AP School Honor Roll
Coming in Fall 2023!
The AP School Honor Roll recognizes schools whose AP programs are delivering results for students while broadening access. Schools can earn this recognition annually based on criteria that reflect a commitment to increasing college-going culture, providing opportunities for students to earn college credit, and maximizing college readiness.
The AP School Honor Roll offers four levels of distinction: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
Qualifying Criteria
For a school to be recognized on the AP School Honor Roll in a given year, it must:
- Meet each of the following criteria for their students in the most recent graduating class; these criteria are anchored in research-based relationships between AP and college outcomes:
- College Culture: 40% or more of the graduating cohort took at least 1 AP Exam during high school;
- College Credit: 25% or more of the graduating cohort scored a 3 or higher on at least 1 AP Exam during high school; and
- College Optimization: 2% or more of the graduating cohort took 5 or more AP Exams during high school. At least 1 of those exams was taken in 9th or 10th grade, so that students are spreading their AP experience across grades rather than feeling disproportionate pressure in any single year.
-
Supply total grade 12 enrollment for their entire school to the AP Program. AP coordinators can update this information online in AP Registration and Ordering.
- Be located within the United States (including U.S. territories) or Canada.
Equity and Inclusion Award
Schools on the AP School Honor Roll may also earn the Equity and Inclusion Award, honoring schools that demonstrate a clear and effective commitment to equitable access to advanced coursework. Schools earn the additional award if the percentage of AP Exam takers who are underrepresented minority and/or low-income students mirrors the school's overall student demographics. For example, if 50% of a school's student body is low income, then 50% of the AP Exam takers, must also be low income for a school to receive the Equity and Inclusion Award.
Receiving Recognition
Beginning in fall 2023, AP coordinators, principals, and other school and district administrators will be able to view a school’s current status on the AP School Honor Roll Progress Report by signing in to AP Score Reports for Educators. Honor Roll schools will also receive a kit to help celebrate their recognition with their community.
For schools also earning the Equity and Inclusion Award, the AP School Honor Roll Progress Report will reflect that recognition as well.
For questions not answered below, please contact [email protected]
FAQ
What has changed from the 2019 awards and recognition to this year’s AP School Honor Roll?
With the introduction of the AP School Honor Roll, individual schools now receive recognition for achievement in three categories of AP participation and performance. These three categories are grounded in evidence-based relationships between AP and college outcomes. Schools will soon be able to track their success through a dashboard located in their AP Score Reports for Educators.
In 2019 and previous years, we only recognized districts overall, not individual schools. Districts earned recognition on the AP District Honor Roll by increasing access to AP for underrepresented students while simultaneously maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning AP Exam scores of 3 or higher.
Which students and scores are included in my 12th-grade AP cohort?
When determining a school’s 12th-grade cohort we look at the most recent school that a student indicated on their AP registration as the school they attend full time. Students are counted toward your school's Honor Roll metrics only if they are full-time attending students at your school. This means that when a student registered to take AP Exams, they indicated that your school was their primary attending school, and they have not since transferred schools or updated their attendance to a different school when taking an AP Exam.
If a student took AP Exams at your school in 11th grade, and then transferred out of your school prior to 12th grade and never took AP again at any school, then they will still be included in your AP dataset. However, if a student took AP Exams at your school in 11th grade, and then transferred out of your school prior to 12th grade and enrolled at a different school where they took AP then they would not be included in your 12th-grade AP cohort.
If a student is receiving instruction from a teacher at your school for a specific subject but does not attend your school full time, then they would not be included in your 12th-grade AP cohort count. If a student is attending your school full time, their entire AP Exam-taking history during high school is included in the data used to calculate the school honor roll. Note that exams taken prior to 9th grade are not included.
How do I update my school’s 12th grade total student population data?
To update enrollment data, the school’s AP coordinator may log in to AP Registration and Ordering and follow these steps:
- Select the appropriate school year from the dropdown. You may make updates to this data for both the prior school year and the current school year.
- Navigate to Settings.
- Expand the School Information and Participation Contacts section.
- Scroll to the Student Population fields and choose Edit.
- Make updates in the displayed prompt and click Save.
Changes to the data for the 2022-23 school year may be made through June 24, 2024. However, to be included in the initial AP School Honor Roll honoree list in fall 2023, please make sure to have this data updated by August 31, 2023.
What is the source of the data used for the Equity and Inclusion Award?
