The 8th Annual AP Report to the Nation State Supplement February 8, 2012 Knowledge Skills Behaviors Awareness North Carolina
North Carolina Table of Contents Fostering Participation and Success 2 4 About This Report By combining national, state, and AP data, this report provides educators and policymakers with information they can use to celebrate their successes, understand their unique challenges and set meaningful goals to increase opportunity for all students. It s important to note that while AP Exams are valid measures of students content mastery of college-level studies in specific academic disciplines, AP results should never be used as the sole measure for gauging educational excellence and equity. Because reliable demographic data for nonpublic schools are not available for all states, this report represents public school students only. Additionally, this report looks at students entire experience with AP tracking exams taken by graduates throughout their high school career as opposed to reporting exam results from a particular calendar year. Additional data are available at apreport.collegeboard.org. Note: Throughout this report, public high school graduates represent projections supplied in Knocking at the College Door (2008), Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. 1
Fostering Participation and Success Figure 1 Growth in AP participation and success Number of Number of 13,159 21,142 24,558 25,543 7,946 12,291 14,995 15,496 More graduates are succeeding on AP Exams today than took them in 2001 Figure 2 Participation in and success on AP Exams in the class of 2011 Percentage of Percentage of Percentage of North Carolina Student Population Total Number of Students: 84,401 1.8% 1.2% 15.2% 9.1% 13.5% 7.3% 13. 6.8% 20.8% 12.2% 1.7% 1.1% Art English Math Science Social World Science Languages 30.3% 18.4% Any Discipline Subject Area Exams: Art: Art History, Music Theory, Studio Art: Drawing Portfolio, Studio Art: 2-D Design Portfolio and Studio Art: 3-D Design Portfolio English: English Language and Composition and English Literature and Composition Math: Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Computer Science A, Computer Science AB* and Statistics Science: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics B, Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism and Physics C: Mechanics Social Science: Comparative Government and Politics, European History, Human Geography, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Psychology, United States Government and Politics, United States History and World History World Languages: Chinese Language and Culture, French Language and Culture, French Literature*, German Language and Culture, Italian Language and Culture*, Japanese Language and Culture, Latin Literature*, Latin: Vergil, Spanish Language and Spanish Literature * The AP Computer Science AB, French Literature, and Latin Literature Exams were last offered in May 2009. AP Italian Language and Culture was last offered in May 2009, and was reinstated in the 2011-12 school year. Social science had the greatest number of students achieving a score of 3 or higher 2
Fostering Participation and Success Figure 3 Score distribution of AP Exams taken by the class of 2011 during high school + Ten Most Popular AP Exams Score of 1 Score of 2 Score of 3 Score of 4 Score of 5 Rank Subject No. of Exams % of Exam Scores Chinese Language and Culture 41 0.0 2.4 12.2 85.4 German Language and Culture 90 6.7 12.2 33.3 26.7 21.1 Spanish Literature 90 8.9 13.3 23.3 33.3 21.1 Studio Art: Drawing Portfolio 255 2.4 21.2 44.3 20.4 11.8 Physics C: Mechanics 304 12.8 13.2 16.4 28.3 29.3 Studio Art: 2-D Design Portfolio 354 2.5 23.4 39.5 24.0 10.5 10 Calculus BC 2,678 18.9 7.3 19.2 14.5 40.1 Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism 140 