Giving College Credit Where It Is Due: Advanced Placement Exam Scores and College Outcomes

58 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2015

See all articles by Jonathan Smith

Jonathan Smith

Advocacy and Policy Center - College Board

Michael Hurwitz

College Board

Christopher Avery

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: May 11, 2015

Abstract

We implement a regression discontinuity design using the continuous raw Advanced Placement (AP) exam scores, which are mapped into the observed 1-5 integer scores, for over 4.5 million students. Earning higher AP integer scores positively impacts college completion and subsequent exam taking. Specifically, attaining credit-granting integer scores increases the probability that a student will receive a bachelor’s degree within four years by 1 to 2 percentage points per exam. We also find that receiving a score of 3 over a 2 on junior year AP exams causes students to take between 0.06 and 0.14 more AP exams senior year.

Keywords: Secondary education, higher education, college success, testing

Suggested Citation

Smith, Jonathan and Hurwitz, Michael and Avery, Christopher, Giving College Credit Where It Is Due: Advanced Placement Exam Scores and College Outcomes (May 11, 2015). HKS Working Paper No. RWP15-021, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2614599 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2614599

Jonathan Smith

Advocacy and Policy Center - College Board ( email )

GA
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/jonathansmithphd/

Michael Hurwitz

College Board ( email )

1919 M Street NW
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036
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Christopher Avery (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) ( email )

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Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
617-496-4063 (Phone)
617-496-1722 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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United States

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