The average score of Anne Arundel County Public Schools students taking Advanced Placement exams in the 2023-2024 school year, the number of students taking exams, and the percentage of students achieving a score of 3 or higher all rose for the third consecutive year, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Bedell announced today.
More than 64 percent of students taking exams scored a 3 or higher, the level at which most United States colleges and universities grant course credit. The percentage represents a 2 percentage point increase over the 2022-23 school year and a 11-percentage point jump since 2020-21.
Additionally, the average score of students taking exams was 3.03, an increase from 2.92 the year before and 2.68 in 2020-21.
The results came in a year where the school system administered about 2,000 more exams – 12,285 – than the year before.
“These results are phenomenal news for our students and our school system, and they also reflect the incredible amount of hard work put in by teachers and support staff,” Dr. Bedell said. “An increase in the number of exams administered is very often accompanied by a decrease in scores because there are more students taking an exam for the first time. That wasn’t the case here, and that speaks to the continued growth that is happening across our district.”
The growth also extended to individual schools, where 10 of 15 schools offering a comprehensive curriculum to students saw increases in the percentage of test-takers scoring a 3 or higher and the percentage for two others remained flat. Chesapeake Science Point saw the biggest growth, with a jump of 13 percentage points, followed by Old Mill, (9 percentage points), Severna Park (8 percentage points), Chesapeake and Southern (7 percentage points), and Meade (6 percentage points).
Fourteen of the 15 schools administered more exams than the year before.