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Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which can count for college credit when accompanied by a passing score on an AP exam, are considered the most rigorous courses regularly offered by high schools. Perception of the high value of AP courses has led U.S. News & World Report to use the share of students taking AP exams as a metric in its annual rankings of high schools. For this reason, the Humanities Indicators looks to student involvement in the AP program as one measure of advanced learning in humanities subjects at the secondary school level.

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Source: College Board, AP Program Participation and Performance Data 2020, “Program Summary Report,” https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2020 (accessed fall 2021). Data analyzed and presented by the Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

 

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Source: College Board, AP Program Participation and Performance Data 2020, “Program Summary Report,” https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2020 (accessed fall 2021); and National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics 2020, “Table 105.30. Enrollment in elementary, secondary, and degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by level and control of institution: Selected years, 1869–70 through fall 2029,” https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_105.30.asp (accessed fall 2021). Data analyzed and presented by the Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

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Source: College Board, AP Program Participation and Performance Data 2020, “Program Summary Report,” https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2020 (accessed fall 2021). Data analyzed and presented by the Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

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Source: College Board, AP Program Participation and Performance Data 2020, “Program Summary Report,” https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2020 (accessed fall 2021); and National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics 2020, “Table 105.30. Enrollment in elementary, secondary, and degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by level and control of institution: Selected years, 1869–70 through fall 2029,” https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_105.30.asp (accessed fall 2021). Data analyzed and presented by the Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

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Source: College Board, AP Program Participation and Performance Data 2019, “Program Summary Report,” https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2019 (accessed fall 2021); and National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics 2020, “Table 105.30. Enrollment in elementary, secondary, and degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by level and control of institution: Selected years, 1869–70 through fall 2029,” https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_105.30.asp (accessed fall 2021). Data analyzed and presented by the Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

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Source: College Board, AP Program Participation and Performance Data 2019, “Program Summary Report,” https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2019 (accessed fall 2021). Data analyzed and presented by the Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

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Source: College Board, AP Program Participation and Performance Data 2019, “National Summary Report,” https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2019 (accessed fall 2021); and U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics 2019 (Tables 205.20 and 205.30) and Digest of Education Statistics 2020 (Table 203.50), https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/ (accessed fall 2021). Data analyzed and presented by the Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

The College Board gives students the option of identifying as “American Indian/Alaska Native,” “Asian,” “Black,” “Hispanic/Latino,” “Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander,” “White,” or “Two or More Races,” or “Other”—or not identifying at all. The Humanities Indicators has combined “Asian” and “Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander” to permit comparison between the racial/ethnic composition of those taking AP exams and the composition of the secondary student population generally (the National Center for Education Statistics employs the broader category of “Asian & Pacific Islander” in describing the race/ethnicity of the country’s high schoolers).

The “Other” category was omitted from this analysis because only one student identified as such.

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