{"id":251824,"date":"2026-04-04T16:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251824\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T16:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:36:28","slug":"ousd-has-a-college-prep-gap-and-it-hits-students-of-color-the-hardest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251824\/","title":{"rendered":"OUSD has a college prep gap and it hits students of color the hardest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Advanced Placement classes have exploded in popularity and prominence over the last few decades. The College Board, which designs and administers AP classes, has made a concerted effort to expand the program to high schools across the country, saying it offers students an opportunity to experience college-level coursework. As of 2025, nearly 80% of public high school students attended a school that offers at least five AP classes, according to the College Board<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The College Board, a nonprofit, launched the AP program in the 1950s, with the stated goal of challenging students with advanced topics and preparing them for college. Since then, the courses have become a near necessity for competitive college applications, in part because of the College Board\u2019s own role in expanding AP\u2019s reach and influence<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

High school grades in college prep courses have become a top factor in admissions decisions, topping other criteria including essays, overall high school grade point average, and letters of recommendation, according to a 2023 survey<\/a> of college admissions counselors. Taking high school AP courses, and passing the end-of-year exams, can also potentially accrue transferable college credits, shorten the amount of time students spend in college, and save families money.<\/p>\n

In 2025, 3.2 million students across the U.S. took an AP course<\/a>, a 30% increase from 10 years earlier. Leaders of the College Board \u2014 the same organization that runs the SAT \u2014 emphasize how important the program is for students pursuing college; in 2023, the College Board\u2019s head of AP, Trevor Packer, told Education Week<\/a> that when a student attends a school without a single AP class, it \u201cmoves them off the pathway to college, under-prepares them for what they will encounter if they do make it to a two-year or four-year institution, [and] sends a message to them that they are not part of a college-going culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Oakland Unified School District, roughly 33% of 11th and 12th graders<\/a> were enrolled in an AP course last year, below the state average of 44%<\/a>, and slightly lower than the national average of 38%<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there are stark disparities in how AP courses are distributed across Oakland public schools and student populations, potentially denying hundreds of high schoolers a leg up in college admissions.<\/p>\n

\"OaklandAPClasses-JK-24\"\/Students work on a group project during Shannon Carey\u2019s AP U.S. History at Oakland Tech on March 9, 2026. Credit: Jungho Kim for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

School-level data reveals significant gaps: At Skyline High School, more than half of students, 58%, are enrolled in an AP course this year. Skyline offers 17 AP courses, spanning the arts and sciences, including American government, biology, calculus, computer science, and art. Oakland Technical High School, OUSD\u2019s most populous, offers 15, including Chinese language, environmental science, and statistics. Oakland High School, with 1,500 students, has eight AP classes.<\/p>\n

By contrast, nine OUSD schools, serving more than 2,000 high school students altogether, offer zero AP courses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The racial disparities in OUSDs AP enrollment are just as striking. Around half of OUSD students are Latino, but only about 21% of Latino high schoolers are enrolled in an AP course, according to district data. Twenty-three percent of Black high school students are in an AP course across the district, while about half of white (48%) and Asian (48%) high school students are.<\/p>\n

Such disparities are common within the AP program. Nationally, 54% of 10th, 11th, and 12th grade Asian students took an AP exam in 2025, while 20% of white students, 19% of Latino students, and 12% of African American students did, according to College Board data. In California, 57% of Asian students, 29% of white students, 21% of Latino students and 16% of African American students sat for an AP exam in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The economic disparities are also dramatic: Around 60% of high school students whose households are middle class or wealthy take AP courses, while just 25% of low-income students do, as measured by who qualifies for free or reduced-price lunches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These enrollment disparities persist even at a school like Skyline, with its robust AP offerings. There, nearly 80% of Asian students and 70% white students are in at least one AP course this year, while just 40% of the school\u2019s Black and Latino students are.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cameron Williams, a sophomore at Skyline who is taking AP World History this year, said he\u2019s one of the few Black students in his AP class. As a student at Skyline, he said he hears all the time about how it has one of the district\u2019s most diverse student bodies \u2014 but it\u2019s something he only sees in evidence in his non-AP classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Black people, there\u2019s often a pressure to perform really well because of how underrepresented we are in so many different spaces,\u201d he told The Oaklandside. \u201cI definitely feel that in AP World, that I\u2019ve got to do really well because I\u2019m representing this community that is not really represented in my class. And nobody\u2019s explicitly saying that out loud, but it does feel that way<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coliseum College Prep Academy, a school serving grades 6 to 12 in East Oakland, bucks this trend. There, about two-thirds of students are in at least one AP course, including 66% of its Latino students and 55% of its Black students.<\/p>\n

