Teens
show progress in college preparation
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 • BY BEN FELLER
• Associated Press
WASHINGTON --In New Jersey and every other state, more
public school students are passing at least one Advanced
Placement test in high school, a sign of progress in a
nation eager to improve college preparation, the College
Board reported yesterday.
Significant gaps remain, however, as AP participation
booms nationwide, according to the first state-by-state
report in the 50-year history of the college-level testing
program. Many students enter college without having passed
an AP test, and black students have distinct challenges,
with low test participation and test scores a level behind
those of whites.
Across the country, 13.2 percent of the high school
Class of 2004 demonstrated mastery of at least one AP
course, up from 10.2 percent from the 2000 class. Mastery
means gaining a score of at least 3 on a 5-point test
scale.
New Jersey was above the average but far from the top of
the list with 15.5 percent of its 2004 graduates passing on
at least one AP test. That was an increase from 12.9 in
2000.
Provided by the nonprofit College Board that runs the
AP, the report measures how well states provide access to AP
classes and how well students do. Students were counted just
once even if they passed more than one AP test so that no
state's performance would be inflated.
Gains ranged from just 0.6 percentage points by
Louisiana and Mississippi to 5.7 percentage points by
Florida.
The growing percentage of successful AP test-takers is
impressive given the record size of the high school
population, said Trevor Packer, executive director of the AP
program. He said more states are committed to challenging
students regardless of their background.
Research shows that success on AP exams is a strong
predictor of success in college.
Over five decades, the number of students taking annual
AP exams has grown from about 1,000 to more than 1.1
million, with a 140 percent increase during the last decade
alone. A few hundred public high schools used to offer AP;
now two-thirds of them do. The subject list has more than
tripled, from history and biology to additions in the arts
and social sciences.
New York is the first state to have more than 20 percent
of its graduating class achieve a grade of 3 or higher on
the exam. Other states are close -- Maryland, Utah, Florida,
California and Massachusetts had 18 to 20 percent of
students earning the passing score.
The states that showed the greatest increase in the
percentage of students who mastered an AP test were Florida,
Maryland, North Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut and
Washington.
The Bush administration, which has emphasized improving
high school rigor, has endorsed Advanced Placement as one
way to do that. Bush plans to ask for $51.5 million in
federal support next year, up from $29.8 million, a 73
percent increase.
States are making gains in helping minorities. The
proportion of Hispanic students taking AP exams is now about
the same as the proportion of Hispanics in the U.S. public
schools.
But black students, who account for more than 13 percent
of the school population, make up only 6 percent of AP
test-takers. The gap in New Jersey was even wider, with just
4.7 percent of black students taking AP tests in 2004, while
they comprise 14.8 percent of the total enrollment.
Nationwide, the typical test score is 2 for black
students, between 2.5 to 2.8 for Hispanic students, and 3
for white students.
Overall, an estimated 57 percent of the 2004 high school
class enrolled in college, but only 13.2 percent of them
passed an AP test. The goal is to close that gap, Packer
said.
Three New Jersey schools were highlighted in the report
as having the nation's highest passing rates on a specific
AP test. They were Peddie School in Hightstown and
Montgomery High School, both for their art history programs,
and High Technology High School in Lincroft, for its AP
chemistry program.
Star-Ledger reporter John Mooney contributed to this
report.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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