Advanced Placement Program

What is the Advanced Placement Program (AP)?

The College Board partners with colleges and universities to create assessments of college-level learning – the AP Exams – in 34 subject areas. The College Board then supports secondary schools in training teachers and developing a curriculum of high academic intensity and quality that will enable students to meet the standards for college-level learning in these subjects. As a result, most colleges and universities in the United States, as well as in more than 30 other countries, recognize AP Exam results in the admission process as a sign of a student’s ability to succeed in rigorous curricula, and they also award college credit or placement into a higher-level college course so that college entrants can move directly into the courses that match their level of academic preparation for college.

The following schools have Advanced Placement classes:

Fast Facts about Advanced Placement from the College Board AP Report to the Nation 2005

• In 2004, 14,904 schools participated in the AP Program.
• 14,144 of these schools are located in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
• 760 of these schools are located outside the United States or in U.S. territories.
• Worldwide, 1,101,802 students took 1,887,770 AP Exams in 2004.
• The mean AP Exam grade was 2.96.
• Of the 34 AP Exams, the five taken by the greatest number of students in 2004 were:  U.S. History (262,906), English Literature and Composition (239,493), English Language and Composition (198,514), Calculus AB (175,094) and U.S. Government and Politics (112,894).

Advanced Placement: Closing Equity Gaps

The Advanced Placement Program’s official Equity Policy Statement calls for “schools to make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population.”

AP Equity Policy Statement:

The College Board and the Advanced Placement Program encourage teachers, AP Coordinators, and school administrators to make equitable access a guiding principle for their AP programs. The College Board is committed to the principle that all students deserve an opportunity to participate in rigorous and academically challenging courses and programs. All students who are willing to accept the challenge of a rigorous academic curriculum should be considered for admission to AP courses. The Board encourages the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP courses for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the AP Program. Schools should make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population.