(FRANKFORT, Ky.) -- duPont Manual High School in Jefferson County is the first school in Kentucky whose students have taken more than 1,000 Advanced Placement (AP) examinations in a single year.
During the May administration, Manual students are expected to participate in 1,275 AP exams. That is an estimated seven percent of all AP exams given in Kentucky and represents a 39 percent increase over the 916 exams taken at Manual in 2004.
The Advanced Placement program is overseen nationally by the College Board. Students take AP courses during the school year, then participate in corresponding exams during the first two weeks in May. AP exams are scored on a scale of 1 to 5, and scores of 3 or above may lead to college credit and/or advanced placement in college. As a result of Senate Bill 74, passed in the 2002 session of the General Assembly, Kentucky's public universities must provide credit hours for a score of 3 or above.
Manual has been at the top of the state in terms of both exams administered and exams passed over the last several years. In 2004, the school was second statewide in AP pass rate at 81.3 percent, behind only West Jessamine High School.
In 2004, Manual's college-level mastery percentage of 23.9 was higher than that of New York's, the highest performing state, which had a percentage of 21.2. The college-level mastery statistic was introduced in the College Board's 2005 AP Report to the Nation and divides the number of students passing at least one AP exam by the school's total population.
More than 30 percent of Manual's student population will take at least one AP exam in the upcoming exam administration period -- easily the highest in Kentucky's public high schools. Participation in AP courses strongly correlates with successful completion of college work. Those taking a single AP exam, regardless of subject, are 30 percent more likely to finish a college degree than non-AP students in the same school.
In the 2003-04 school year, 9,688 Kentucky public school students took 15,211 AP exams.
The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the association is composed of more than 4,700 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. Among its best-known programs are the SAT, the PSAT/NMSQT®, and the Advanced Placement Program® (AP).
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