Barbara’s Annual AP CS Analysis for #CSEdWeek: 2012 was A Great Year!

Barbara Ericson has completed her annual analysis of AP CS Level A exam results. It was a banner year: The greatest number of test-takers ever, and well over the 20K “break-even” point (when the College Board stops losing money on giving an AP exam). Barbara broke it down by state (for states we’re particularly focusing on in ECEP), and by population of each state. Maryland does the best, in terms of test-takers per million people. Georgia ties with California for “test-taking density.”

Nationally 24,782 people took the AP CS A exam in 2012. This was a 14.7% increase from the previous year. The number of teachers who passed the audit was 2,103. The number of female exam takers was 4,635 which was up from 4,000 the year before. The number of Blacks was 1,014 up from 893 the previous year. The number of Hispanics was 1,919 up from 1,752 the previous year.

The percentage female was 18.7% which was lower than the previous year (18.9%) . The overall pass rate was 63.2%. The female pass rate was 56.4%. The white pass rate was 66.4%. The Asian pass rate was 69.9%. The Hispanic pass rate was 39.8%. The Hispanic male pass rate 43.6%. The Hispanic female pass rate was 26.6%. The Black pass rate was 27.3%. The Black male pass rate was 30.3%. The Black female pass rate was 18.25%.

In 2012 California passed Texas after years (since 2005) of Texas being the state with the most AP CS A exam takers. California had 3,920 and Texas had only 3,614.

via AP Data for the United States.