The way that the state of California releases AP test data is very strange.
First of all, they release it over a year late. So on July 3, 2018, the CDE released the AP data for the tests taken in May of 2017. They also don’t really advertise that the data is being released, its just unceremoniously dumped on their site.
But most frustratingly, they give no test-specific data. We can’t tell which tests are more challenging, or which tests schools are struggling with. Perhaps those individual schools know, but it isn’t made open to the public.
However, I really think that AP pass percentage is valuable information for us to have. So below I have created a tool where you can look up a county, district or high school AP pass percentage.
Before you look at it, a few things to note. This is an overall pass percentage, not an individual one. So if a student took 5 AP tests, they count as 5 tests, not 1 individual student. So what you are seeing is the percent of scores for any test taken by any student.
Second, I learned something from when I did the same analysis last year. Several readers emailed me and noted that UCs and many universities do not accept a 3 as passing, so it should not count. So this year, I have made this more of a choose-you-own-adventure style presentation – you do the adding. If you want to know your pass percentage – just add the columns you think make sense.
In the visualization above, we can see the data from the whole state. Overall, we can see that California has a pass rate for all AP exams of 56% if you include 3s, or 32% if you don’t.
If you use the boxes on the side, you can search for individual counties, districts and schools. If you are looking for your school, you may want to put in the county and district first. There tend to be many schools of the same name.
More analysis on this data next time.
Thank you!
Thanks for the great post!
Expanding student access to AP curricular rigor is important.
32% or 56% of 100 exams/students is not the same thing as 32% or 56% of 3,000 exams/students 🙂
It would be good to know and consider how many of which subject exams were taken at each school.
And then after that, study the teaching methods at the school(s) most similar in size and demographics to yours that were found to be particularly effective in those subjects.
For example, how many students at Pali charter vs. Granada Hills charter vs. similar traditional district school took the AP Calculus BC or Computer Science A or Chinese Language & Culture exam each year.
And I wouldn’t dismiss the demographics of the 24% in between (56% – 32%); might still make sense for the school to devote valuable resources there.
Any student who moves from score of 2 in 9th grade to a 3 or 4 or 5 by junior year I would consider a success. I like the growth model!