Earlier this week, Gov. Maura Healey disclosed that Massachusetts students achieved the nation’s highest AP exam scores last year, setting a record for graduates scoring 3 or higher.
The 35.8% of students graduating from public high schools who achieved a score of 3 or higher on a scale of 5 represented the highest rate ever recorded nationwide.
But it’s a standard of excellence Massachusetts can no longer guarantee.
Massachusetts also ranked the highest state in the country in terms of the percentage of Black or African American students taking an AP exam, and third in the country in terms of the percentage of graduates taking any AP exam.
A score of 3 or higher on an AP exam shows a student’s ability to complete work for an introductory college course in that subject area. Many colleges will award students college credit for AP scores of 3 or higher.
The state’s efforts to expand access to AP courses and exams have included subsidizing AP exam fees for low-income students and working with partners such as Mass Insight’s AP STEM & English Program.
The exams cost $99 each without a fee subsidy. During the current school year, the state has committed to funding up to $1.1 million for AP and International Baccalaureate exam fee subsidies. With the state’s contribution, low-income students — or their school will only need to pay — $22 per AP test.
Under this administration, Massachusetts has subsidized 90,783 AP exams for nearly 50,000 low-income students.
However, there’s a disturbing pattern unfolding in lower grade levels, which could jeopardize that AP dominance.
That has been particularly true with reading comprehension.
Massachusetts has experienced a significant decline in elementary school reading scores, with roughly 60% of students in grades 3-8 not meeting or exceeding English Language Arts expectations.
Data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education reveals fewer than half of third graders are proficient readers, falling 14 percentage points below 2019 levels.
Barely four in 10 third graders were proficient in English on the 2024 MCAS.
While exacerbated by pandemic school closures, reading scores for Massachusetts fourth graders dropped six points from 2011 to 2019, compared to a one-point drop nationally.
Despite these declines, Massachusetts still ranks relatively high compared to other states, but risks falling behind states that have recently improved their literacy instruction, including Mississippi and Florida.
The Healey administration and the Legislature have belatedly taken notice of this alarming trend. The governor and legislative leaders have proposed policies to bolster basic learning in public schools.
Both legislative bodies also have passed bills that would mandate how reading is taught, requiring more structured, research-backed curricula involving basic skills like using phonics, comprehension, and building vocabulary.
This standardized method would run into the vacuum created by the absence of any statewide measure of academic proficiency, now that the MCAS no longer provides that measuring stick.
It’s also up to the Legislature to re-establish some standardized measure of academic proficiency.
Without these two foundational pieces, the state’s national education standing will inevitably decline, and with it those envied AP scores.
Sentinel and Enterprise
