Montgomery County high school students took more Advanced Placement exams than ever last year, while scoring slightly worse for the second straight year, school officials announced Monday.
A total of 24,208 AP exams were taken during the 2006-07 academic year, school officials said. Students earned a 3 or better on 17,849 — or 73.7 percent — of those tests out of a possible 5 points.
During the 2005-06 academic year, students scored a 3 or better on 16,781 exams, or 74.9 percent, out of 22,406 AP tests taken.
That marginal decline in test results came as more Latino and black students took the AP tests.
“It was entirely expected,” said Brian Edwards, spokesman for Superintendent Jerry D. Weast. “The greater the participation pool, typically scores tend to go down.”
Still, the county made gains in the number of tests taken by Latino and black students, something some school leaders said symbolizes greater gains to come. Black students took 2,093 AP tests this year and scored a 3 or more on 1,062 of them, a 1 percent increase over the previous year.
Latino students accounted for 2,104 of the exams taken last year — up from 1,802 over the previous year.
The number of those students scoring at least a 3 dropped to 58.8 percent this year from 65.4 percent during the previous one.
“The scores may not be good, but you are seeing increasing participation,” school board member Steve Abrams said Monday. “It’s a first step.”
Wheaton High School Principal Kevin Lowndes knows the challenges. Scores of a 3 or more were earned on only 33 percent of the 467 tests taken there last year. More than half of its studentsare Hispanic, and many are not native English speakers.
“We really have to make our own Advanced Placement students,” Lowndes said. “For a lot of our students, the parents really rely on the school to provide the education.”
