Utah pupils 3rd in U.S. in earning AP credit

For the second year in a row Utah has grabbed a top national ranking for students participating and earning college credit for Advanced Placement courses.

Tuesday the College Board released the second annual Advanced Placement Report to the Nation, placing Utah third in the country for the percent of students earning college credit by attaining scores of 3 or above on AP exams.

Nearly 30 percent of Utah high school seniors took AP tests in 2005 and 20.5 percent of seniors scored at least a 3 on the test, according to data released Tuesday by the College Board, which administers the AP program.

"It's a sign of the quality of education in this state — AP courses are a fairly inexpensive way for kids to get college credit," said Mark Peterson, spokesman for the State Office of Education. "It's a choice that's available in a lot of schools in Utah — not all states are like that — and it's a good way of filling some of those liberal arts requirements before going into college."

Utah ranks behind New York and Maryland — in New York, 34.8 percent of students took AP exams and 22.8 percent of them earned college credit, and in Maryland 31.5 percent took exams and 21 percent earned credit.

"I would certainly attribute this to some of the most prepared AP educators in the nation," said Ann Harrison, AP coordinator for Granite School District. "And I think Utah's public schools and communities support that kind of excellence and rigor in this state."

The number of Utah students taking AP classes increased by more than 600 this year over 2004.

The data show 14,105 Utah students, including seniors and underclassmen, took 23,133 AP exams in 2005 and that 15,145 of those tests earned a grade of at least 3.

That's a pass rate of 65 percent. The national pass rate was 58 percent.

"Utah's AP classes do a great job preparing students for college-level work, and we'd like to see this success continue," said Amanda Covington, spokeswoman for the Utah System of Higher Education. "We believe a rigorous high school curriculum is increasingly important for all students, whether they plan to enter the work force or higher education."

But in many states, including Utah, the number of minority students taking AP courses and getting college credit lags behind their Caucasian counterparts.

According to the report, Latino students are well represented in AP classrooms nationally — they represent 13.4 percent of the student population and 13.6 percent of AP examinees. But they remain underrepresented in AP programs in many individual states.