The Advanced Placement Program

SI has a large and successful AP program. We offer AP courses in 14 subjects and several of our students pass the AP tests in subjects for which we do not offer the course, including English Language, Physics B, World History, European History and Music Theory. SI administers more AP tests than any Jesuit school in the country and has been ranked in the top 20 programs nationally by The CollegeBoard.

The overarching goal of the program is to provide a rigorous curriculum for the greatest number of students who could benefit from it. That is, the goal is to balance broad access with high pass rates. Achievement of this goal is measured by these four criteria (benchmarks for each measurement are listed below):

• Trend of AP Proficiency
• AP Scholars
• Trends of Number of Tests, Pass Rates, and Challenge Index
• 2009 AP Results

SI recognizes that different subjects have needs, advantages, and disadvantages. Therefore, the definition of success in AP is based on more than just the Pass Rate of each course. Each Academic Department has set its own AP outcomes depending on their philosophy and this philosophy guides their placement processes. These outcomes and trend historyof each department can be found at the following webpages:

• English
• Language
• Math
• Science
• Social Science

AP Proficiency

The Collegeboard tracks the rate of students per class who pass at least one AP test. This is referred to as the AP Proficiency (previously, Equity & Excellence) score and is another measure of the academic rigor of the school. SI's Academics Office has set the following benchmarks for this measurement:

• The acceptable minimum is 60%; the goal is 65%.

	Class Size	tested	passed	percentage
Class of 2002	337	211	138	65.6
Class of 2003	348	238	163	68.4
Class of 2004	348	216	132	61
Class of 2005	354	278	170	61.0
Class of 2006	337	265	169	63.8
Class of 2007	336	245	148	60.5
Class of 2008	334	250	210	62.9
Class of 2009	354	266	236	66.6

*These values refer to the graduating class, not the values in a particular year.

AP Scholars

The Collegeboard tracks the number of AP scholars each school has. AP Scholar levels are defined as:

• AP Scholar: Granted to students who receive grades of 3 or higher on three or more AP Exams
• AP Scholar with Honor: Granted to students who receive an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams
• AP Scholar with Distinction: Granted to students who receive an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams
• National AP Scholar: Granted to students in the United States who receive an average grade of at least 4 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams

SI's Academics Office has set the following benchmarks for this measurement:

• The acceptable minimum is 180; the goal is 200.

Class of	Scholars	w/ Honors	w/ Distinction	Nat'l Scholars	Total
1992	9	6	1	0	16
1993	35	11	8	0	54
1994	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
1995	39	15	20	1	75
1996	50	16	23	0	89
1997	53	16	22	0	91
1998	75	30	36	2	143
1999	70	45	40	2	157
2000	89	43	41	1	174
2001	85	36	45	3	169
2002	100	37	31	2	170
2003	101	37	31	2	171
2004	90	54	59	6	209
2005	93	42	59	9	203
2006	96	32	53	9	190
2007	88	39	72	5	204
2008	124	42	44	4	214
2009	107	48	86	7	241

 

AP Numbers, Pass Rates and Per Capita

SI has one of the largest AP programs in the country, giving over 1200 tests per year. The pass rate is consistently high. SI's Academics Office has set the following benchmarks for this measurement:

• Acceptable minimun number of tests administered is 1150; the goal is 1200.
• The acceptable minimum pass rate is 70%; the goal is 75%

Year	Number of Tests	Tests Passed	Pass Rate	Number of Students
2002	1223	844	69.0	559
2003	1151	920	80.0	528
2004	1284	914	73.3	578
2005	1186	919	77.5	562
2006	1237	929	75.1	545
2007	1235	988	80.0	510
2008	1366	976	71.4	562
2009	1349	1092	80.9	588

SI looks at the AP performance of each graduating class over their four years. The Average Number of Tests taken by each class is a measure of the academic rigor of the school. It is comparable to the Challenge Index used by Newsweek to name the top 100 public high schools. SI has shown a marked and steady increase in this area over the past 17 years, tripling the average number of tests while maintaining an excellent pass rate.

Class of	Total Students Tested	Total Tests Taken	Average Tests per Student
Class of 1997	193	645	3.34
Class of 1998	207	834	4.03
Class of 1999	244	1009	4.14
Class of 2000	211	922	4.37
Class of 2001	260	1207	4.64
Class of 2002	236	988	4.19
Class of 2003	264	1156	4.38
Class of 2004	266	1124	4.23
Class of 2005	279	1249	4.48
Class of 2006	263	1124	4.27
Class of 2007	246	1099	4.47
Class of 2008	250	1180	4.72
Class of 2009	266	1199	4.51

Another set of measures of rigor would be the pass rates and rates of 4s and 5s in a given year (as opposed to for a given graduating class). These data are easier to obtain than similar per-class numbers because many AP courses have students from different grade levels enrolled.

