Does Policy Translate into Equity? The Association between Universal Advanced Placement Access, Student Enrollment, and Outcomes

Participating in advanced placement (AP) can improve high school students’ cognitive and noncognitive outcomes. Despite nationwide efforts, including Arkansas's mandate for statewide AP access since 2003 and exam cost coverage since 2005, disparities in enrollment persist. Using multilevel modeling, we investigate the relation between student/school factors influencing AP enrollment and success. Female versus male (odds ratio [OR] = 1.68), Asian American versus White (OR = 1.90), identified-as-gifted (GT) versus nonidentified as gifted (OR = 1.58) had the highest enrollment odds. Students in the Free and Reduced Lunch program, English Language Learners, and Special education students face pronounced underrepresentation (OR = 0.62; 0.76; 0.10 respectively) to ever enroll in an AP class. Despite universal access across schools, AP enrollment is explained by school factors (proportion of FRL, GT, and student diversity). Our findings have implications to understand the critical intersectionality of student identities—socioeconomic status, language proficiency, and special education needs—influencing AP enrollment despite universal access.