The Oaklandside reached out to Vinh Trinh, a former Skyline principal who now works for the district helping school administrators connect with the College Board and plan their course offerings, to ask about the disparities.<\/p>\n

Trinh said his department, which oversees the district\u2019s high schools, was aware of the discrepancies in AP course access, but he said the district relies on individual school leaders to bridge those gaps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a part of that process to get more of our underrepresented students into the AP courses, site leaders and AP teachers do intentional outreach by hosting informational sessions to encourage students to apply,\u201d Trinh told The Oaklandside by email. He said those outreach efforts allow students to \u201clearn more about the course content and the amount of work required to be successful in an AP course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe master schedule always comes down to the vision of the principal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

An \u2018AP Report Card\u2019<\/p>\n

At Oakland High, assistant principal Jennifer Howard said the academic schedule is decided based on teacher availability. The closure of the school\u2019s Recent Immigration Support and Engagement, or RISE, program \u2014 due to fewer newcomer students enrolling<\/a> \u2014 means more teachers will have space in their schedule to teach AP classes next year, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Oakland Tech, assistant principal and AP coordinator De\u2019Shawn Woolridge said he picks which courses to offer based on several factors, including student interest and whether there are qualified teachers on staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look at courses and the credentialing that\u2019s required to offer that course,\u201d Woolridge said. \u201cIf we have teachers credentialed in that course, then we look for student demand for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OaklandAPClasses-JK-19\"\/Carey talks to students as she walks through her AP U.S. History at Oakland Tech as students work on a project about social reformers, March 9, 2026. Credit: Jungho Kim for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

Woolridge created an \u201cAP Report Card\u201d this year to help him ensure that access to the courses remains equitable. The data-driven report card, he said, tracks the number of students taking AP classes and their demographics, allowing the administration to identify issues with the current program and set goals for the future. Woolridge plans to release his findings to the school community by the end of the school year.<\/p>\n

On a recent Monday morning in an Oakland Tech AP government class, teacher Mitchell Varian put on a Lo-fi mix as his students arrived for second period. Some sat down to review their last unit, on economics, as other students trickled in to desks arranged in clusters of four.<\/p>\n

The day\u2019s unit was on the Bill of Rights. He asked the students, the majority of whom are Black or Latino, to close their laptops and remove their headphones and spend a few minutes writing down the amendments they know. Some groups got two, some four. One kid said, \u201cThe abolition of slavery\u201d and then laughs \u2013 no, yeah, that came later \u2014 it was the 13th. Then Varian walked them through all 10 amendments, offering up Bulldog Bucks, for spending on school swag and snacks, to each kid who could properly define one as he goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho was advocating for civil rights?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe anti-federalists,\u201d one student answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what did they want?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA smaller central government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d Varian said. \u201cYou have to think about, how do these amendments protect us from the power or potential abuse of the federal government?\u201d<\/p>\n

Class ended with a quiz on Kahoot, an interactive learning app. Chatter and laughter filled the room as the students came up with their answers. Varian\u2019s lesson demonstrated AP\u2019s core principles: evaluating evidence, developing students\u2019 independent thinking, and supporting them to draw their own conclusions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Varian said he used to teach at a private school, but came to OUSD for the opportunity to teach AP classes, and to work with a more diverse group of students. He offers five sections a day of AP Government.<\/p>\n

