Annual AP® Report Shows Growth in Participation, Performance; Access Remains a Concern

Feb. 2013

Programs and Services

While more public high school students are participating and succeeding in Advanced Placement® courses than ever before, hundreds of thousands of students who have the academic potential to succeed in AP still lack access to the Program.

Succeeding in AP is defined as achieving a score of 3 or higher on the 5-point AP Exam scale, which is the score needed to receive credit, advanced placement or both at the majority of colleges and universities across the country.

In the class of 2012, more than 954,000 public school students took at least one AP Exam during high school, and nearly 1 in 5 public high school graduates scored a 3 or higher on at least one AP Exam during high school.

“By exposing students to college-level work while still in high school, Advanced Placement dramatically improves college completion rates,” said David Coleman, president of the College Board. “Today we applaud those educators who have worked tirelessly to bring the power of AP to more communities and more students than ever before. But we must not forget the hundreds of thousands of students with the potential to succeed in Advanced Placement who don’t even have access to its course work. If we hope to achieve our long-term college completion goals, we must ensure that every student has access to a rigorous education.”

Among the class of 2012:

• The number of high school graduates taking AP Exams increased to 954,070, (32.4%), up from 904,794 (30.2%) among the class of 2011 and 471,404 (18.0%) in 2002 among the class of 2002.
• The number of high school graduates scoring a 3 or higher increased to 573,472 (19.5%), up from 541,000 (18.1%) among the class of 2011 and 305,098 (11.6%) among the class of 2002.

Current research on AP course work confirms AP’s comparability to introductory college courses in content, skills and learning outcomes. Research consistently shows that students earning placement into advanced courses based on AP Exam scores perform as well as — or better than — students who have completed the introductory course at a college or university. In fact, students who succeed on an AP Exam during high school typically experience greater overall academic success in college, and are more likely than their non-AP peers to graduate from college and to graduate on time, experiencing lower college costs than the majority of American college students.

Data from The 9th Annual AP Report to the Nation also indicate that hundreds of thousands of academically prepared students with the potential to succeed in AP — including a disproportionately large percentage of underserved minority students — are graduating from high school without having participated in AP.

Among the class of 2012, more than 300,000 students identified as having a high likelihood of success in AP did not take any recommended AP Exams. Such “AP potential” is defined as a 60 percent or greater probability of scoring a 3 or higher on an AP Exam based on a student’s performance on specific sections of the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®). These data revealed significant inequities in AP participation along racial/ethnic lines, with underserved minority students who demonstrated readiness for AP much less likely than their similarly prepared white and Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander peers to experience AP course work.

A significant cause for this disparity, among other contributing factors, is the lower availability of a variety of AP courses in schools with higher numbers of low-income and traditionally underserved minority students.

“Several states have implemented policies to ensure AP course availability in every public high school,” said Trevor Packer, senior vice president responsible for the Advanced Placement Program. “We encourage continued efforts across the nation to ensure that students have equal access to AP courses, regardless of their socioeconomic, geographic or racial/ethnic background.”

Supporting 3 Goals Critical to College Readiness

At its core, AP is a collaboration among college faculty and administrators, states, districts, schools, and teachers working together to provide academically ready students with the access to the rigor they deserve. The 9th Annual AP Report to the Nation shows that success stories exist and can be brought to scale. Three critical areas for addressing challenges to access are increasing rigor, promoting equity, and developing critical knowledge and skills.

• Increasing Rigor

In order for more students to succeed in college, they need preparation for and access to demanding college-level work while still in high school. Since 2002, there has been a 7.9 point increase in the percentage of U.S. public high school graduates scoring a 3 or higher on an AP Exam. Once again, Maryland led all other states in the percentage of its public high school graduates scoring a 3 or higher on an AP Exam.

Following Maryland , the other top 10 states in percentage of high school graduates scoring a 3 or higher on AP Exam were New York (28.0%), Massachusetts (27.9%), Florida (27.3%), Virginia (27.2%), Connecticut (26.9%), Maine (24.8%), California (24.7%), Colorado (24.2%) and Vermont (22.8%).

• Promoting Equity

The AP Program is committed to increasing student diversity in AP classrooms while simultaneously increasing AP success, to ensure that the demographics of both AP participation and success reflect the demographics of the overall student population. Though challenges remain, progress is being made to close equity gaps in AP participation and success among underserved minority and low-income students. Consider the following:

• 30 states made progress over the past year in closing both AP participation and success gaps among black/African American students.
• 17 states and the District of Columbia made progress over the past year in closing both AP participation and success gaps among Hispanic/Latino students.