Wednesday, April 30, 2025
The Advanced Placement (AP) Cohort Class of 2024 report on exam participation and performance was recently released. There is much for Wisconsin students, families, and districts to be proud of:
- 15,439 graduates from the class of 2024 scored a 3 or higher on their AP exam, which then qualifies them for college credit.
- 25.2% of Wisconsin public high school graduates scored a 3 or higher on an AP Exam during high school. That puts Wisconsin well above the national average of 22.6%, making it 12th among all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
- Over the course of their high school career, the class of 2024 took over 71,000 exams and 67.2% of all AP exams taken in Wisconsin resulted in a score of 3 or higher.
- Over the past 10 years, the percentage of public high school graduates in Wisconsin who took an AP Exam during high school has increased by 4.3 percentage points.
As per the AP Cohort Data Report for 2024, “The AP® Program was founded on two core beliefs: "Motivated high school students should have opportunities to work at the height of their abilities and achievement exams should be used to allow students to enter college with advanced standing.”
These two core beliefs are being realized for many, but a large number of districts offer few or no AP courses at all. In fact, there are currently 50 of our 421 districts in the state who have participation rates of less than 1% for high school seniors who took an AP Exam during high school.
So, what can we do about it? In April 2025, DPI released the “Final Report from the DPI Advanced Placement (AP) Programming & Planning Workgroup.” This report and the corresponding infographic can be seen on the DPI website at https://dpi.wi.gov/ap.
This workgroup consisted of representatives from LEAs from across the state, and other educators with expertise in the Advanced Placement (AP) program. Their goal: increasing students’ access, participation, and success in Advanced Placement coursework and exams. The final report includes multiple ideas for improving access, participation, and success on AP coursework and exams. The strategies are concentrated in two major areas: improving access and participation by both removing barriers to access and increasing participation overall and improving student success.
Under the Improving Access & Participation Strategies are ideas like making data-informed decisions, considering how best to start strong, and removing barriers. The Improving Student Success strategies range from providing additional learning opportunities to encouraging mastery and resilience.
Additional details about the report and an infographic are available on the DPI’s AP webpage at https://dpi.wi.gov/ap. Let's work together to make sure all Wisconsin students have access to quality AP instruction and the ability to earn credits towards their future secondary education.
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