See which Sacramento high schools did best, worst on AP exams

More students than ever are earning college credit by taking AP exams.

Students in the four-county region scored well enough on 20,444 Advanced Placement tests to earn college credit in 2015-16, up 40 percent from five years earlier, according to new data from the California Department of Education.

Advanced Placement classes are designed to be equivalent to college-level instruction. Most colleges allow students who score well on an end-of-course AP exam to earn college credit and skip that class when they arrive on campus.

More than 90 percent of students at Davis Senior High who took an AP exam scored well enough to earn college credit, the highest percentage in the region. Student scores on more than 1,400 tests at Granite Bay High were high enough to earn college credit, the highest number of credit-worthy scores in the region.

Many schools across the region and state have recently increased their Advanced Placement classes – and far more students are taking advantage.

But there are huge gaps in Advanced Placement offerings and credit-eligible AP scores between high schools in the region. Schools with a high number of economically disadvantaged students tend to also have fewer pupils taking and scoring well on AP exams.

This map shows the proportion of test scores at each high school high enough to earn college credit. The subsequent chart shows the breakdown of AP scores at each school. Both the chart and the map exclude schools with fewer than 200 AP test scores in 2015-16.

Source: California Department of Education | Notes: Students often take more than one AP exam each year. Map excludes schools with fewer than 200 11th- and 12th graders last year. | The above map does not reflect International Baccalaureate test score results, which can also be used for college credit. The following are "IB World Schools" authorized to offer IB programs: Mira Loma; Burbank; Laguna Creek; Granite Bay; Inderkum; Oakmont and Cordova.

This story was originally published July 12, 2017 at 12:42 PM with the headline "See which Sacramento high schools did best, worst on AP exams."