Success By Six: Advanced Placement Test

In 2006/07, 1,095 Allen County 11th and 12th grade students took at least one AP test, or 15% of all juniors and seniors. Out of the 1,639 AP tests taken, 61% received a score of “3” or better. See below for more explanation.

The Advanced Placement Program® is a cooperative educational endeavor between secondary school and colleges and universities. Since its inception in 1955, the Program has provided motivated high school students with the opportunity to take college-level courses in a high school setting. Students who participate in the Program not only gain college-level skills, but have the opportunity to earn college credit while they are still in high school. This is done by taking an AP test and scoring at a level acceptable to the college or university that the student will eventually attend.

Colleges can set their own standards as to whether they will accept AP scores as college credit, and also can determine how high the student must score in order to receive the credit. For example, Harvard University determined that it would only accept the top AP Grade, a 5, on some of the tests, while a middle score, a 3, would have been acceptable for credit at many other institutions for the same subject. IPFW accepts a score of "3" for some classes, while a minimum of a 4 is needed for others. In some cases, a higher score will yield more college credits, such as in the foreign languages. IPFW credit transfer policy can be found here.

AP courses are taught by high school teachers who have access to course guidelines developed by the College Board. The state of Indiana does pay for fees associated with students in grades 11 and 12 taking math and science exams, and for younger students taking math and science exams who are on the free and reduced-lunch program.

HOW TO READ THESE CHARTS: The Indiana Dept of Education publishes the percentage of students in the 11th and 12th grade who register for an A/P test. For the school year 2003-04, 267 Homestead students took 434 AP tests. Homestead's enrollment in 11th and 12th grades totaled 910 students, therefore, 29% of the 11th and 12th graders took at least one AP test (267/910). Three hundred and eighteen of these 434 tests had a score of "3" or better, i.e. 73% of all tests taken were at least a "3". Younger students may take AP tests; however, we believe the reported data reflects the AP results of only 11th and 12th graders.

All high schools in Allen County offer Advanced Placement tests.