"This book follows along all the stages in the college prep pipeline: from access in school to participation in classes to demonstration of mastery of the course content. Today's research focuses on the middle stage: who participates in the courses and who does not. Since the turn of the century, scholarly work in the US largely ignores the first part of the pipeline about whether or not students even have access to these courses in their districts. Nearly no studies address mastery, except for the College Board's own reporting on the issue"--