Year	Tests	Passed	Pass Rate	Four	Five	Rate of 4 or 5
1990	349	217	62.18	81	26	30.66
1991	298	215	72.15	69	40	36.58
1992	364	273	75.00	95	53	40.66
1993	538	448	83.27	172	95	49.63
1994	567	502	88.54	183	133	55.73
1995	702	536	76.35	188	111	42.59
1996	752	591	78.59	237	118	47.21
1997	767	592	77.18	217	160	49.15
1998	1030	792	76.89	287	189	46.21
1999	1085	793	73.09	273	164	40.28
2000	1075	810	75.35	306	171	44.37
2001	1223	845	69.09	273	157	35.16
2002	1151	874	75.93	318	184	43.61
2003	1284	914	71.18	343	148	38.24
2004	1186	900	75.89	325	179	42.50
2005	1245	874	70.20	339	152	39.44
2006	1220	906	74.26	364	190	45.41
2007	1235	988	80.0	386	189	46.60
2008	1366	976	71.4	375	167	39.68
2009	1349	1092	80.9	422	247	49.60

This table shows how many students took a certain number of tests in their four years.

Class of	one	two	three	four	five	six	seven	eight	nine	ten	eleven	twelve
1997	28	46	42	33	17	12	10	5
1998	26	40	33	37	20	13	10	22	4	1	1
1999	21	60	42	24	30	20	19	15	9	2	2
2000	18	39	31	29	28	20	24	11	9	2
2001	23	39	32	36	41	30	22	16	12	8	1
2002	22	35	40	44	31	28	21	5	10
2003	28	31	47	37	48	26	21	11	5	9	1
2004	26	29	50	53	45	24	21	7	7	2	1	1
2005	25	40	43	42	42	33	20	18	7	7	2
2006	21	37	53	41	40	30	20	8	10	1	2
2007	18	30	35	43	40	43	20	9	6	2
2008	9	20	49	38	54	35	22	13	7	2	1
2009	19	27	45	37	50	35	24	19	7	1

2009 AP Results

Dept	One	Two	Three	Four	Five	Tests	Passed	Pass Rate	4/5 Rate	Sr Pass Rate
ENGLISH
Eng Lang	1	32	93	79	29	233	200	86.0	46.4	57.34
Eng Lit	0	5	36	48	20	109	104	95.4	62.4	29.38
LANGUAGE
French Lang	0	1	5	1	3	10	9	90.0	40.0	2.54
Japanese	4	2	3	0	2	11	5	45.5	18.2	1.41
Latin	0	3	10	5	3	21	18	85.7	38.1	5.08
Span Lang	2	6	15	41	24	88	80	90.9	73.9	22.60
Foreign Lang Total	6	12	33	47	32	130	112	86.2	60.8	31.64
MATH
Calc AB	16	30	25	13	3	87	41	47.1	18.4	11.58
Calc AB (with BC sub)	19	34	40	41	32	166	113	68.1	44.0	31.92
Calc BC	7	6	26	18	22	79	66	83.5	50.6	18.64
Stats	0	2	7	5	0	14	12	85.7	35.7	3.39
SCIENCE
Biology	3	6	6	3	12	30	21	70.0	50.0	5.93
Chem	3	5	9	1	3	21	13	61.9	19.0	3.67
Phys B	1	4	24	10	6	45	40	88.9	35.6	11.30
Phys C--Mech	2	3	13	6	6	30	25	83.3	40.0	7.06
Phys C--E&M	0	7	5	6	6	24	17	70.8	50.0	4.80
All Science	9	25	57	26	33	150	116	77.3	39.3	32.77
COMPUTER SCIENCE	5	1	1	3	6	16	10	62.5	56.3	2.82
SOCIAL SCIENCE
Gov't	3	18	48	62	36	167	146	87.4	58.7	41.24
Psyc	2	3	17	40	38	100	95	95.0	78.0	26.84
US Hist	17	57	74	70	24	242	168	69.4	38.8	47.46
World History	0	0	6	9	4	19	19	100.0	68.4	5.37
TOTALS
All Tests	69	191	423	422	247	1349	1092	80.9	49.6

 

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