Education
Advanced Placement Tests
Description: Advanced placement courses are designed to be at a college level of learning. Up to 37 advanced placement (AP) courses are offered in 22 subject areas in participating high schools nationally. The number of students taking at least one AP exam, the total number of exams taken, and the number scoring 3 or higher are reported by the College Board for each state. Scores are from 1 to 5, with 3 meaning “qualified” (equivalent to a ‘B’ to ‘C’ grade in a college course) and 5 meaning “extremely well qualified” (equivalent to an ‘A’ grade in a college course).
On the dashboard, Arizona is compared to national averages from 1997 through 2008 for the percentage of students taking an AP exam and the percentage of AP exams taken scoring 3 or higher. The percentage of students serves as a proxy for the potential number of students who could take an AP exam, because it is calculated from enrollment figures of 12th grade students on October 1, but some students take AP exams prior to the 12th grade and AP exams are actually given the following May.
Only public school students are included in the data because consistent enrollment figures are limited to public school students. The percentage of students taking AP exams is based on enrollment figures that are a proxy for the potential number of students who could take AP exams.
Data Sources: The College Board http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/ap/archived. Enrollment figures are from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/pub_snf_report.asp. The 2006-07 school year enrollment figures are not available from the NCES; the Arizona figure was obtained from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). The NCES and ADE figures for prior years do not always match.
