California is one of eight states where graduating high school students are making exemplary progress in advanced placement classes for college-bound students.
At the same time, increasing numbers of Latino students are enrolling and doing well in AP classes. Once Latino students experience success in AP Spanish, they gain the confidence to try other advanced courses. AP Spanish was the fourth most popular test taken by California’s class of 2005.
But too few students, especially in impoverished areas, both rural and urban, have access to AP courses, according to the college board. Research has shown that just taking the AP exam is a strong predictor of success in college.
Of those taking AP courses in the class of 2005, 34 percent were white, 30 percent were Latino, 23 percent were Asian, 3.5 percent were African American and less than 1 percent were Native American.
Other research shows:
- Asian students are five times more likely to be proficient in middle and high school algebra than African American students, according to statistics derived from the state’s Standardized Testing and Reporting program (STAR). White students are three times more likely to be proficient.
- Sixty-seven percent of white students and 58 percent of Asian students use the internet, as opposed to 47 percent of African Americans, 47 percent of Native Americans, and 44 percent of Latinos, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
- Once in college, Latino students drop out far more frequently than their peers, according to 2004 research by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication. Nationally, 23 percent of Latino and 29 percent of African American college freshmen earn bachelor’s degrees by age 26, compared with 51 percent of Asian students and 47 percent of whites. Pew researchers say performance is undermined when students delay going to college, enroll part-time, decide not to live on campus or have to support a family.