AP pass rate leaps in District 218

Earlier this month the District 218 Board of Education received the annual report detailing data from The College Board on student performance on Advanced Placement exams. The Board learned -- as they have each August for more than a decade -- of the continued growth and improvement of District 218 students in AP.

AP classes challenge students with university-level rigor. Passing a national AP exam qualifies a student to earn college credit for that subject’s introductory college course.

The overall pass rate on national A.P. exams leaped to an all-time high of 51% from 43% in 2023, 41% in 2022 and 35% in 2021.

The most recent instance of the district’s AP students coming close to this all-time high was in 2009, but that was based on 309 passing exams which was 50.9% of the exams taken. This year students passed 1089 exams for a 51.2% overall passage rate.

“Our students continue to demonstrate that they can rise to the challenge when they are presented with rigorous and complex coursework. We’re pleased and proud of the fact that while our enrollment in AP courses continues to grow, student performance has either improved or been maintained,” wrote Director of Data and Accountability Andrew Deines in his report.

For more than 10 years our students -- taught by our devoted, talented, and creative faculty -- have demonstrated growth in AP. We have more good news to share from The College Board in the days ahead!