Mountlake Terrace High School, through work with an organization called Equal Opportunity Schools, has joined the small (1 percent) of schools nationwide where the percentage of students of color and low income in Advanced Placement and Honors courses is the same or better than the school as a whole.
In most high schools in the United States, there is a discrepancy between the ethnic and socio-economic percentages of the school and the percentages of those students in the most rigorous courses. People of color and low income students are under-represented in honors and Advanced Placement courses.
As schools with equitable advanced programs, Mountlake Terrace, along with Lynnwood High School, will receive grants in order to continue the work to enable the equal or higher AP success rates that equitable AP programs are generally able to achieve.
It troubles me to see the word “equity” used in this context. Advanced placement is intended for advanced students. While I would celebrate our teachers achieving advanced results from students of color, the word “equity” suggests placement by statistics. If the school is rated not on accomplishment, but on shuffling numbers I do not see how the students are served.