Indicator 14: Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Coursetaking
(Last Updated: August 2016)

The percentage of high school students earning any Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate credits was higher for Asian students (72 percent) than for White students (40 percent), and the percentages for Asian and White students were higher than the percentages for students in all other racial/ethnic groups.

As part of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), high school transcripts were obtained in 2013 from a nationally representative sample of students who were 9th-graders in 2009. Transcripts included information about the number of credits earned in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. One credit is the equivalent of a year-long course of study in high school, and students who take AP and IB courses in high school are eligible to earn college credit for those courses. This indicator examines the average number of credits earned in AP/IB courses as well as the percentage of students who earned any credits in AP/IB courses by race/ethnicity.

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Figure 14.1. Percentage of students earning any credit in Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, by academic subject area and race/ethnicity: 2013

¹ Includes all subjects (not only math and science).
NOTE: IB Middle Years Program courses are not included. High school transcripts were obtained in 2013 from a nationally representative sample of students who were ninth-graders in 2009. Estimates include ninth-graders who dropped out or did not obtain a high school credential by 2013. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Although rounded numbers are displayed, the figures are based on unrounded estimates.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), First Follow-up and High School Transcript Study Public-Use File. See HSLS:09 2013 Update and High School Transcript Study: A First Look at Fall 2009 Ninth-Graders in 2013, table 8.

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The percentage of students earning any AP/IB credits was higher for Asian students (72 percent) than for White students (40 percent), and the percentages for Asian and White students were higher than the percentages for students in all other racial/ethnic groups.¹ In contrast, the percentage of students earning any AP/IB credits was lowest for Black students (23 percent). The same patterns emerged for the percentage of students earning any AP/IB credits in math and science with one exception: there was no measurable difference between the percentages of Black and Hispanic students who earned any AP/IB credits in science.

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Figure 14.2. Average high school credits earned by students in Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses for students who earned any AP/IB credits, by academic subject area and race/ethnicity: 2013

¹ Includes all subjects (not only math and science).
NOTE: IB Middle Years Program courses are not included. High school transcripts were obtained in 2013 from a nationally representative sample of students who were ninth-graders in 2009. Estimates include ninth-graders who dropped out or did not obtain a high school credential by 2013. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Although rounded numbers are displayed, the figures are based on unrounded estimates.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), First Follow-up and High School Transcript Study Public-Use File. See HSLS:09 2013 Update and High School Transcript Study: A First Look at Fall 2009 Ninth-Graders in 2013, table 8.

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Even among students who took AP/IB courses there were some racial/ethnic differences in the number of courses they took, and therefore the number of credits they earned. For students who took any AP/IB courses in high school, the average number of AP/IB course credits earned by Asian students (4.5 credits) was higher than the averages for students of all other racial/ethnic groups. Additionally, White students earned a higher number of total AP/IB credits (3.1 credits) than did Black students (2.7 credits). The same pattern emerged when examining AP/IB credits earned in math. The average number of AP/IB credits earned in science was highest for Asian students (1.7 credits) and lowest for Black students (1.1 credits).

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Endnotes

¹ The racial/ethnic groups included in this indicator are White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Two or more races. Students of All other races were excluded from the comparisons between racial/ethnic groups made in this indicator.

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