Students’ Scores on Placement Exams Soar : Education: Number of California seniors passing tests for college credit has almost tripled since 1984.

Continuing a trend, greater numbers of California high school seniors are passing rigorous college credit exams, the state Department of Education said Wednesday.

The state’s passing rate on Advanced Placement exams has almost tripled in eight years and remains well above the national average, state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said in releasing the test results in San Francisco.

Among the big scorers in the annual exams was the Los Angeles Unified School District, whose seniors fared well above the state and national averages for the tests.

The Advanced Placement tests, offered in 16 subjects, enable high school students who earn passing scores of 3 or higher to earn college credits. Last year, students in 46% of the nation’s high schools took one or more of the exams, according to the College Board, which sponsors the program.

California’s Class of 1992 earned qualifying marks on 20.7 tests for every 100 public school seniors, up from 7.2 in 1984 and 20.1 in 1991. The estimated qualifying rate for the nation as a whole was 12 this year, up from 4.4 in 1984 and 10.9 last year.

“We were afraid the budget cuts might have led some districts to discontinue these (Advanced Placement preparation) courses because they are expensive. So it is very good news to us that we are still making progress,” Honig said, referring to a state financial slump that has forced many local school districts to slash their budgets.

The focus of the state’s education reform efforts has been on encouraging more students to tackle challenging subject matter, and Honig believes the gains are evidence that the efforts are paying off.

Honig said the gains were made by all ethnic minority groups, most of which had very low rates in the mid-1980s. Since 1985, the first year data was compiled by ethnic group, the rate of African-American students earning qualifying marks has increased by 227%; for Latinos, the increase was 311%; for American Indians, 262%, and for Asian-Americans, 139%. The qualifying rates for Anglo students increased 106%.

In the heavily minority Los Angeles district, where nearly one in four students lives in poverty and increasing numbers of students speak a language other than English at home, the qualifying rate was 26.2. That is up from 11.3 for the class of 1984 and 25.8 for the Class of 1991. Those marks represent a significant departure for the district, which usually lags behind the rest of the state in such other standardized tests as the Scholastic Aptitude Test for college admissions and the California Assessment Program achievement exams.

“This is a real positive for Los Angeles,” Honig said. “They’ve shown what can be done when there is a commitment to getting kids to take tough courses.”

L.A. COUNTY RESULTS: B2