In our opinion: Editorial: Schools to blame for students failing advanced placement exams

The good news is that more high school students than ever are taking Advanced Placement exams. The bad news is that a lot of them aren't passing. The lessons are twofold. One is that a lot of students in the United States want to learn and excel academically. The other is that a lot of public schools are letting them down.

An Associated Press story over the weekend said 2 million students will take 3.7 million AP exams over the next two weeks, which is more than double the number 10 years ago. Even schools that serve disadvantaged students are offering more AP classes as a way to emphasize college preparation. But while 18 percent of high school graduates last year passed at least one such test, some school districts (including 21 in Indiana) did not record a single passing grade among those who took the tests.

Utah's record in this regard is better than most. Earlier this year, the College Board reported that 29,851 AP exams were administered here in 2011 (many students take more than one), and 68 percent of the exams were scored with a passing grade. In Utah, 20.7 percent of seniors last year passed at least one AP exam, which was 10th best in the nation.

But that does not mean anyone should be satisfied. More than 1-in-5 graduates ought to be passing one of these college-credit courses, which are seen as a sign of a school system's seriousness about rigor and college preparation.

One does not have to pass an AP exam to attend college, but the rising enrollment in courses designed to prepare for these tests and for the tests themselves indicates, as the Associated Press report said, that Advanced Placement tests are becoming the gold standard for high school rigor. Students who pass them tend to do better in college courses than those who don't. Given the importance of secondary education in today's competitive world, schools should be pointing more students in the AP direction, and curricula from the earliest grades on should be geared toward the type of learning that builds proficiency and excitement for academic achievement.

At the least, this would cut down on the number of remedial courses colleges offer in order to bring high school graduates up to college levels in core subjects.

Greater competition and school choice would help, as well. More students and their parents are understanding the need to excel beyond the minimum requirements for high school graduation. Public schools owe it to these folks to prepare them for the type of work that will be demanded of them in college.