Athens public school students excel on 2024 AP exams

Clarke County School District high school students performed strongly on the spring 2024 Advanced Placement exams with higher pass rates than 2023 and continued a positive trend over recent years, according to scores released recently by the College Board.

The county’s two traditional high schools — Clarke Central and Cedar Shoals — offer roughly two dozen AP courses as among the several ways students can access college-level learning at the high school level. AP exams are administered by the College Board every May, and students who receive a 3, 4, or 5 (on a 1-5 grading scale) on an exam may receive college credit depending on the institution.

A total of 643 CCSD students combined to take 1,101 AP exams last school year with an exam pass rate of 64%. Clarke Central’s pass rate jumped from 51% in 2023 to 68% in 2024, while Cedar Shoals’ pass rate improved from 58% to 62% and has increased from 45% in 2022 and 40.5% in 2020. There were 260 students who took more than one AP exam.

More than a third of the AP courses offered at CCSD high schools had exam pass rates of at least 75%. For those with at least five exams taken and a pass rate of 75% or higher:

● AP 2-D Art and Design had a 100% exam pass rate.

● AP Calculus BC (which covers the equivalent of a full year of college calculus material), had a

92% pass rate, and nine of 25 exam-takers scored a 5 (highest possible score).

● AP European History had a 91% pass rate.

● AP Spanish Language and Culture had an 88% pass rate.

● AP Precalculus had an 87% pass rate.

● The AP African American Studies course offered at Cedar Shoals (which is one of 800 schools

across the country selected to pilot the course) had an 85% exam pass rate.

● AP English Literature and Composition had an 82% pass rate, and more than a third of students

who took the exam (12 out of 34) scored a 5.

● AP Calculus AB had an 82% pass rate.

● AP Biology had a 75% pass rate.

Other AP exams with at least five exam-takers and a 50% pass rate or higher from CCSD included Human Geography (74%), U.S. History (70), Computer Science A (67), World History: Modern (65), U.S. Government and Politics (63), English Language and Composition (58), Chemistry (55), and Psychology (54).

“Our mission is creating educational journeys that empower all students to fulfill their potential, and AP course offerings are a key way of advancing that mission,” said CCSD Superintendent Dr. Robbie Hooker. “Both of our traditional high schools have been consistently recognized in recent years by the Georgia Department of Education for their AP course offerings and student achievement on AP exams and have been named AP Honor Schools by the state in multiple categories. This is a credit to the hard work of both our students and our outstanding and dedicated teachers who are creating and fostering positive learning environments in which our students can thrive.”