Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Feb. 6, 2025 to include a statement from the Black Parents Workshop.
Administrators, Board of Education members and community members voiced their continued support for the Intentional Integration Initiative and Access & Equity policies and programs in the face of challenges locally in enrolling and supporting Black students in higher level classes — as well as a new federal administration that is shutting down diversity, equity and inclusion efforts — at the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education meeting on January 30.
The conversation centered around a presentation by Asst. Supt. of Access & Equity Dr. Kevin Gilbert, revealing that enrollment numbers for Black students across the district had declined, and that efforts to recruit Black students to AP courses were sometimes successful, but overall insufficient.
“I wanted to say thank you to Dr. Gilbert and your team for your dedication to this work especially in the context of the national climate. Some parents might be concerned about our commitment to having our BIPOC and marginalized students reach their full potential and maintain success in these high level classes. This presentation shows that, although we have work to do, we don’t intend to leave any of our students behind,” said Board member Shayna Sackett-Gable.
The Presentation
The number of Black students enrolled in AP language arts courses at Columbia High School has increased from 10% of those enrolled to 14%, and there is a slight increase in the number of first-time enrollment by BIPOC and marginalized students in AP Calculus. However, the number of Black students in AP science courses has dropped from 17% enrollment to 9%, and in world languages, the number has dropped from 18% of total enrollment to just 6%.
The presentation of course enrollment data by race and gender is mandated under the terms of the district’s settlement agreement with the Black Parents Workshop, Gilbert said.
Superintendent Jason Bing referred to Gilbert as a “true equity warrior” when introducing his presentation.
Watch the presentation here, beginning at the 1:33:35 mark. See Gilbert’s slide presentation attached below.
The Fergus report, released in June 2023, criticized the district for failing to provide equitable access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses, stating at the time that “This pattern suggest[s] that Black and Latinx students enrollment in advanced courses ends at Honors classes while White and Asians do not maintain a ceiling.”
The report continued, “Black high school students…suggest that while they are physically represented in advanced level courses, their representation is superficial and fails to address the deeper issues of systemic racism operating in the district. [They] report that there is a lack of rigor in the curriculum and a lack of care demonstrated in the culture at SOMSD.”
In the fall of 2023, more than half of the students of color at CHS were enrolled in at least one AP course, up from 45% during the previous school year, according to a presentation made by Jessica Lamb of Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS), a consulting firm that first partnered with SOMSD during the 2022-23 school year to determine what changes were needed to increase AP enrollment among students of color.
Gilbert observed during his presentation that the overall number of Black students in the district had dropped significantly over the last decade, from 36.3% of total students in the 2013-2014 school year to 23% during the 2023-24 school year. During that same time period, the number of white students increased from half the student population in 2013-14 to 53.9% in 2023-24, and the number of multiracial students nearly tripled, from 3.4% 10 years ago to 9.2% in the last year.
“What that tells us is that our challenge is even greater, because as those populations shrink, we have to be more and more intentional in making sure we open those classes up because now there is a smaller population of students that we have to move into those particular classes,” Gilbert said.
AP social studies classes, said Gilbert, saw the largest increases of BIPOC and marginalized students. About 12% of the students enrolled in those classes were Black, according to the data, and that number has held steady even as the overall number of Black students has shrunk. “We opened up another AP class, AP African American studies, that got more students actively involved, and our US History AP class seems to be one of our rising stars.”

CHS Language Arts enrollment

CHS Science enrollment
Gilbert also said, “surprisingly enough,” a rising number of BIPOC and marginalized students were taking AP Psychology.
“Our aim,” he said, is that once students take their first AP courses, “is [to] support them and keep them in.”
Supports, he said, involved intentional groupings of students within the courses, additional math intervention teachers, outreach to families with information about AP coursework. A five-year professional development plan for teachers is underway as well, Gilbert said.
In response to a question from Board member Liz Callahan asking “how do we understand the effectiveness of these additional supports in increasing participation in advance courses? do we have plans to survey students and families who participate in them?” Gilbert responded that, inspired by the Fergus report, the district was running focus groups.
