Opening the window of alternative greater than pays for itself.
The Healey-Driscoll Administration just lately introduced that the variety of Massachusetts public high-school college students who scored a 3 or larger on Superior Placement exams has risen by 55% since 2021, with Black and Hispanic or Latino college students making a number of the strongest beneficial properties, in accordance with current information from the Faculty Board.
The minority college students’ spectacular beneficial properties didn’t occur by chance.
When you don’t play, you possibly can’t rating.
And on this case, in the event you don’t have the monetary means to pay for the AP examination, you’ll by no means understand how you measure up towards your different classmates and college students nationwide.
AP exams price nearly $100 every, which will be an insurmountable impediment for college students from lower-income households.
However by way of the administration’s Reimagining Excessive College initiative, which seeks to make sure that highschool graduates have the tutorial expertise essential to succeed, whether or not in school or in at this time’s workforce, the state subsidizes nearly all of that AP price.
With the state’s contribution, low-income college students – or their faculty – will solely have to pay $22 per AP examination.
Research present that college students who take AP programs in highschool usually tend to enroll in a four-year school and carry out higher in introductory school programs.
Underneath this administration, Massachusetts has backed 90,783 AP exams for almost 50,000 low-income college students.
Bolstered by that inflow of AP take a look at takers, the variety of public high-school college students taking Superior Placement assessments grew by 26% from 2021 to 2025.
The variety of Black college students scoring 3 or larger out of a doable 5 on an AP take a look at almost tripled from 2021 to 2025, and the variety of Hispanic or Latino college students greater than doubled, in comparison with an general improve of 55% for Massachusetts public faculty college students.
These beneficial properties got here because the variety of Massachusetts college students taking AP exams is rising, up 47% for Black college students and 72% for Hispanic/Latino college students, in comparison with 26% general.
“AP success opens doorways to school and profession pathways, and seeing such robust beneficial properties, particularly amongst Black and Hispanic college students, exhibits what’s doable when entry, preparation and alternative align,” stated Schooling Secretary Patrick Tutwiler.
These outcomes reinforce the state’s already documented AP success fee.
The administration introduced in February {that a} third of scholars who graduated from Massachusetts public excessive faculties in 2024 scored a 3 or larger on an AP examination, the state’s highest share ever and the best within the nation for the second 12 months in a row.
A rating of three out of 5 on an AP examination signifies a scholar’s means to finish work for an introductory college-level course in that topic space. Some faculties will award college students credit score for AP scores of three or larger.
Sure, opening that door of alternative pays dividends for numerous college students, and effectively well worth the worth of these incentives.
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