Social contributors to differences in math course attainment among adolescents with and without learning disabilities and ADHD.

Abstract

Completing advanced high school math coursework relates to better adulthood outcomes. Our understanding of why youth with learning disabilities (LDs) and/or ADHD have less access to high math course attainment is limited. Using data on around 20,000 adolescents from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, results indicate that, regardless of disability status, structural inequities in family social position are more salient for youth's math course attainment than formal disability programming, universal supports, or structural inequities in how students are sorted across schools. Among youth with the same disability status, youth from higher SES families, or whose parents have a STEM degree, have heightened access to high math course attainment even after accounting for prior achievement. Disparities in access to high math course attainment that persist net of controls for both youth with an LD and youth with ADHD present the possibility of disability-related stratification and stigma during high school.