What sounds like good news about academic achievement in Wisconsin high schools might be a mirage, according to a Wisconsin Public Radio report.
The report said more Wisconsin high school students are taking more advanced placement exams than ever before, and their test scores are higher.
But some question whether today’s students actually learn more than those who graduated before them due to changes in grading criteria for advanced placement exams.
In the 2024-25 school year, Wisconsin students took 84,584 AP exams and scored a 3 or above on 78% of tests taken, up 11% from the previous academic year, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
Sara Shaw, deputy research director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said one hypothesis for why scores are trending up is the fact that the College Board, a nonprofit arm of AP, recalibrated its threshold for what constitutes a “3.”
The “recalibration” resulted in a higher percentage of students getting the 3s, 4s and 5s that qualify them for college credit in nine subjects.
“When we see these numbers of increasing exam taking and increasing scores, I think it’s important to know that we don’t think that it’s just that Wisconsinites are suddenly doing a lot better on AP exams,” Shaw told WPR.
