ATLANTA – Southern Regional Education Board states continue to lead the nation in student participation in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs and are making long-term progress on passing rates for AP exams, a new SREB report shows.
The 16 SREB states continued to outpace the nation in the percentage of graduating high school seniors who took at least one AP exam in 2008, with 27 percent compared with 25 percent nationally. This marks at least the second straight year SREB states have outperformed the nation. SREB states saw a 2 percentage-point increase in seniors having taken one or more AP exams, compared with 1 point nationally. Half of the 16 SREB states had higher rates of students taking the exams than the nation: Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
SREB states also remained even with the nation for the fifth time in the last six years in the percentage of graduating seniors who passed at least one AP exam. The region and nation were up 1 point (to 15 percent) from 2007. Five SREB states had higher percentages than the nation on this measure: Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia. "Passing" means scoring a 3 or higher, the level at which most colleges give credit. Read the full report here.
"Many states in our region continue to set the pace for growth and for passing rates in these advanced courses," said Joan M. Lord, SREB’s vice president for education policies. "With the growth in online AP courses, all students soon should have access to rigorous courses that can help them prepare for college and even receive college credit."
The SREB Challenge to Lead Goals for Education, approved by a panel of leaders from SREB states in 2002, call for all groups of students to have enrollment and passing rates that exceed national averages in AP and IB courses.
The SREB median states met or exceeded the national percentages of black and Hispanic graduating seniors who passed at least one AP exam in 2008, but passing rates for those groups remained low (especially for black students) in the region and nation. Only two SREB states had higher passing rates for Hispanic students than the nation: Florida and Texas. Those states account for much of the region’s overall Hispanic population.
Fourteen of the 16 SREB states had the same or higher percentages of black seniors passing at least one AP exam than the nation, with Georgia and Mississippi highest — but at a relatively low rate of 11 percent each.
SREB states and the nation had the same percentages of seniors from low-income families who took (17 percent) and passed (13 percent) at least one AP exam in 2008. SREB states have seen a 6-point rise in the percentage of these students taking one or more AP exams since 2003 and a 4-point rise in passing rates. Four SREB states beat the national average in exam-taking: Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas. Four SREB states also beat the national average in exam-passing for low-income students: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.
AP classes are much more available than in previous years, thanks to state virtual schools that provide online courses to almost any student who enrolls, regardless of location. Follow this link to a list of SREB states’ virtual schools: http://www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/SVS/SREB-SVS.asp.
IB programs also continued to grow in SREB states from 2007 to 2008. The region now represents a majority of the nation’s IB programs, with 234 of the 534 programs nationwide. More than 22,000 students in SREB states took IB programs in 2008, including nearly 7,000 in Florida and more than 5,000 in Virginia.
For more information on AP and IB or the Challenge to Lead goals, contact SREB Communications.
The Southern Regional Education Board, or SREB, based in Atlanta, was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. More information is available online at www.sreb.org.
