Some school districts, however, have bucked the trend, boosting student participation while keeping scores high. Among them are 16 in Philadelphia's Pennsylvania suburbs and three in South Jersey.
Nationwide, the College Board named 367 districts in the United States and Canada last month to its "AP Honor Roll," for expanding participation from 2009 to 2011, while increasing or maintaining the percentage that scored 3 or above.
Districts where numbers increased and the 3-or-above percentage was 70 or higher were also included.
Pennsylvania has the most honor roll districts - 34. New Jersey has 20, plus the Paterson Diocese.
From 2003, when the College Board began counting minority and low-income test-takers, the number of students taking at least one AP test almost doubled - from 1,017,396 to 1,973,545 in 2011.
The count of low-income students taking AP tests in those years almost quadrupled - from 96,000 to 376,000. Minority student participation grew more than 21/2 times, from 173,684 to 471,146.
The percentage of students with AP scores of 3 or higher, however, fell from 64.4 in 2003 to 60 percent this year.
Many districts, viewing AP courses as a way to prepare students for college and save them tuition money, are encouraging more to take them. Even as budgets got tighter, school boards ponied up extra money to staff new AP courses and train teachers.
In Montgomery County's Souderton district, for example, the board began a push four years ago to "move the district to a higher level of achievement," Superintendent Frederick Johnson said.
The rigor of English and social studies classes was increased, as was the number of AP courses, to 18.
