INDIANAPOLIS – In partnership with the College Board and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE), the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) announced today another year of increases in the number of Advanced Placement (AP) exams offered, as well as the number of students taking and passing AP exams.

“Preparing students for future college success has always been a priority in Indiana education,” said Dr. Jennifer McCormick, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction. “With the increase in the number of schools offering AP exams, and the number of students making AP courses their class of choice, Indiana is once again paving a way for students who are better prepared for the rigors of college. I congratulate and thank the teachers and administrators whose work has made this possible.”

AP is a research-backed method to facilitate student participation and success through delivery of college-level courses and corresponding exams in the high school setting, to qualified high school students. Research suggests students who perform well in AP courses are predicted to not only outperform their peers, but have greater college success. For the 2015-2016 school year, Indiana created the following increases:

• For the 2016 graduating class, 24,140 Indiana public school students took an AP exam, compared to 23,707 in the class of 2015.
• Since 2006, the percentage of the graduates taking an AP exam during high school increased from 18.7 percent to 36.8 percent.
• In the past 10 years, the number of Indiana public school students scoring 3 or better on at least one AP exam has increased from 5,349 to 11,904.
• In the fall of 2017, 42 schools began offering the new AP Computer Science Principles course.

“We know that students who take rigorous courses in high school are not only more likely to go to college, they’re also more likely to graduate,” said Teresa Lubbers, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education. “It’s encouraging to see more Hoosier students taking advantage of AP and benefiting from the preparation these college-level courses provide.”

For more information regarding IDOE efforts to expand AP in Indiana schools, and AP related data, please visit: http://www.doe.in.gov/ap.

-30-