For the second year in a row, Indian Prairie School District 204 has received national recognition for increasing the number of students taking Advanced Placement (AP) tests, while maintaining or improving test performance.
District 204 is one of only 367 public school districts in the nation making the College Board's Second Annual AP Honor Roll. Only 12 school districts in Illinois received this distinction.
Since 2009, District 204 has increased the number of students participating in AP from 1,634 to 2,035 while maintaining at least 70 percent of students earning scores of 3 or higher. The highest score on the exam is 5, and the majority of U.S. colleges and universities grant college credit or advanced placement for a score of 3 or above.
Inclusion in the second-annual AP Honor Roll is based on the following criteria:
- Examination of three years of AP data, from 2009 to 2010.
- Increase in participation in/access to AP by at least 4 percent in large districts, at least 7 percent in medium districts and at least 11 percent in small districts.
- A steady or increasing percentage of exams taken by African American, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native students.
- Performance levels maintained or improved when comparing the percentage of exams in 2011 scoring a 3 or higher to those in 2009, or the school has already attained a performance level in which more than 70 percent of the AP students are scoring a 3 or higher.
The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program enables students to pursue college-level studies while still in high school. Through more than 30 college-level courses, each culminating in a rigorous exam, AP provides willing and academically prepared students with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement or both. Taking AP courses also demonstrates to college admission officers that students have sought the most rigorous curriculum available to them. In 2011, 1.8 million students representing more than 17,000 schools around the world, both public and nonpublic, took 3.2 million AP Exams.
The complete list of districts included in this year's AP Honor Roll is available at AP 2nd Annual Honor Roll