Civic Opportunity and Achievement Gap Mar APGOV Test Results in Illinois

by Shawn P. Healy, PhD, Democracy Program Director

The Advanced Placement Test for U.S. Government and Politics (APGOV) is among the most popular in Illinois, ranking behind only English, Calculus, U.S. History, and Psychology among exams taken by Illinois students in 2017. For many students, APGOV is their seminal civics course, taught by the most esteemed member of the social studies department.

Based on my analysis of 2017 score distributions, more than half of APGOV test takers in Illinois (54.0%) earned a score of 3 or higher, qualifying many for college credit and/ or preferable registration status. But beneath these impressive numbers are deep inequities along racial and ethnic lines.

In Table 1 below, I juxtaposed the racial/ ethnic breakdown of APGOV test takers with the composition of the student body in Illinois schools as a whole. White and Asian students are disproportionately more likely to take the APGOV test than their Black and Hispanic peers. Black students are underrepresented by a factor of four.

Table 1: 2017 Illinois Student Population vs. APGOV Test Population


A breakdown of test scores also shows evidence of a civic achievement gap. While a majority of Asian, white, mixed race, and Pacific Islanders scored a 3 or higher on the APGOV test, only three-in-ten Black and Hispanic students attained the same success (see Table 2).

Table 2: APGOV Scores of 3 or Higher by Race/ Ethnicity


APGOV is one of many means by which Illinois high schools are addressing the new civics course requirement. These findings are cause for concern and further reflection. Why are Black and Hispanic students grossly underrepresented among the ranks of test takers? And what can be done to close the achievement gap among students of color taking the test?

Future posts will further grapple with these questions, featuring a return to our 2018 survey of Illinois high school students exposed to the new civics course, but this time disaggregating the data by race.

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