Although the official report from the College Board won’t be out for a while, some school systems are starting to release results and statistics from students in the graduating class of 2012 on Advanced Placement (AP) exams, the Washington Examiner reports.
In Montgomery County, Md.:
- 32,974 exams taken, up +4% from the class of 2011
- 24,735 exams scoring 3 or higher, up 8.5%
- 75 percent of all exams scoring 3 or higher, 4.5%
In Prince George’s County, Md.:
- 8,951 exams taken, down 0.3% (number of test takers increased by about 0.4%)
- 2,437 exams scoring 3 or higher, up 9.7%
- 27.2 percent of all exams scoring 3 or higher, up 10.1%
Last year, the state of Maryland was first in the nation in AP testing, according to the Eighth Annual AP Report to the Nation released last summer by the College Board. And this year, the numbers have continued to increase:
In the state of Maryland:
- 102,354 exams taken, up 5.3%
- 62,802 exams scoring 3 or higher, up 9.5%
- 61.4 percent of all exams scoring 3 or higher, up 4.1%
The numbers reported above by the Examiner are slightly different from numbers reported by the Maryland State Department of Education in September. MSDE says the number of test takers in the entire state—the count of students who took at least one AP exam—increased to nearly 63,000, up 5.4 percent from 2011, and the number of exams taken was 116,614, up 5.4 percent, as opposed to the 5.3 percent and the lower number of exams reported by the Examiner.
State Superintendent of Schools Lillian M. Lowery said the results are a positive sign that students are becoming better prepared for life beyond high school.
“Advanced Placement offers rigorous courses of study, serving as a cornerstone for future success in college or a career field,” she said in a press release. “Maryland students are eager to test their mettle in everything from calculus to English literature.”
In mid-November, the College Board released the Third Annual AP District Honor Roll, which listed the school districts that showed increases in both access to AP exams and the rate of passing.
A total of 539 school districts across 44 of 50 states and six Canadian provinces achieved honor roll status. The state of Massachusetts was represented by the largest number of AP Honor Roll districts, with 46, followed by Michigan, with 39.
For the record, Illinois had 22 school districts, including the Diocese of Joliet, a private school administration, on the honor roll. In Maryland, three of the state’s 24 public school districts made the list: Carroll County, Harford County, and Montgomery County.
Illinois districts on the honor roll
The following Illinois school districts (and one diocesan school district) made the honor roll for the class of 2012. Making the honor roll for districts requires that the number of test takers be up, the access for certain minority groups be up, and the percentage of students who received scores of 3 or higher be up from those values in 2011.
- Batavia Unit School District 101, which includes Batavia Senior High School
- Central Community Unit School District 301, which includes Central High School in Burlington
- Community High School District 128, which includes Libertyville and Vernon Hills high schools
- Community High School District 155, which includes Crystal Lake Central, Crystal Lake South, Prairie Ridge, and Cary-Grove high schools
- Woodstock Community Unit School District 200, which includes Woodstock and Woodstock North high schools
- Diocese of Joliet, which includes Benet Academy in Lisle, Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, Immaculate Conception High School in Elmhurst, Joliet Catholic Academy, Montini Catholic High School in Lombard, Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, and St. Francis High School in Wheaton
- Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205, which includes York Community High School
- Geneva Community Unit School District 304, which includes Geneva Community High School
- Huntley Consolidated School District 158, which includes Huntley High School
- Indian Prairie School District 204, which includes Waubonsie Valley, Metea Valley, and Neuqua Valley high schools
- Kaneland Community Unit School District 302, which includes Kaneland Senior High School
- Lake Park Community High School District 108, which includes Lake Park High School
- Leyden Community High School District 212, which includes East Leyden and West Leyden high schools
- McLean County Unit School District 5, which includes Normal Community and Normal Community West high schools
- Monticello Community Unit School District 25, which includes Monticello High School
- Oak Lawn Community High School District 229, which includes Oak Lawn Community High School
- Olympia Community Unit School District 16, which includes Olympia High School in Stanford
- St. Charles Community Unit School District 303, which includes St. Charles East and St. Charles North high schools
- Sycamore Community Unit School District 427, which includes Sycamore High School
- Triad Community School Unit District 2, which includes Triad High School in Troy
- Valley View 365 Unified School District, which includes Bolingbrook and Romeoville high schools
- Warren Township High School District 121, which includes Warren Township High School in Gurnee
AP numbers for the entire country
- 3,151,132 exams taken, up 6.9%
- 1,804,458 exams scoring 3 or higher, up 9.6%
- 57.3 percent of all exams scoring 3 or higher, up 2.7%
Note that some AP test takers live in Canada. In reporting the above numbers for the US, the Examiner didn’t make it clear where the numbers came from.