TO: News Media
FROM: Jim Foster
DATE: April 29, 2008
RE: School-level Advanced Placement/IB Scores
Attached are South Carolina's school-level scores for the College
Board’s Advanced Placement tests. We release state-level AP data
early each school year, but the College Board does not provide local
high school scores until later. Also included in the attached report
are local scores from 23 high schools in the International Baccalaureate
program.
Here's a summary from the August release of state-level scoring:
South Carolina high school seniors continued to improve their AP
performance in 2007. An all-time high of 14,922 scored high enough to
earn college credits, an 11 percent increase over 2006's 13,457. The
number of exams attempted rose from 24,137 to 26,117, also an all-time
high. The number of African-American students whose scores qualified
for college credit increased by nearly 15 percent.
Nearly 1,500 more South Carolina AP scores were high enough to earn
college credit, up from 13,457 exams with scores 3-5 on the five-point
AP scale in 2006 to 14,922 in 2007. The percentage of students scoring
3-5 went up, too, from 55.7 last year to 57.1 this year.
State Superintendent Jim Rex said the state could learn valuable
lessons from its continuing successes in Advanced Placement programs.
“Our AP classes have top-quality teachers, an intense focus on
clearly understood goals and high expectations for all kids,” Rex
said. “We need to approach every class that way, not just AP classes.
Once we do that, our success stories will come in by the truckload.”
AP courses - and the accompanying College Board exams that demonstrate
mastery of the course material - let students earn college credit while
still in high school. Since 1984, South Carolina has paid for AP
instructional materials, paid students’ test fees and offered
specialized training for teachers. Every student enrolled in an AP
course is required to take the test.
The five most-taken AP exams in 2007 were the same five as the previous
year: United States History, English Literature and Composition, English
Language and Composition, Calculus AB and Biology.
