| Advanced Placement (AP) programs have developed as a key component and integral part of high school education to provide students with a challenging academic experience. Behind their increasing popularity and public endorsement, several concerns have been growing regarding the equity and effectiveness of AP programs. This thesis uses the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988-2000 to carry out a comprehensive econometric analysis of the equity and effectiveness issues surrounding AP programs including (1) their availability across schools, (2) under-representation of underprivileged populations, (3) their effectiveness in determining college success, (4) quality of AP courses and instruction, and (5) inequality of resource allocation within the school.; Chapter II finds that AP programs face substantial supply constraints, particularly in small schools that have low human and financial capacity. Chapter III reveals that African American students are significantly under-represented in AP programs, everything else held constant. Race/ethnicity aside, key determinants of student enrollment in AP courses include prior achievement, school size, location, teacher salaries, and the educational attainment of the community in which the school is located. Among these variables, prior achievement and school location are found to be the primary barriers that prevent minority and low-income students from taking AP classes.; Chapter IV attempts to answer the causal question of whether AP programs improve student performance in college. After adjusting for sample selection, the chapter finds evidence of the strong impact of AP programs on college-level outcomes of AP students. But it finds no evidence of negative spill-over effects of AP programs on non-participants within the school. Interestingly, disadvantaged populations are shown to receive larger benefits from AP programs than their counterparts.; Chapter V finds that there exist significant variations of the quality of AP courses and instruction among U.S. high schools. A school's identity as college-bound and the composition of its student body both serve as good predictors of the quality of AP programs. Finally, Chapter VI shows that AP classes divert school inputs from regular high school classes. |
