Giving Compass' Take:

• Linda Jacobson reports that low-income students are less likely to have access to advanced courses, hurting their academic growth and chances of attending college. 

• How can funders help increase access to advanced courses, particularly in small and rural schools? 

• Learn how AP classes are being used to increase equity. 

Students attending high-poverty schools, particularly smaller schools, have less access than their peers in low-poverty schools to the advanced courses that colleges tend to expect of their applicants, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

While almost all low-poverty schools offer Advanced Placement (AP) math courses, for example, about three-fourths of high-poverty schools provide these opportunities. Among high-poverty schools, 90% of large schools offered calculus, compared to only 54% of schools with 201 to 1,000 students and 11% of schools serving 200 or fewer students. High-poverty schools and those with a high minority population are also less likely to offer a sequence of courses, and similar patterns were seen with science courses.

The social-emotional aspects of taking rigorous courses suggests that the increased attention schools are placing on students' mental health is also an important part of increasing access. Paying for college admission tests, aligning high school curriculum with university system entrance requirements and partnering with college-advising organizations were a few of the steps schools visited by GAO were taking to remove obstacles for students.

Read the full article about advanced coursework equity by Linda Jacobson at Education Dive.