What is the source of the data used for the AP Access 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 self-reported race/ethnicity data, 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.