More than one in five Maryland high school graduates last year scored well enough on an Advanced Placement test to earn credit in college - giving the state the second-highest success rate in the nation, according to a report released yesterday.
Twenty-one percent of the state's 2005 graduates scored 3 or better on at least one AP exam during their high school careers, compared to 14 percent nationally, the College Board said.
The report also credited Maryland with having the highest increase nationally in the percentage of test takers who passed the tests, up 7 percentage points from 14 percent in 2000.
State education officials said an effort to train more AP teachers and to rapidly increase the number of minority students who have access to the classes has helped drive the success. "This is a very good news story for Maryland," said schools superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.
Across the nation, the AP courses have proliferated, with double the number of students taking them today from a decade ago. Now almost 15,000 of 23,000 high schools in the country offer some AP courses.
A student who scores 3 or better (on a scale of 5) can qualify for credit at many colleges, but even more important to some students is the boost that AP classes give to their chances of getting into selective colleges.
While AP classes were once taken only by the highest achievers in competitive high schools, the classes are now often offered to whoever wants to take them.
Maryland education officials have urged schools to encourage more African-American and Hispanic students to take the classes, even when they come from schools that might not have prepared them well.
The state has awarded several grants to encourage success among students taking the classes. For instance, state funds have helped prepare and train English teachers to teach AP at 10 Maryland high schools, provided subsidies to poor students who couldn't afford the test fee, and have awarded grants to 12 middle schools to help give children from low-income families access to tougher courses to prepare them.
In Maryland last year, 5 percent of the students who took the exams were Hispanic. Hispanics represent about 5 percent of the high school population.
Blacks accounted for 14 percent of students who had taken a test, while they represent a third of all graduates.
Baltimore's public schools have tried to increase their participation. In 2003, the city had 618 students enrolled in AP classes compared to 1,024 last year.
