Eliminating advanced classes promotes equity

In recent years, an increasing number of schools have been advocating for the removal of honors and advanced classes from schools. The Mounds View district joined the bandwagon last school year with the removal of honors English at the high school level and non-math advanced classes entirely at the middle schools. Despite parent and student backlash to these changes, the removal of advanced classes was long overdue.

For one, students from certain backgrounds are far more likely to take advanced classes than others. According to the United Negro College Fund, Black and Latino students have a significantly lower enrollment in AP courses compared to their white counterparts. Black and Latino students constitute 38% of the population in schools offering AP courses, yet only represent 29% of those enrolled in at least one AP course. Additionally, higher-income students are far more likely to enroll in advanced courses than low-income students, typically due to a gap in resources available to these students. Eliminating advanced courses may be the most realistic and inexpensive way to address these disparities.

Advanced classes promote inequity from the moment a student enters elementary school. In elementary to middle school, the majority of the students who enroll in advanced classes have parents who advocate for them to be placed in higher-level courses. The issue with this lies in the fact that some parents are more capable of advocating for their children than others. 

Some parents work long hours and don’t have the time to invest in their child’s education, while others don’t speak English which prevents them from communicating with teachers and deans entirely. Once a student has been placed in a certain course level, it is difficult to ascend to a higher level. Students at lower levels are more likely to feel less motivated or successful compared to their higher-achieving peers. Many of these students have the ability to succeed in advanced courses, but most feel stuck in the path they “chose” as early as first grade.

Getting rid of honor classes, contrary to popular belief, doesn’t mean that students won’t be able to access advanced or challenging content in their single-level courses. Rather, eliminating advanced classes ensures that all students have access to the same high-quality education. In the Mounds View district alone, after removing advanced classes in the elementary and middle schools, the grade-level courses implemented new activities that successfully challenged students who were previously in advanced classes. Moreover, most schools, including Mounds View, that have removed advanced classes are not actually pushing everyone down to grade-level courses, but rather bringing everyone up to a higher-level curriculum.

By removing advanced classes at lower grade levels, schools signal to students that they all have the capability to succeed. This includes encouraging all students to take college credit-earning classes later in high school. In the Oak Park School District in Chicago, tenth-grade enrollment in honors or Advanced Placement rose by 8 percentage points the year after a decision to remove ninth-grade advanced classes. Providing all students with a high-quality, rigorous curriculum gives them the confidence to enroll in difficult classes they may have previously avoided.

Frankly, the growing disparity between students enrolled in advanced classes is unacceptable, and it is time for school districts across the U.S. to follow the example of Mounds View and take action against a burgeoning equity epidemic. Rigorous classes and high-quality education should not be restricted to certain students, and every student deserves a chance to succeed in challenging courses.