10.0 18.6 14.3 21.4 35.7 Spanish Language 916 16.3 13.9 18.4 25.1 26.3 Comparative Government and Politics 457 15.8 17.7 18.6 25.4 22.5 4 Psychology 7,138 20.4 13.3 20.8 26.9 18.7 Human Geography 1,735 17.6 17.3 24.8 24.1 16.3 Physics B 997 18.2 19.0 29.5 20.5 12.9 2 English Language and Composition 9,668 9.6 29.2 31.2 20.9 9.1 Japanese Language and Culture 20 35.0 5.0 5.0 15.0 40.0 Studio Art: 3-D Design Portfolio 50 2.0 38.0 28.0 28.0 4.0 Music Theory 530 13.8 27.0 21.5 19.4 18.3 Art History 415 21.0 20.5 29.9 18.8 9.9 9 United States Government and Politics 3,867 17.3 24.2 27.3 16.6 14.6 3 English Literature and Composition 7,887 9.2 32.8 33.1 17.8 7.1 7 Statistics 5,399 21.9 21.2 26.3 21.3 9.3 French Language and Culture 202 18.8 24.3 28.7 17.3 10.9 Macroeconomics 365 19.7 24.1 23.0 23.6 9.6 European History 2,249 30.2 13.8 34.9 14.3 6.8 5 Environmental Science 6,946 23.1 21.4 17.5 25.8 12.3 World History 2,673 18.9 25.6 26.7 16.9 12.0 1 United States History 10,348 16.8 28.1 25.1 19.8 10.1 Chemistry 2,226 30.3 15.5 20.2 16.9 17.1 Computer Science A 296 39.2 8.8 11.5 22.0 18.6 Latin: Vergil 122 30.3 18.9 18.9 23.8 8.2 Microeconomics 304 27.6 23.4 23.0 18.8 7.2 8 Biology 4,017 35.7 15.9 15.6 15.6 17.2 6 Calculus AB 5,895 40.9 11.1 17.0 13.7 17.3 Computer Science AB* 3 French Literature* 0 Italian Language and Culture* 0 Latin Literature* 3 + Percentages do not always equal due to rounding. * The AP Computer Science AB, French Literature, and Latin Literature Exams were last offered in May 2009. AP Italian Language and Culture was last offered in May 2009, and was reinstated in the 2011-12 school year. Courses with fewer than five exam-takers were omitted from the data for the class of 2011. 3
Low Income Figure 4... who are from low-income backgrounds 8,472 exams were taken by low-income graduates in the class of 2011 9 7 5 3 1 11.3% 13. 8.7% 8.4% 9.4% 5.4% N/A N/A 1,836 663 2,782 1,255 3,308 1,460 At time of press, the numbers of low-income students for each graduating class and for low-income exam-takers prior to the class of 2006 were not available. 4
Black/African American Figure 5 students in the graduating class... who are black/african American 3,328 black/african American graduates in the class of 2011 took an AP Exam during high school 9 7 5 3 26.6% 28.6% 29.9% 29.9% 1 9.6% 12.8% 12.5% 13. 6. 6.5% 6.8% 5.4% 16,810 1,263 429 22,285 2,716 737 25,633 3,071 969 25,215 3,328 1,055 5
Hispanic/Latino Figure 6 students in the graduating class... who are Hispanic/Latino 1,455 Hispanic/Latino graduates in the class of 2011 took an AP Exam during high school 9 7 5 3 1 2. 1.8% 1.7% 4.2% 4. 3.5% 7. 5.4% 5.1% 7.9% 5.7% 5.2% 1,264 225 140 3,310 739 496 5,962 1,319 765 6,693 1,455 801 6
American Indian/ Alaska Native Figure 7 students in the graduating class... who are American Indian/Alaska Native 151 American Indian/ Alaska Native graduates in the class of 2011 took an AP Exam during high school 9 7 5 3 1 1.2% 0.6% 0.4% 1.1% 0.6% 0.4% 1.1% 0.6% 0.3% 1.1% 0.6% 0.4% 761 83 34 852 119 45 968 159 49 927 151 62 7
Asian/Asian American/ Pacific Islander Figure 8 students in the graduating class... who are Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander 1,389 Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander graduates in the class of 2011 took an AP Exam during high school 9 7 5 3 1 4.8% 4.2% 2.1% 5.2% 4.6% 2.3% 6.2% 5.4% 2.5% 6.5% 5.4% 2.6% 1,334 555 378 1,809 967 638 2,105 1,331 926 2,181 1,389 1,001 8
White Figure 9 students in the graduating class... who are white 17,949 white graduates in the class of 2011 took an AP Exam during high school 9 84.4% 80.6% 79.2% 75.6% 76.5% 7 5 3 68.1% 73.4% 63.7% 70.1% 59. 70.3% 58.2% 1 43,119 10,612 6,707 49,678 15,509 9,740 50,529 17,209 11,339 49,102 17,949 11,861 9
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