Racial disparities in advanced course taking have remained and even increased against the backdrop of the recent advanced placement(AP)and dual enrollment(DE)program expansion to an open access,yet few have examined the underlying dynamics.Using the College Board’s SAT questionnaire data of the 2008 and 2014 public high school seniors,we show that advanced course taking became increasingly prevalent,yet Black students’course taking rates remained the lowest,and Hispanic students’progress was relatively limited.The three-way interaction models illustrate the underlying dynamics.Black students had persistently lower academic achievement;higher-achieving Black fell further behind,and mid-achieving Hispanic students had not kept up with their respective White counterpart in advanced course taking over time.Just as the effectively maintained inequality(EMI)theory predicts that advantaged groups would effectively seek qualitative advantages,White students not only had further strengthened their academic achievements,they had also increasingly grasped the opportunities to take advanced courses across achievement levels,which would enable them to distinguish themselves in the upcoming transition to college.