    First, using a Likert scale, I asked the question “Were there other students that looked like you in your Advanced Placement/Dual Enrollment classes?” Participants were able to rate their experience from “Very little to none” (1) or “Equal or more representation” (5). The responses were then interpreted into numbers from a scale of one to five so that averages could be found and compared between the two different course types. It was found that both course types had average representation ratings of 2.66. 

    Second, participants were asked if they felt as though their experiences with Advanced Placement and dual enrollment were equitable. 40% of participants shared that they felt as though their Advanced Placement courses were equitable. 83% of participants shared that they felt as though their dual enrollment courses were equitable. 

    Third, participants were asked whether they had an overall positive or negative opinion on Advanced Placement and dual enrollment after reflecting on the answers they provided in the survey. As opposed to using a Likert scale, the survey provided only two options--positive or negative--in order to get a clear idea of the participants’ feelings towards their coursework. For Advanced Placement courses, it was found that 45% of participants had a positive opinion, 54% of participants had a negative opinion, and 1% had no opinion. For dual enrollment courses, it was found that 58% of participants had a positive opinion, and 42% of participants had a negative opinion. No participants responded indifferently.