In One Graphic, How Indiana’s AP Exam Scores Stack Up With Its Neighbors

February 12, 2014 | 9:01 AM

By Kyle Stokes

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More than twice as many Indiana students took an Advanced Placement exam in 2013 than in 2003, but the percentage of the state’s students scoring high enough to earn college credit still lags the national average.

That’s one takeaway from a report released Tuesday by officials at the organization that administers AP tests to high schoolers across the country.

The graphic above tells much of the story: smaller proportions of Indiana students are earning scores of 3, 4 or 5 on the exam — the scores that are generally good enough for college credit — than in neighboring Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan or Ohio.

The part of the story the graphic does not tell, however, is that larger percentages of Hoosier high schoolers are taking AP exams than in the four states bordering Indiana.

Indiana students who take an Advanced Placement course and the corresponding AP test earn credit toward their Core 40 high school diploma, which has become the minimum admissions requirement for the state’s four-year colleges.

The College Board report also shows 16.2 percent of Indiana’s 2013 high school graduates scored a 3 or better on an AP exam during high school. (The national rate: 20.1 percent in 2013.)

Here’s another interesting graphic — Indiana’s AP test results broken down by exam. The state’s most popular exams, somewhat unsurprisingly, have some of the lowest scores.