(The Center Square) – The number of North Carolina public school students taking advanced placement classes has increased by nearly a third after the Legislature required the state school board a decade ago to encourage students to take more rigorous courses, according to a new report.
There are 97,317 public students enrolled in at least one AP course, a 30% increase since the Legislature issued its mandate in 2014.
In May 2014, the state joined a partnership with the College Board to expand access to advanced classes.
“Currently, North Carolina is the only state in the United States that has maintained a partnership such as this,” according to a report presented this week to the state school board.
In addition to AP classes, advanced courses include International Baccalaureate Organization and Cambridge International Education courses. They are known as IB and CIE, respectively, for short.
In 2024, 84,372 North Carolina public students took a total of 155,935 AP exams, an increase of 14.2% from 2023, the report states.
The number of exams taken by Black students increased by 19.3%, beating the national growth of 17.5%.
“The number of AP exams taken by Black students earning a qualifying score of 3, 4, or 5 increased by 45.3%, outpacing the national increase of 32.5%,” the report says.
“The state over the past 10 years has been intentionally focused on preparing students for advanced courses,” Sneha Shah-Coltrane, senior director of Academic Policy and Advanced Learning for the state’s Department of Public Instruction, told The Center Square. “We’re really seeing the benefit of that.”
In addition to challenging the state school board to increase the number of students taking advanced classes, the Legislature has also appropriated funds for that effort. In the 2023-24 school year, the state spent $16 million on the effort, including $14.9 million for student AP test fees.