Participation in Advanced Placement exams at Louisiana public schools has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, and the percentage of students earning scores of 3 and above, good enough to make them eligible for college credit, has increased.
Results for the 2021-22 school year look almost identical to 2018-19, the last full school year before the pandemic, with nearly 21,000 teenagers taking more than 30,000 AP exams in each year. The percentage of students passing, though, has increased from about 35% to nearly 39%.
The latest numbers, released earlier this month by the Louisiana Department of Education, are also a notable turnaround from the falloff that occurred in 2020. The coronavirus outbreak that spring forced schools to close just weeks before students were scheduled to take their exams.
Not all localities, though, are back. Greater participation in some parishes during the 2021-22 school year offset declines in a slightly larger set of school districts.
East Baton Rouge Parish led the way last year, with about 2,800 students taking nearly 4,500 tests, far more than any other school district. Likewise, Baton Rouge Magnet High led the way among individual schools, with nearly 1,000 test-takers completing almost 2,100 exams, followed by Liberty High in Baton Rouge, where more than 600 students took almost 1,000 exams.
Livingston and Ascension parishes, also in the capitol region, ranked fourth and sixth in the state in terms of AP participation, with 1,630 and 1,200 test-takers, respectively. Livingston was fourth in the state in terms of the number of AP tests taken — students can take more than one test — with about 2,600 tests, just behind Orleans and Caddo parishes.
However, these districts are headed in different directions.
An increasing number of students in East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes are taking AP exams versus before the pandemic, 400 and 230 students more, respectively. By contrast, Ascension Parish’s AP participation shrank by more than 400 students over that time period.
In terms of rate of growth, the Central school system, north of Baton Rouge, increased its AP test-taker ranks by nearly 70% since 2018-19, second only to Red River Parish schools.
The nonprofit College Board, best known as the maker of the SAT college placement test, has developed 38 Advanced Placement courses in seven subject areas. Students who earn 3, 4 and 5s on AP exams — passing scores — are awarded college credit at many colleges and universities.
Since 2011, Louisiana has pressed to get more students to take college-level work while still in high school, primarily Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses offered through state colleges. The state has mixed financial incentives but potential negative consequences in terms of lower letter grades for schools that don't make it a priority.
The press has worked to a fair extent.
Over the past decade, Louisiana public schools have more than tripled both the number of students attempting AP exams, and the number earning 3s and above.
How much more AP growth Louisiana is likely to see is uncertain, especially since many state and local leaders are focusing less on AP and more on expanding dual enrollment.
For instance, the East Baton Rouge Parish school system has partnered with Baton Rouge Community College to make dual enrollment courses available to the vast majority of high school students in the parish, as early as ninth grade.
The new AP results cover only public schools in Louisiana. Public schools have historically accounted for about 80% of the AP test-takers in the state.
As in years past, public school participation is coming largely from urban and suburban high schools.
At many other high schools, particularly in rural areas, Advanced Placement is either not offered, or if offered, few students sign up. Only 41 out of 70 school districts in the state reported having 10 or more students take an AP exam during the 2021-22 school year.
Getting more kids to take the AP exam is lot easier than getting kids to demonstrate college-level work. The gap between AP passage rates at traditional college prep high schools and schools that recently adopted or expanded AP can be stark.
Of the 154 public high schools in the state last year that reported AP passage rates, only 30% outperformed the statewide passing rate of 38.8%.
Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy in Westwego had the highest passing rate in the state, with 83% of its 150-plus test-takers managing to score a 3 or above on at least one exam.
At the end of the spectrum, Carroll High School in Monroe had at least 120 test-takers last year, but none earned a 3 or above.
Sixty-seven of those 154 reporting high schools saw fewer than 10 students pass their AP exams. Fifty schools had fewer than five students pass.
At Huntingdon High School in Shreveport, only four out of 326 students earned a 3 or above. In Baton Rouge's Belaire High School, only one of about 120 students earned that high of a score.
A few Louisiana schools new to AP, however, have succeeded over time in steadily increasing both the number of students taking the tests and the percentage of students passing.
For instance, Albany High in Livingston Parish did not provide much AP instruction until 2013. By 2018-19, it had 144 test-takers, but only 12 passed. This past year, it had 172 students taking AP exams, but the number passing had quadrupled to 47. That 37.6% passage rate was just shy of the state average.
