Associations between county-level racial attitude bias and disparities in Advanced Placement participation

While much attention has been paid to racial disparities in basic academic attainment, relatively less attention is given to racial disparities in excellence—participation in and performance within opportunities to develop and demonstrate high achievement. The present research investigates how racial attitude bias relates to disparities in participation in the Advanced Placement (AP) program, a paradigmatic opportunity for excellence in the US education system. We examined whether regional racial attitude biases are associated with Black–White AP participation disparities by combining implicit and explicit pro-White/anti-Black bias measures from Project Implicit with AP participation data from the Civil Rights Data Collection. County-level implicit and explicit racial biases—among White residents overall, and White teachers specifically—were consistently and positively associated with Black–White disparities in AP course enrollment, but this was not the case for AP exam taking and passing. Importantly, the relationships between racial attitude bias and enrollment disparities remained after accounting for disparities in AP access and academic achievement prior to high school. These findings highlight the importance of identifying additional processes through which community members’ racial attitude biases may deter Black students from participating in the AP program and other opportunities for excellence.