Guidance or Gatekeeping: An Audit Examination of Racial Discrimination in Leading STEM High Schools: Systems that Marginalize BIPOC Youth Special Issue: Dismantling Oppression Series

Racial discrimination remains a mechanism by which ethnic–racial minorities are restricted from power. We examined whether racial discrimination restricts ethnic–racial minority access to high-achieving STEM schools. We conducted an audit correspondence experiment to investigate racial discrimination in guidance counselor responsiveness to 976 emails from fictitious Asian, Black, Latina, and White mothers inquiring about school enrollment. Moderation analyses revealed that guidance counselors restricted access from Asian mothers at schools characterized as rural, lower socioeconomic status, and higher STEM prestige—evidence of gatekeeping points to the restriction of Asian students from advanced STEM opportunities. Results are situated within educational audit experiments to objectively document how racism from multiple facets of the education system intersect to inhibit ethnic–racial minority youth.