Alamance-Burlington school officials say that the number of ABSS high school students who are taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses has reached an “all-time high” of 1,295 students this year.
The 1,295 ABSS high school students who are currently enrolled in an AP class represents an increase of 241 students from 2024, when 1,054 students were enrolled in at least one AP class, according to data presented during the school board’s latest work session.
School board members heard a presentation Tuesday afternoon on the AP participation rates by race/ethnicity from ABSS assistant superintendent of academics Dr. Sean McWherter and Angelique Reed, who is the Advanced Learners Coordinator for the school system.
The number of ABSS high school students who earned a score of 3 or better (out of a maximum of 5 points) on at least one AP exam increased by 449 this year, from 977 students who earned a score of 3 or better in 2024 to 1,426 students who earned a 3 or better on at least one AP exam this year.
The total number of students who are enrolled in the seven traditional high schools is not yet available for the current, 2025-26 school year.
By comparison, there were 7,186 students enrolled in the seven high schools at the end of the first month of the previous, 2024-25 school year, according to ABSS.
Reed told the board Tuesday afternoon that ABSS has “tried to be strategic about increasing [AP course enrollment] across the district” since she moved into her current position about eight years ago.
Strategies that ABSS is using to atrtact students who might not otherwise enroll in AP courses include hosting “enrollment nights” to promote AP and offering what the College Board (which administers AP programs) terms “Access” courses, such as a seminar class and African-American Studies, Reed said.
The AP “Access for All” courses are designed to introduce high school students to college-level work and eliminate barriers to participation among high school students who otherwise might not take advanced classes, according to the College Board.
Black students (187) accounted for the largest increase, 64 percent, among the 1,293 ABSS high school students who have taken AP tests this year, versus the number of black students who took AP tests in 2024, McWherter and Reed told the board. (AP test participation rates by race/ethnicity for 2024 were not presented).
Black students represent 14.5 percent of the total of 1,293 ABSS students who have taken AP tests in 2025, based on the figures that were presented to the school board Tuesday afternoon.
Multiracial students (62) accounted for the second-largest increase in AP “test takers” this year, which was up by 51.2 percent from the number of multiracial students who took AP exams in 2024. That demographic represents 4.8 percent of the total of 1,293 of ABSS high school students who have taken AP tests this year.
The third-largest increase in AP testing participation was among Hispanic students (293), representing an increase of 39.5 percent from the number of Hispanic students who took AP tests in 2024. Hispanic students account for 22.7 percent of the total of 1,293 ABSS high school students who have taken AP tests this year.
The number of white ABSS students (653) who have taken AP tests in 2025 increased by 8.8 percent this year over the number who did so last year but represents the largest proportion (50.5 percent) of the total of 1,293 students who have taken AP tests this year.
School board member Tameka Harvey asked McWherter and Reed for a breakdown of AP courses offered at each of the seven high schools, which the two administrators said they would provide later.
Meanwhile, ABSS superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming joined superintendents from several other North Carolina school systems on Wednesday morning in making a presentation to the State Board of Education about what ABSS and other school systems are doing to expand access to and promote advanced coursework.
Fleming was scheduled to join N.C. Superintendent Maurice (“Mo”) Green for a subsequent press conference on Wednesday afternoon to highlight the state’s 2024-25 AP exam results at the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s headquarters in downtown Raleigh.
