More Arizona high school students taking, excelling in college courses
Mar 11, 2018, 3:33 PM
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PHOENIX — The number of high school students in Arizona who were taking and excelling in college courses had reached a record high, according to KJZZ.
The class of 2017 took twice as many advanced-placement courses than students in the class exactly a decade before, the radio station found.
In addition, 16.4 percent of Arizona students received a passing grade on AP tests, an increase of eight percent over the last decade. That number was at 9.6 percent in 2007.
However, Arizona continued to fall behind the national average of 22.8 percent.
“Arizona is mirroring national trends, but what we’re seeing specifically is a number of state level and local district efforts that we think are going to be keys to even more dramatically accelerate opportunities for students,” Scott Hill, vice president of the Western Regional Office for the College Board told KJZZ.
Hill said another key to dramatically accelerating those opportunities was covering testing fees for advanced-placement exams.
The Glendale Unified School District was one Phoenix-area district that covered testing fees, which can get as expensive as $94 per test. The Tempe Union School District also offered the pre-SAT to freshman, sophomore and junior students for no cost.
“Arizona has actually been a really impressive state in terms of making sure there are more opportunities for all students,” Hill told the radio station. “The number of Latino students is catching up very dramatically to the number of white students.”