The environmental workforce has yet to reflect the increasing racial diversity of the U.S. population. Part of the challenge is the inability of college-level environmental programs to recruit students of color. Our study examined multicultural eco-high schools and the high school Advanced Placement Environmental Science (APES) test in order to determine if a substantial population of potential college recruits remained untapped. The 184 multicultural eco-high schools in 29 states in this study graduate at least 32,000 students of color each year. In 2007 more than 4,200 students of color scored ≥ 3 on the APES test, the score often required to receive college credit for the high school APES class. That year 2,192 students of color received a college degree in agriculture- or natural resource-related disciplines. This study proposes that more targeted recruitment by colleges of high school students of color attending multicultural eco-high schools or performing well on the APES test could significantly increase the number of students of color being produced by college-level environmental programs and prepared to enter the environmental profession. This is the first study developing a national list of multicultural eco-high schools and examining performance trends by race during the first decade of the APES test.
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