“One of the things that helped drive a lot of the language in the Equity Audit by Rutgers was that they did focus groups and that is a practice that we have continued,” said Gilbert.
Gilbert also said that the “baseball card” mentioned by Bing — data from common assessments going from pre-K through 12 for every student in the district — would also help measure effectiveness and produce recommendations for students.
In response to a question from BOE member Deirdre Brown, who asked if the district had data on what led to students enrolling for the first time in AP classes, Gilbert said that during the district’s partnership with EOS, students reported being encouraged by a teacher to join AP classes, but they also said they were easily discouraged by teachers. Encouraging teachers to encourage students is important, he said.
Middle school, Gilbert said, is when SOMSD students are first exposed to leveled classes, with math courses. To that end, he said, the district would institute a transition plan when students move to middle school to help them plan their coursework through high school. Tracking students through middle school math, he said, gave the district an idea of who could move into AP coursework.
BOE president Nubia Duvall Wilson asked whether the middle school transition plan was already in effect, or something planned for the future. Gilbert said that year’s fifth and sixth graders would be the first classes to benefit from it. “This is the plan we’re putting into effect this year,” he said.
“We’re not seeing the kind of progress we want to see” in the AP courses, said BOE 1st Vice President Will Meyer. “Looking at this through the lens…of our settlement, how does this data reflect on our ability to meet our obligations under the settlement right now, and what are these numbers saying as far as what we need to do differently to make sure we stay on track?”
“I will answer by saying that the plans we are making should make an impact,” said Gilbert. “This year we finally got our data infrastructure in place, so [next year] we should see some movement. I don’t make guarantees, but I will say that by putting those things in place, we should start seeing those numbers increasing.” He said within two years, he hoped to see a steady increase of BIPOC and marginalized student enrollment in AP courses at CHS.
“We have to make sure we as an institution aren’t putting barriers in place to keep this from happening,” Dr. Gilbert said.
BOE student rep Oliver Nesin, a CHS senior, asked Gilbert if data was being collected on AP test scores and collated by race and gender. “Is there a measure of how [BIPOC and marginalized students] are doing and how they’re being supported?” Nesin asked.
“Absolutely, we’re monitoring” performance, Gilbert said. “It’s more than just getting them in there, we want to keep them in there. But we can’t keep them there if we don’t have the supports. To your point, we want them to be successful. We don’t just want them to be a number.”
During public comments, Nancy Gagnier and Jocelyn Ryan from the South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race said that they stood ready to support the district in its efforts.
Gagnier lauded the “long-awaited, important, detailed information with potential solutions” from Dr. Gilbert and noted, “He used our word, being ‘intentional’.”
She continued, “We will not waver from this goal and will do all in our power to challenge the district to live into achieving real racial equity.”
After the meeting, James H. Davis III, chair of the Black Parents Workshop (BPW), sent Village Green a statement about the district’s progress on the 23 recommendations of the Fergus Report, noting that BPW has been working “closely and collaboratively” with Bing, Gilbert and the district’s team as they implement the Intentional Integration Initiatives.
“I am encouraged to state that BPW has been pleased with the progress made thus far under Mr. Bing’s leadership,” Davis said in the statement. “We don’t expect perfection, and we don’t expect a quick turnaround on the trends. However, we expect SOMSD to be fully committed to implementing Dr. Fergus’ recommendations. Specifically, we expect SOMSD to be transparent; we expect SOMSD to be forthright in any challenges that may require a new approach; and we expect SOMSD to put the students of SOMSD first in their efforts.”
“Changing a system is never an easy or quick process, but BPW is on this journey for the long haul,” Davis said. “We are fully engaged, and our resolute commitment to this effort is unwavering because our children always matter.”
Editor’s note: The headline of this story was changed on February 3, 2025 to focus on AP enrollment; the previous headline focused on Black student enrollment overall and the district’s support for Access & Equity and the Intentional Integration Initiative.