There’s good news and bad news for Virginia coming out of the College Board’s recent announcement of 2015 Advanced Placement tests. The good news is that Virginia has the nation’s sixth-highest percentage of public high school seniors qualifying for college credit on their AP exams: 29.8% of the commonwealth’s graduating seniors earned a score of three or higher on at least one exam.
That’s the angle provided by the Virginia Department of Education in announcing the results. The press release was devoid, however, of the usual puffery, quotes from senior administrators, and rah-rahs from the governor.
Perhaps that’s because of the bad news. Virginia was one of only eight states to see a decline from the previous year in the percentage of students qualifying for college credit. Indeed, according to the College Board, Virginia and New York tied for the third worst year-to-year comparison in the country, with a decline of 0.2%.
You’ve always got to read between the lines. Always.
— JAB