He said it\u2019s a faster paced class than the school\u2019s regular government classes, and his students read the texts of Supreme Court decisions and many of the Federalist Papers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked about the diversity of his class, he said there\u2019s no prerequisite to get in and no requirement to take the exam at the end of the year, which comes with a fee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"OaklandAPClasses-JK-16\"\/Students discuss the Bill of Rights during Mitchell Varian\u2019s AP Government and Economics course at Oakland Tech on March 9, 2026. Credit: Jungho Kim for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

He also said he actively works to get a lot of kids into the class, including reaching out to pathway teachers \u2014 educators who lead student cohorts focused on a specific industry<\/a>, such as business, education, or law \u2014 to encourage their students to consider it.<\/p>\n

Trinh, the manager of master scheduling, said OUSD has tried to do away with prerequisites districtwide, as it can serve as a barrier to entry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot have someone who\u2019s like a gatekeeper, who will allow certain kids to take APs, and certain kids who don\u2019t,\u201d Trinh said. \u201cOur push as a district to schools is ensuring that AP courses are accessible to any student who wants to take an AP course.\u201d<\/p>\n

One obstacle remains a challenge: the fee-based test. Gaining credits from an AP course hinges on taking and passing the College Board\u2019s standardized AP test at the end of the year, which costs families $99 per test. Even students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch have to pay $53. Last year, 40% of OUSD\u2019s AP test takers paid the lower amount.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams, the Skyline sophomore, said he\u2019s heard the exam fee often steers people away from taking more AP classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of people know a portion of that cost is taken away if you apply with the school\u201d for a discount, he said. \u201cI talked to one of my friends who\u2019s not in AP classes and that was a thing that made him not take AP World.\u201d<\/p>\n

A more equitable kind of college prep<\/p>\n

While after more than 75 years, the AP program is still marred by disparities, a free alternative college prep option is rising in popularity: dual enrollment. Through this program, college professors offer college classes at high school campuses. In OUSD that means professors from the Peralta Colleges \u2014 such as Laney and Merritt \u2014\u00a0travel to district high schools to teach courses as diverse as African American studies, child development, economics, journalism, and psychology. Most of the credits will transfer to the University of California or California State University system, according to OUSD.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re applying to colleges, they\u2019re looking to see what makes the student unique,\u201d said Edgar Galvez, a college adviser at Oakland High. A dual enrollment class \u201csays something about the student, that they\u2019re taking initiative and challenging themselves, [which] really helps them stand out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dual enrollment is a far newer strategy than AP classes, dating back only about a decade in California. These classes, funded by the state\u2019s dual enrollment grant program<\/a>, and anchored in the state\u2019s extensive community college system, now reach more than 240,000 students each year statewide<\/a>. While enrollment in AP courses in OUSD has remained roughly steady over the last 10 years, dual enrollment has gone from 5% of high schoolers in 2015 to nearly 20% of high school students in spring 2025, far higher than the state average<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, dual enrollment is fast outpacing AP classes in the district. With dual enrollment classes, students only need to earn a C or better to earn college credit, unlike AP classes, where students must pass the end-of-year standardized exam. That\u2019s led to a far higher success rate for students: More than 6,500 OUSD students have passed at least one dual enrollment course in the last four years. Over the same time period, about half that amount, 3,350, have passed an AP exam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Standardized tests are known to produce racially disparate outcomes; the College Board\u2019s analysis shows a 17 to 30% gap in exam pass rates between white students and Black and Latino students.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"OaklandAPClasses-JK-13\"\/Varian engages with a student during his AP Government and Economics class at Oakland Tech March 9, 2026. Credit: Jungho Kim for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

With no fee-based test, OUSD\u2019s dual enrollment program also serves high proportions of students receiving free or reduced-priced lunch: around three-fourths of dual enrollment students are low-income, similar to their representation in OUSD overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dual enrollment courses are also spread across a wider range of high schools; about two-thirds of OUSD\u2019s high schools offer more dual enrollment courses than AP classes. Gaps remain between racial groups taking dual enrollment classes, but they aren\u2019t as stark as those with AP. During the 2024-2025 school year, 39% of Black students, 46% of Latino students, 55% of Asian students, and 56% of white students took a dual enrollment class.<\/p>\n

