Minority students’ scores improved dramatically on Advanced Placement tests this past year, even as more minorities took the test, according to data released Tuesday by the state education department.
“It’s stunning,” said State Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick. “We’ve made tremendous progress.”
With 29 percent more black students taking AP exams — tests offered in high school at the end of a college-level course — nearly 14 percent more earned within the mastery range, which is 3 to 5 points. Colleges generally accept these points as credit for a completed class.
In addition, the number of Hispanic test-takers rose about 23 percent, while those in the mastery range increased nearly 19 percent.
The minorities’ marks underscore a jump of nearly 5 percent of all Maryland test-takers within the mastery range.
When more students take a test, average scores tend to dip, making the increases in both participation and scores on AP exams in Maryland even more significant, she said.
Grasmick attributed the increase in scores, in part, to rigorous class curriculum.
Meanwhile, Maryland high school seniors’ SAT scores remained flat, according to the scores released Tuesday by the College Board, which creates and oversees the AP and SAT tests.
But that is relatively good news in math, where the average test score had fallen for seven consecutive years. It held this past year at 502, 13 points below the national average.
The average reading score fell one point to 499, three below the national average; scores on the writing section increased one point to 497, three above the national average.
Howard County had the highest average score, 1641, thanks largely to a seven-point increase in writing, bringing the county’s average score up to 544.
The writing portion has emerged as the most significant predictor of first-year college success, according to College Board officials.
The writing section became part of the test in 2005, however, and many colleges do not consider those scores among admissions requirements.
A move by some students toward taking the ACT, a college entrance exam, instead of taking the four-hour SAT two or three times could have caused the steady scores, state education officials said.
Nearly 7,800 graduating Maryland seniors took the ACT in 2006, but that number shot up this past year to about 10,700; about 45,200 graduating seniors took the SAT two years ago, and nearly 47,000 took it last year, according to the state.
Average SAT scores
| U.S. | 1,511 |
| Maryland | 1,498 |
| Anne Arundel | 1,514 |
| Baltimore | No information available |
| Baltimore City | 1,145 |
| Carroll | 1,544 |
| Harford | 1,516 |
| Howard | 1,641 |
Source: College Board and county schools
