More Georgia students than ever are passing Advanced Placement exams during high school, according to data released last month.
The state Department of Education reported that Georgia ranks 15th in the nation for AP pass rates, with 22.2 percent of the class of 2014 scoring a 3 or higher on at least one AP exam. It’s also one of just 16 states to outpace the national average of 21.6 percent.
Georgia also is ranked 15th in the nation for 10-year growth in AP pass rates. The percentage of Georgia seniors passing an AP exam has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, rising from 12.3 percent in 2004 to the current 22.2 percent. During the past decade, the number of Georgia graduates taking at least one AP exam has increased by nearly 20 percentage points, leading to a significant increase in the number of exams scoring 3 or higher — the scores typically required for college credit.
And Georgia’s strides toward more students taking AP courses and being successful on the exams continue. Georgia ranks eighth in the nation in the percentage of low-income students passing AP exams.
In other numbers:
• The number of African-American graduates who took at least one AP exam during high school increased, in the last five years, from 7,316 to 9,369. The number of these students who scored 3 or higher on at least one AP exam increased from 3,989 to 6,448.
• 8.1 percent (2,483) of African-American students from Georgia’s public high-school class of 2014 scored 3 or higher on at least one AP exam during high school, compared to 7.2 percent for the nation.
• 12,121 low-income graduates in the class of 2014 took at least one AP exam during high school, more than 10 times the number of low-income graduates who took an exam in the class of 2004.
• Data from the graduating class of 2014 show that Georgia has succeeded in closing the equity gap in AP participation and AP success among Hispanic/Latino students. In 2014, 8.5 percent of Georgia’s public high-school graduating class was composed of Hispanic/Latinos, compared to 9 percent of AP test-takers and 8.8 percent of those who scored a 3 or higher.