Eastern Iowa schools continue to top advanced placement index

Iowa City and Cedar Rapids high schools continue to rank among the top in the state for offering Advanced Placement classes.

The Iowa AP Index, compiled by the Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa, has local schools in four out of the five top rankings, with Washington High School and Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids ranking one and three, and Regina High School and West High School in Iowa city ranking two and five.

Washington has held the top spot in the index going back to 2009, while all four of these schools have been in the top 10 of the index since its inception in 2005.

The index is a measure of how many students in a school are taking AP tests, which award credit for Advanced Placement classes. The Advanced Placement curriculum is produced by the College Board to offer teenagers a chance at undergraduate level coursework while still in high school.

Iowa's AP Index is determined by dividing a school's total graduates by the number of AP exams taken at that school. Performance is not measured by the index, only participation.The top overall score of 3.08 for Washington High means, on average, three AP exams are taken for every student who graduates.

Other Cedar Rapids high schools made the index top 50 as well, with Prairie High School ranking 17, Xavier High School ranking 18 and Jefferson High School ranking 25. In Iowa City, City High School ranked 27 while Linn-Mar High School in Marion ranked 19. Alburnett High School also appeared in the index top 50 for the first time with a score of 29.

Visit http://www.iowaapindex.org/2012top50.html to see the full AP ranking.