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TEA News Releases Online
Sept. 28, 2011
Advanced Placement program growing
AUSTIN - Texas experienced an almost 11 percent increase in the number of public school students taking an Advanced Placement (AP) test in 2011, and participation gains for the state’s Asian, African-American, American Indian, Hispanic and white students outpaced the growth rate for their peer groups nationally.
The College Board, which oversees the AP program, reported recently that 186,576 Texas public school students took 339,406 AP exams last school year.
Of those, 149,091 earned scores of three, four or five out of a possible score range of one to five. Many colleges and universities will award course credit for scores of three, four or five, which saves Texans time and money as they pursue a college education.
The 2011 participation rate represents a 6.9 percent increase over the number of exams earning high scores in 2010.
The growth in participation has been particularly strong among the state’s minority groups enrolled in public schools. There was a 17.3 percent increase in the number of African-American students who took the test this year, compared to a 9.1 percent increase for African-American students nationally.
In Texas, 14.7 percent more Hispanic students took AP tests in 2011 than did the previous year. Nationally, the growth rate for Hispanics was 12.8 percent. The number of Asian Texans taking AP exams grew 13 percent, compared to 9.6 percent nationally. White Texans enrolled in public schools experienced a growth in the participation rate of 6.4 percent, slightly higher than the national participation increase for whites of 6.1 percent.
The five AP exams taken most frequently by Texas public school students are:
- English Language & Composition: 48,441
- United States History: 38,529
- English Literature & Composition: 30470
- World History: 30130
- Spanish Language: 21,613
Students may take an AP exam without being enrolled in an AP class in high school but most students do take the corresponding class.
See the attached chart for additional details about AP results.