At Castlemont High School, Principal Joseph Blasher said his team has made a deliberate decision to move away from AP offerings and instead to help students prepare for college and gain college credit by providing more dual enrollment opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Student pass rates were a factor, he said. While 92% of OUSD high schoolers taking an AP class got a passing grade last year, only 39% passed the College Board\u2019s exam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s say you invest all this time and energy [offering AP courses], but students have a lot of different things going on and let\u2019s say they can\u2019t take the test or don\u2019t do well on the test, they don\u2019t get the end piece that\u2019s important for AP,\u201d Blasher told The Oaklandside. \u201cIt\u2019s great that it\u2019s on your transcript, but it also doesn\u2019t help with securing some college credits\u201d for students who don\u2019t pass the exam.<\/p>\n

Castlemont students have seen higher success with passing dual enrollment courses. About 20% of Castlemont students are in a dual enrollment course, Blasher said, and last school year, 87% of them passed the class. He said these courses also give students a more accurate college class experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDual enrollment offers a different level of seriousness: we have the college professor come down, this prepares our students for what a college class could feel like, rather than their science or math teacher teaching an AP class,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, Blasher said, dual enrollment classes are easier to add to the schedule. Assigning a teacher to teach an AP course means there are fewer non-AP course sections available for all the other students. Bringing in dual enrollment professors, by contrast, lessens the burdens on Castlemont teachers, who can then focus on students\u2019 other learning needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maya Valenzuela is a senior at Oakland Tech who will have taken five AP courses and seven dual enrollment courses by the end of this school year. She said to have college credit hinge on a single standardized test puts pressure on students they don\u2019t face in dual enrollment courses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AP tests are graded by members of a national panel of \u201creaders\u201d hired by the College Board who have no relationship with the students whose tests they\u2019ll be grading.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With dual enrollment, Valenzuela said, \u201cyou can build a relationship with the people who are grading you. There\u2019s more understanding between the two of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amy Martinez is a counselor and the dual enrollment specialist for Oakland Tech, which has one of the largest dual enrollment programs in the district. She wants students to have access to college courses no matter their grade point average or previous experience with the course material.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf students want to take these courses and they\u2019re interested, we\u2019re all here to support them,\u201d she explained. \u201cWe want them to try college courses and we want them to take these classes that they find interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strategy appears to be successful. Oakland Tech boasts a 97% pass rate in the college classes it offers, far higher than the 60% average pass rate among all students in the Peralta system. The commitment to offering students courses that interest them is part of a district-wide philosophy. While AP offerings are limited by a campus teacher\u2019s availability, credentialing, and scheduling, dual enrollment can be offered as long as there\u2019s a match between student interest and a professor\u2019s time.\u00a0And district data doesn\u2019t show a tight correlation between AP course offerings and admission to four-year colleges.<\/p>\n

Leslie Hsu Freeman, who serves as the dual enrollment manager for OUSD, sees vast potential for the dual enrollment program to close gaps in the district\u2019s college prep disparities and send more students to college.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst-generation students are going to college at far lesser rates than their counterparts that may have parents that graduated from college,\u201d Freeman told The Oaklandside. \u201cWe continue to see disparities along race, class, and many lines that continue to exist in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students who take at least one dual enrollment course in high school go to college at a higher rate than those who didn\u2019t, according to department data. In 2023, nearly 70% of students with at least one dual enrollment class matriculated to college within one semester of graduating, compared with 45% of those who didn\u2019t take a dual enrollment course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think [dual enrollment] is the only solution, but I think it\u2019s a really great tool for a district like ours that\u2019s incredibly, beautifully, diverse, and has a very significantly large population of students of color, underrepresented students, and first generation students,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a great opportunity for us to improve the chances of our students being able to access college.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was reported in collaboration with two Oakland high-school student reporters, Zoe Psomas and Twyla Hoshida, who are participating in an Oaklandside high-school fellowship program made possible by a grant from the Stuart Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is also part of a national initiative exploring how geography, policy, and local conditions influence access to opportunity. Find more stories at economicopportunitylab.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Esther Kaplan contributed reporting.<\/p>\n

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