Taylorsville High School is a unique high school, with classes like Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), Advanced Placement (AP), and Concurrent Enrollment (CC), which give students various opportunities to succeed and go on to university. This isn’t the path for everyone, nonetheless, is anyone able to profit in the same ways as others?

Taylorsville High School has a student body built of 51.96% Caucasian, 32.75% Hispanic, 5.66% Asian, 3.39% African American, 4.55% Pacific Islanders, 1.69% Native American, as shown through official school counseling records from 2018.

Advanced classes like AP or CC seem to be available to all but seem to only be achievable by Caucasian students.

Johnny Lee, (name withheld) a Taylorsville senior of Asian descent, has taken nine AP classes in his three years of high school. He agreed with the notion that AP students are commonly Caucasian and that white students have a foot up in some classes. “Yes, I feel like because they are white they have an easier time,” Lee responded.

Taylorsville senior Daniel Kim (name withheld) who is of Asian lineage disagreed with Lee. Feeling that though there are more white kids in the classes, they all have equal opportunities to achieve. So the beliefs of students of color apart of AP classes vary between the thoughts though both agree that the majority of AP and CC classes are white.
Finally, a senior Kenny Johnson (real name withheld) who has never attended an AP or CC course says she doesn’t consider herself to be smart enough for these classes. Is it right to make people feel this way, or how are can these people be helped so they feel smart enough for these classes?

When discussing this topic with Taylorsville teacher Levi Negley, who teaches AP English Literature, he shared that his classes are built up of 75% to 80% of Caucasian students. Meanwhile, a Spanish AP class is only 20% white.

It seems the diversity of AP classes is dependent on the material being studied. However, the trend of AP English Literature continues in other CC and AP classes. In an AP Art History class with 17 students, 6 of them were minorities, and then over all other art classes are built of 70% – 75% white students. AP Chemistry is 62.5% white. Every college course teacher aspires to have a variety of a diversity within their class.

The teacher of AP Art History, Rob Eberly, said that “ More diversity brings in a different perspective.”

Eberly is then able to talk about art from other countries and have students who have heritage there connect to what they are learning. This leads to students and teachers gaining a greater comprehension of the world in the respective classes.

   So how come students of color are less prevalent in AP and CC classes?

Señor Wells said, “No child of color is less capable than a white child. AP Spanish is special because it gives the Latino demographic a less intimidating option than AP Statistics or AP Chemistry.” Teachers want more diversity and believe in each student they see and help those students to the greatest of their abilities.

AVID classes assist students in school work and push them to attempt more challenging classes.

Rachel Borrowman teacher of AVID 2 explained that AVID classes are often made up of students of color and AVID is necessary for preparing students to ascend to a college-level curriculum.

Mrs. Borrowman addressed the circumstances that can urge some students of color away from going directly toward college classes where they may not feel as comfortable as they would in a group of their peers in a regular high school class. If they have never been around students who attend AP and CC classes can form a tendency to feel these classes are a foreign area. Yet, some students, like Lee and Kim go straight into AP and CC education.

An AP or CC student should be any student wanting a more labor-intensive education, not depending on race. While noticing this trend and wanting to do something about the lack of diversity in AP and CC classes. District-wide something must be done to combat this issue in school. All students of any nationality should be able to have the same support group as others.