Racial Differences in Mathematics Test Scores for Advanced Mathematics Students

Research on achievement gaps has found that achievement gaps are larger for students who take advanced mathematics courses compared to students who do not. Focusing on the advanced mathematics student achievement gap, this study found that African American advanced mathematics students have significantly lower test scores and are less likely to be proficient at all mathematics skill subdomains compared to White advanced mathematics students. Interestingly, African American students who take calculus as their highest level of mathematics in high school have similar achievement levels as White advanced mathematics students who have trigonometry/pre-calculus as their highest level of mathematics in high school.