An additional award is given to schools on the AP School Honor Roll when the percentage of underrepresented and/or low-income students who took at least one AP Exam before graduation is near, or greater than, the percentage in the school's graduating class, demonstrating a clear and effective commitment to AP equity. The race/ethnicity data used to determine this award is based on (1) a student’s most recent self-reported race/ethnicity data per their College Board account, and (2) a school’s race/ethnicity data from the most recent final dataset from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
Low-income data is sourced from a student’s fee-reduction eligibility status as input by the AP coordinator in AP Registration and Ordering. If at any point in high school, a student qualified for a fee-reduced AP Exam, they would be included in the low-income count for the school. The school’s overall free and reduced-price lunch student percentage used in this award calculation is also provided by the AP coordinator in AP Registration and Ordering during initial school year setup on the School Information and Participation Contacts Setup screen.
How do I update my school’s free and reduced-price lunch (FRPL) student percentage that is used in determining eligibility for the additional Equity and Inclusion Award?
To update this data, an AP coordinator may log in to AP Registration and Ordering and follow these steps:
- Select the appropriate school year from the dropdown. You may make updates to this data for both the prior school year and the current school year.
- Navigate to Settings.
- Expand the School Information and Participation Contacts section.
- Scroll to the FRPL Students field and choose Edit.
- Make updates in the displayed prompt and click Save.
Note that this is different from marking individual student AP Exams as fee-reduced. You are providing the overall percentage of students at your school that qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, not just AP students qualifying for fee reductions. If you select the “My school has adopted the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for the current academic year” option, then a proxy percentage of 75% will be used in the award calculation.
Changes to the data for the 2022-23 school year may be made through June 24, 2024. However, for the data to be used for the initial AP School Honor Roll honoree list in fall 2023, please make sure to have this data updated by August 31, 2023.
Why are schools outside of the U.S. and Canada not eligible to be considered for the AP School Honor Roll?
Schools outside the U.S., U.S. Territories, DoDEA, and Canada are not currently eligible for the AP School Honor Roll. The AP School Honor Roll depends upon external data inputs that are currently not available or measurable for ineligible schools. We are considering ways to acknowledge in the future the superb quality of AP programs in schools outside the U.S. and Canada.
How can I learn more about the research behind the AP School Honor Roll criteria?
The AP School Honor Roll criteria are anchored in research-based relationships between AP and college outcomes.
College Culture: We recognize schools for increasing AP participation because students who take AP courses and exams become part of a college-going culture. These students are more likely to attend college than academically similar students who didn’t take AP, and this is true even of students who earn exam scores of 1 or 2. In addition, research finds that the biggest predicted boost in first-year college grades and on-time degree attainment is associated with AP participation changing from 0 to 1 AP Exam. Learn more here and here.
College Credit: We also recognize schools for helping students earn scores of 3 or higher, the score most typically used by colleges to award college credit. Research indicates that students who earn a score of 3 or higher on AP Exams proceed to achieve higher overall first-year college GPAs and are more likely to earn their bachelor’s degrees on time—avoiding the costs of the additional semester(s) of college tuition and expenses that most American students now incur before attaining their degree. Learn more here and here.
College Optimization: Finally, we place attention on students taking 5 AP Exams across their high school career because research finds that this is an optimal number of AP Exams for many students. Specifically, for each additional AP Exam a student takes—up to but not beyond 4–6 AP Exams—predicted first-year college grades and on-time degree attainment rates improve. Taking more than a total of 4–6 AP Exams in high school does not further improve a student’s college GPA and college graduation outcomes. Accordingly, the AP School Honor Roll does not provide added distinction for students taking more than 5 AP exams. Learn more here. Further, this metric only includes students who took at least 1 of their 5 AP Exams in grades 9 or 10. This is designed to reduce the pressure on students to load up on AP Exams in their junior and senior years.
Why do students who took at least 5 AP Exams—but only in grades 11 and 12—not count toward the College Optimization metric?
A school’s College Optimization level is calculated by totaling the number of students who took at least 5 AP Exams in high school—with at least 1 taken in grades 9 or 10. The metric reflects evidence that students continue to improve their college outcomes with each AP Exam they take up to five; beyond five, additional APs do not statistically improve a student’s likelihood of earning a bachelor’s degree on time. Additionally, we believe that students should not feel pressure to load up on AP Exams in their junior and senior years. Rather than balance 3 or more AP Exams in a single year, students who take AP in grades 9 or 10 are able to optimize their AP participation across high school while never shouldering more than 2 AP Exams in the same year.