Louisiana high school students earned more college credit-qualifying Advanced Placement exam scores this year than students did in 2015.
The students’ qualifying AP exam scores jumped up by 845, or 11%, according to the state Department of Education. There were 8,548 qualifying scores overall in 2016 compared to 7,703 in 2015. A score of 3 or higher on an AP exam is generally considered high enough to qualify for college credit.
The state attributes the one-year bump in part to an overall increase in AP course participation among students.
“These results are further proof that when students have access to more challenging coursework, they rise to the challenge,” says state Education Superintendent John White in a statement.
Louisiana has historically ranked lowest in the nation in the number of students taking AP courses and passing tests. To counter this, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and local school systems began implementing changes to high school policies in 2012 to boost AP credits, College-Level Examination Program scores, college-eligible scores on the ACT (18 or higher), and the number of freshmen entering college.
“Too few students today arrive on college campuses fully prepared for the challenges of college curricula,” White says. “This issue is even more pronounced among graduates from low-income backgrounds.”
In addition, the number of CLEP exams taken in Louisiana has vaulted from 41 in the 2013-14 school year to 6,053 in the 2015-16 school year, the education department says. As a result, the number of college-accepted CLEP scores has also skyrocketed from 25 in 2013-14 to 2,630 last school year.
