Two IC Schools in Top 5 of State's AP Index

Regina and IC West 3 and 4

George Washington High School in Cedar Rapids has become the state's first public school to achieve the No. 1 ranking on the "Iowa Advanced Placement Index for the Top 50 Schools."

The index, developed by the University of Iowa College of Education's Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, assesses AP participation among public and private schools in Iowa. Each school is given an index score based on the ratio of AP exams taken by all its students divided by the number of its graduating seniors.

A score of 1.00 means the number of AP exams for a school equals the number of graduates. Ten schools achieved or surpassed this standard this year, up from eight last year.

In the latest index, George Washington earned the top score of 2.21; John F. Kennedy High School, another public high school in Cedar Rapids, came in second with a score of 1.73; Regina High School (a private school) in Iowa City ranked third with a score of 1.69; West High School (a public school) in Iowa City ranked fourth with a score of 1.63; and Ames High School (a public school) ranked fifth with a score of 1.59.

Regina High School is the smallest school in the top ten, with 59 graduates in May/June 2008. The largest school in the top 50 is Valley High School in West Des Moines with 559 graduates, and the smallest school is Prince of Peace College Preparatory in Clinton with 15 graduates.

The 2009 Iowa AP Index is based on the AP exams taken in May 2008 and seniors graduating in May/June 2008. In 2007-08, there were 383 (356 public and 27 nonpublic) accredited high schools according to the Iowa Department of Education. Of these 383 accredited high schools, 211 (196 public and 15 nonpublic), or 55 percent of schools, had at least one student take an AP exam in 2008. Of these 211 accredited Iowa high schools that had at least one student take an AP exam in 2008, 95 percent (201 schools; 186 public and 15 nonpublic) agreed to participate in the 2009 Iowa AP Index.

The statistics for graduating seniors were provided by the Iowa Department of Education, and the College Board provided the statistics for the AP exams.

The top 50 schools range in graduating class size from 15 to 559. There are 40 public and 10 private schools in the top 50. To view the latest index of the top 50 schools based on May 2008 testing visit http://www.iowaapindex.org/top50.html.