"The Advanced Placement (AP) program is often touted as an opportunity for academically talented high school students to be exposed to a rigorous, college-level classroom setting. Components of the AP program include a range of courses and corresponding standardized assessments. According to the College Board, which administers the AP program, students who take AP courses have an opportunity to gain advanced knowledge and skills, to improve the quality of their college applications, and earn college credits (College Board, 2017b). Based on this reputation, AP participation has increased dramatically in recent years. In the spring of 2017, over 2.7 million students took an Advanced Placement (AP) exam, a more than three-fold increase over the spring of 2001 (College Board, 2017a). While AP enrollment has expanded dramatically, AP participation varies significantly across student groups. Relative to White students, Hispanic students are approximately 25% less likely to participate in the AP program and Black students are just half as likely. Low-income students, compared to their non-economically disadvantaged peers, are over sixty percent less likely to be an AP student (Theokas & Saaris, 2013). These patterns have led to calls to increase AP participation, especially amongst students from disadvantaged groups. Some, however, have expressed concerns that expanding AP enrollment without considering students' ability may set some up for failure (Finn & Winkler, 2011). Because high school students typically have significant agency in the courses they take, I argue that understanding AP participation requires an understanding of students' decision-making around whether to take an AP course. In this dissertation, I investigate students' AP enrollment decisions by answering the following research questions: 1) What are the patterns in AP enrollment for the overall student population and for the sub-population of academically talented students?; 2) How do student characteristics vary by AP enrollment status?; 3) What student-level factors or characteristics predict enrollment in AP classes?; and 4) How do perceptions of AP classes and students vary across student groups? To answer these research questions, I use the conceptual frameworks of judgment and decision-making, social-emotional skills, and identity in a mixed-methods explanatory case study of two high schools in Michigan that includes student-level administrative data (n = 16,939 student-year observations), student surveys (n = 389), and student interviews (n = 19) in 2018. Results show: (1) disadvantaged students participate in AP at lower rates, but that the size of the participation gap is sensitive to how AP participation is defined, and that many academically talented students do not take an AP class; (2) students who enroll in AP classes are, compared to their peers, less diverse, higher-achieving, wealthier, have more developed social-emotional skills, a stronger academic identity, and make decisions more deliberatively; (3) achievement is the strongest and most reliable predictor of AP enrollment, though constructs related to identity, social-emotional skills, and decision-making tendencies also appear to be related to enrollment; and (4) students generally perceive AP classes as difficult and AP students as academically talented, students of color are acutely aware of the lack of diversity in AP classes, and some students link their course selections to their future. I interpret these findings using the conceptual frameworks employed in this study and develop a conceptual model of students' AP enrollment decisions. Implications for researchers, educators, and policymakers are discussed."--Pages ii-iii.
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