Reply to Are AP-type classes racist?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have mixed ancestry, but identify as AA. I’m also a mid-career public school teacher and have taught in a diverse variety of schools. I taught AP for three years and two of my own children have taken AP courses. Here’s my thoughts:
1) who gets selected to take AP and who gets support during the course can be shaped by systemic racism. My district had a huge problem with excluding students of color from these courses when selection was based on teacher recommendation. Once students were allowed to chose, the enrollment increased a lot temporarily. When they dropped a bit, surveys found that students of color withdrew because they felt unwelcome by the teachers and white peers. Not because the work was difficult or boring. Because they were asked if they were in the wrong classroom or not called upon unless the question was about race. When my older DD took AP, she was not invited to the elective support course that most of the white students were enrolled in. When she asked about it, the teacher told her that it was for students who needed to get a 5 to apply for highly competitive colleges and she could get into a state school or HBCU just fine with a 3. Of course, we had a meeting about that and the teacher said she meant no harm, it was just based on her experience with students like my daughter. She failed to clarify what she meant other than DD’s skin color. DD transfered to the other AP teacher and ended up earning a 5.
2) The tests themselves do not seem racially biased or class-biased in the way that the SAT can be. [/quote]

The description about the above poster’s daughter indicates that she was subject to direct Racial bias -racist assumptions of one AP teacher and maybe others responsible for recommendations, but that she did very well when she transferred into the AP class of a different teacher.  I don’t see, however, that this is evidence of “systemic racism.”  That terms seems to be used today in many instances of just old fashion racial bias.  The distinction matters.  If individual bias is the problem, we need to address it.   An “equity” remedy based on proportional  representation relative to demographics (and I realize the above poster didn’t propose that) does not solve the problem.  It only creates a virtual quota system that will likely result in more admission errors in both directions.  If you want to take personal bias out the system, then don’t rely on teacher recommendations but rely on straight grades in other classes or standardized tests.  Ironically, these are widely attacked as systemically racist as well.

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