Some 15,000 of the nation’s 24,000 high schools, or 62 percent, offered one or more Advanced Placement courses in 2006, up from 57 percent in 2000, according to an annual report issued yesterday by the College Board, which runs the program. Still, African-American students, who made up 14 percent of the student population last year, were only 7 percent of the participants.

The Advanced Placement courses, in 37 subjects as common as biology and English and as specialized as music theory and studio art, are add-ons to a high school’s curriculum. Students who enroll in them take standardized tests for each course every year in May. The tests are prepared by the College Board and scored on a 5-point scale, and some colleges offer course credit to students who earn a 3 or above.

Back in 1955, when the first Advanced Placement courses were offered at 104 mostly elite private schools along the Eastern Seaboard, the idea was to give a few students a head start toward a college degree. In recent years, educators and policy makers have increasingly turned to the courses as a way to challenge students in public high schools with college preparatory work, a trend that President Bush endorsed in last year’s State of the Union message.

Others also approve of the tactic. “Taking rigorous courses is good for high school students, and there’s a lot of evidence that kids who have taken A.P. courses — even if they don’t do well on the tests — do better in college,” said Mike Cohen, president of Achieve Inc., a nonprofit organization created by state governors and business leaders that works to raise academic standards.

As increasing numbers of high schools offer the courses, minority enrollment in them has become a focus of study. Although African-American students were underrepresented last year, Asian students were the opposite; 11 percent of students who took the tests were Asian, while only 6 percent of the student population was Asian. About 62 percent of students who took the exams were white, while 65 percent of the nation’s student population was white, the report said.

American Indians made up 1 percent of all students last year, but only about half a percent of those who took the tests.

Hispanics were 14 percent of the student population nationwide, and the same percent of the students taking the advanced courses. In some states like Arizona, with large Hispanic populations, however, they were underrepresented.

Florida, by contrast, has financed special training for teachers and fostered an atmosphere of inclusion by rewarding teachers who help larger numbers of students succeed in the courses. As a result, in Florida, 24 percent of Advanced Placement students, but 21 percent of all students, were Hispanic, the report said,.

Blacks in Florida continued to be significantly underrepresented in the classes, and in several other states where the program is now so widely available that one in four or five graduating seniors has scored highly on an Advanced Placement exam.

In New York, for instance, 23 percent of all high school graduates last year scored a 3 or higher on an exam, a proportion higher than in any other state. Black students made up 14 percent New York’s student population, while only 7 percent of Advanced Placement students in New York were black. In Connecticut, 19 percent of graduates scored 3 or higher on an A.P. exam. But 11 percent of Connecticut students were black, while only 5 percent of the advanced course-takers there were black.

In New Jersey, 17 percent of graduates scored highly on an exam. Yet while 15 percent of all students in the state were black, only 6 percent of A.P. students were.

On average, nationwide, minority students have also scored lower on the exams, although some individual minority students have scored 5s. “Lower performances on A.P. exams indicate,” the College Board said, that inner-city teachers and students “are not receiving adequate preparation for the rigors of an A.P. course.”

Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who has written two books on raising African-American achievement, said that to increase black participation would require more than simply offering the courses in more urban schools.

“Too few African-American students have achieved in middle school and in the first years of high school at a level that will allow them to take advantage of the courses,” Dr. Hrabowski said. “We need to encourage students to do better when they are in seventh and eighth grade.”

As the advanced courses have been offered in increasing numbers of schools nationwide, concerns have arisen, especially among university admissions counselors, about the continuing quality of the courses. As a result, the College Board has begun a national audit to verify that each course labeled A.P. on students’ transcripts has provided a rigorously college-level experience.

“We want to make sure the program is not diluted,” said Trevor Packer, executive director of the Advanced Placement program.

Until now, the language courses offered by the program centered only on Europe, with French, German, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Starting this year, the program is offering Chinese and Japanese language courses.

Link to article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/education/07ap.html?ex=1328504400&en=74d3028c59885bc2&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Published Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2007