The number of Arkansas high school students taking Advanced Placement tests increased slightly in 2015 over 2014, as did the number of test-takers who earned scores high enough to qualify for college credit.
A total of 25,757 public-school students -- up 0.8 percent from the 25,547 students last year -- took a total of 44,951 Advanced Placement exams in the 2014-15 school year.
And a total of 8,680 students -- or 33.7 percent of the state's test-takers -- earned a score of 3 or higher on at least one Advanced Placement exam, according to information released by the Arkansas Department of Education. That is up from 32 percent in 2014.
Nationally, more than 1.5 million, or about 60 percent of the 2.5 million test-takers, scored a 3 or higher on one of the exams produced by the College Board, the nonprofit organization that is also the maker of the SAT college-entrance exam.
A score of 3, 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement exam grading scale of 1 to 5 typically qualifies high school students for college credit hours in a related subject area or placement in college courses that are above the freshman entry level.
The college credit hours or the accelerated course placement can result in college tuition savings to a student's family, quicker attainment of a college degree and/or available time to take more courses.
State education leaders welcomed the upward trend in Advanced Placement test-takers and qualifying scores.
Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key said the Advanced Placement statistics are a measure of educational progress in the state.
"The growth of AP participation and results demonstrate that the hard work of educators is paying off," Key said.
Brett Powell, the new director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, said that the increases in Advanced Placement numbers are an indication of student readiness for college.
"There are many studies that show that students who complete rigorous courses such as these in high schools are more likely to successfully complete college and complete it on time," Powell said.
Arkansas education and government leaders have made several efforts over the years to promote student enrollment in Advanced Placement courses.
State law requires every high school to offer at least one Advanced Placement course in each of the four core academic areas of math, English, science and socials studies.
Additionally, Act 2125 of 2005 authorizes the state to pay for the student tests as long as the teacher of the course has Advanced Placement training. In 2015, the tests cost the state more than $3 million, Debbie Jones, the state Education Department's assistant commissioner for learning services, said.
Each test costs $82, or $53 if the student test-taker qualified as being from a low-income family, Jones said.
Arkansas has shown an increase yearly in the number of Advanced Placement test-takers and qualifying scores, sometimes in excess of 4 percent in a given year. The increases were smaller this year.
Jones said the state has considerable room to grow and has not reached a plateau.
"As teachers gain more familiarity with rigorous standards and as students are participating in more rigorous instruction from kindergarten through grade 12, we will see our students improve Advanced Placement scores," she said. "Our big challenge is to continue to recruit and retain high quality teachers."
Jones also said that because the ACT Plan test traditionally given in the 10th grade has been discontinued, more Arkansas high school students will take the Preliminary-SAT test this school year. The results of PSAT tests can indicate to teachers and students that students have the potential to be successful in Advanced Placement courses.
"They will find some lost kids who have not participated in Advanced Placement," Jones said. "We will have better data to share with the parents."
The Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science, headed by former Arkansas Education Commissioner Ken James and housed at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, is another effort to increase student enrollment in the college-preparation classes.
The initiative provided training to 657 teachers of Advanced Placement and pre-Advanced Placement courses in 2014-15. It also offered test preparation help to students in its 48-member high schools this past school year.
That number of member schools in the initiative has increased yearly and will total 55 schools for the 2015-16 school year.
The initiative was founded with a $13.2 million grant from Exxon-Mobil Foundation, although that grant has since expired.
The 48 participating high schools this past year included high schools of all sizes and all levels of academic prowess. Some of the member schools include campuses in Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts as well as Bentonville, Beebe, Conway, Prairie Grove, El Dorado, Star City, Jonesboro, Magnolia and Rison high schools.
"AAIMS continues to be a program that has a proven track record over time in a variety of settings," James said. "We are now in 18.4 percent of the high schools and account for 42.4 percent of all of the state's qualifying scores in math, science and English."
There were 8,023 qualifying scores on tests in the three subject areas statewide and 3,383 of those were from the schools in the initiative.
The initiative also has led to an increase over time in the participation of black, Hispanic and other students of minority racial and ethnic groups in the college-preparation and testing program. Of the 5,567 black and Hispanic students who took Advanced Placement exams in English, math and science courses in 2015, 3,060, or 55 percent, were from the 48 member schools.
Arkansas ranks fifth in the nation in its increase of qualifying scores earned by minority students on English, math and science exams. The number of those students earning scores of 3 or better has increased 237 percent between 2008 and 2015.
The state ranks first in the nation in the 408 percentage increase in the number of minority students earning qualifying scores on just math and science tests between 2008 and 2015, according to James' data.
Metro on 10/01/2015