Statistical tome cites surge in test-taking by Hispanics and blacks.
The numbers of black and Hispanic students in public and private high schools who are taking Advanced Placement exams soared from 1997 to 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s latest annual compendium of education statistics.
The report, released today, documents a 213 percent jump over the nine years of the study in the number of Hispanic students taking the college-level Advanced Placement, or AP tests, and a 177 percent increase over the same period for African-American students.
Those increases were the sharpest amid a nationwide surge in recent years in the numbers of students from all racial and ethnic groups who take rigorous courses in high school. Across the board, the number of students taking the AP tests more than doubled over the same period, growing from 567,000 in 1997 to 1.2 million two years ago.
Contrary to some expectations, though, the influx of test-takers led to only minor declines in AP-test scores. According to the federal data, the proportion of students who earned a 3 or better on the college-level exams fell from 65 percent to 59 percent over the nine-year study period. Most colleges award students credit for their high school AP courses for exam scores of 3 or higher on a scale of 1 to 5.
