Amid back-to-school debates over vaccinations, mask requirements and the right lens for learning history, the troubling lack of opportunities for many high school students to take advanced coursework they need for success in college and beyond has unfortunately fallen off the education policy radar.

Advanced coursework can include International Baccalaureate, dual high school-college enrollment or Advanced Placement courses, with AP being the most popular and widely available mechanism. Taking such courses helps students gain college credits while still in high school, earn admission to top colleges and flourish in the work world.

Yet a recently released report from the Center for American Progress found that Black, Indigenous and rural students were far more likely to attend schools offering fewer AP courses than schools attended by their white, Asian and suburban counterparts.

And even when students have similar access to AP courses, lower percentages of Black, Indigenous and rural students enroll in the courses and pass them. In high schools offering 18 or more AP courses, white students taking at least one AP exam had an average passing rate of 72 percent. For Black students in these circumstances, the average passing rate was 42 percent. Latino students are not experiencing the same gaps in access as other ethnic and racial groups, but they do have lower enrollment and pass rates.

Read the full article about the racial gap in advanced high school courses by Roby Chatterji at The 74.