Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper reports impact estimates from the first experimental study of the Advanced Placement (AP) program. The AP program, created by the College Board, consists of a set of college­-level courses (fielded by regular high school teachers) and AP exams offered to high school students who are seeking college credit for learning the material. Despite widespread AP course offerings and takings across U.S. schools, there has been no experimental evidence on the causal impact of taking an AP course on student outcomes. We randomized nearly 2,000 students in 23 schools into AP biology and chemistry courses; evaluated the quality of course delivery; and collected data on a range of student outcomes. In this paper, we test for the effect of AP science course access and participation on students’ college application decisions, entry into college immediately following high school, quality of colleges to which students apply and enroll, and persistence into the second year of college. Our study went into the field in 2012 and the final cohort of students are graduating high school and entering into college during 2017.