We believe a higher percentage of students in Maryland who took Advanced Placement exams in 2012 succeeded on those exams than in any other state. We caution you that Voxitatis has been barred from verifying these data independently.
The College Board, which runs the Advanced Placement program and develops tests that can give college credit to students who take college-level courses in high school, says 29.6 percent of Maryland seniors who took AP tests earned a score of 3 or higher on one or more of those tests, up from 27.9 percent in 2011, which was also the highest in the nation. A score of 3 out of 5 is the threshold at which many colleges and universities award credit based on the AP exams.
“Because of the better choices we’ve made together to invest in our children’s future, we’ve built the number one public schools in the nation,” said Gov Martin O’Malley in a press release. “Thanks to our hardworking students, our dedicated educators and our outstanding parents, Maryland’s high school students have achieved the nation’s best performance on AP exams for seven years in a row—outperforming their peers and gaining the skills they need to learn, earn, and grow in the future.”
In addition, about 48.2 percent of Maryland’s 2012 graduates took at least one AP exam, a mark that is second only to Florida, where 52.9 percent of seniors took at least one AP exam.
The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program, which began in 1955, allows students to pursue college-level studies while still in high school. Students of different interests and backgrounds can choose from more than 30 courses to demonstrate their knowledge of rigorous academic curriculum.
When Voxitatis attempted to confirm the data independently, we were denied access to school-level data. The College Board is a private entity and isn’t required to respond to requests for information from the press, but “Advanced Placement Report to the Nation: 2013,” the College Board’s ninth annual analysis of the college-level assessment program, is available from the organization’s website.
“All district and school-level AP data, are considered proprietary,” wrote Deborah Davis, the College Board’s director of college readiness communications.
