(The Center Square) – North Carolina students have set a state record for both scores and participation on the Advanced Placement tests which can allow students to earn college credits while still in high school.
More than 90,000 students took the test last school year, an increase of 7.3%, the state said Wednesday.
The percentage of students who scored, three, four or five on the tests, qualifying them for college credit, was 72.1%. The number of exams with qualifying scores reached 123,394, double the number from 2021.
“This is what it means to achieve educational excellence for all students,” first-term Democratic Superintendent Mo Green said in a statement. “Being able to increase scores while increasing access – two metrics that sometimes do not rise together – is huge.”
The improvement was widespread across regions of the state, racial and ethnic groups, and genders, the state said.
Since 2015, North Carolina has been pushing to expand the number of students taking AP tests and has provided state funding for exam fees.
Last school year, the state spent more than $17.6 million for AP test fees.
The cost of the tests had discouraged students from taking them, Sneha Shah-Coltrane, senior director of advanced learning and gifted education at the Department of Public Instruction, said in a statement.
“Eliminating that concern has opened the door for thousands more students from all different backgrounds to reach their full potential,” she said.
Western North Carolina had the largest participation increase last year at 17.5%. The largest jump (28%) in scores at levels three, four and five were in the northeastern part of the state. The southeastern region (10.8%) had the highest increase in participation.
North Carolina’s improvement both in scores and participation, outpaced the national growth, the state said.
North Carolina’s rate of scores that qualified for college credit went from 65.4% in 2024 to 72.1% in 2025, while the national rate increased from 65% in 2024 to 70.1% in 2025, the state said.
