Which Alabama schools offer the most AP courses? See the top 14

In some Alabama high schools, students have the chance to take college-level German, music theory or even advanced physics courses before stepping foot on a university campus.

But options vary widely by school. Out of the 285 Alabama public and private schools that offered Advanced Placement courses, only a small number offer 25 or more unique courses for students to choose from, according to an AL.com analysis of recent College Board data.

The Advanced Placement program offers a total of 39 courses across a variety of disciplines.

AP courses are created by college faculty. To earn college credit, students must earn a score of 3, 4 or 5, considered a passing, or qualifying, score. A passing score on an AP test can unlock up to three credit hours of college coursework.

Here are the Alabama schools that registered to offer more than 25 unique AP courses in the 2023-24 school year:

• James Clemens High School, Madison City: 30 courses
• Bob Jones High School, Madison City: 29 courses
• Thompson High School, Alabaster: 29 courses
• Mountain Brook High School, Mountain Brook: 28 courses
• Montgomery Academy, a private school in Montgomery: 28 courses
• Hoover High School, Hoover: 27 courses
• Virgil Grissom High School, Huntsville: 27 courses
• Spain Park High School, Hoover: 26 courses
• Florence High School, Florence: 26 courses
• Hewitt-Trussville High School, Trussville: 26 courses
• Vestavia Hills High School, Vestavia Hills: 26 courses
• Homewood High School, Homewood: 25 courses
• Huntsville High School, Huntsville: 25 courses
• Loveless Academic Magnet High School, Montgomery: 25 courses

And if you’re counting pre-AP courses, three other high schools – Baker High in Mobile and Oak Mountain and Chelsea High in Shelby County – join that list.

Public schools with the largest AP offerings were mostly in big city school systems and suburban districts. Just one private school offered more than 25 courses.

To offer an AP course, schools must go through an audit process, which enables the College Board to give teachers and administrators clear guidelines. The schools listed below are cleared by the College Board to administer the course, but might not offer that course every year.

Some courses require the school to offer specific prerequisites, while others may come with costly textbooks or other materials. Schools must also assign someone local to handle auditing duties, as well as an AP coordinator.

It costs students about $100 per test to take an AP exam. Some schools cover those costs for students, and others may be eligible for reimbursement from the state.

In Madison City, Superintendent Ed Nichols credits the program for the district’s high college-going rates, but he said it takes buy-in from everyone involved.

Nichols said the district partners with local universities to give additional training to AP teachers, and frequently communicates the value of the program to parents. The district also offers a handful of pre-AP courses to help prepare younger students for higher-level coursework.

“It takes a dedicated student that is willing to accept the rigor,” he said. “It also takes support at home, and I’m proud that our board today and years before us was committed to this.”

Which schools offer AP?

Schools that offered lots of AP courses also tended to have lower rates of students living in poverty. Each of the 10 schools with the largest number of offerings are majority-white schools.

At least 150 of Alabama’s 381 public high schools didn’t offer any AP courses last year. More than 40 had only one course registered. Most of those schools were small, rural schools that enrolled fewer than 500 students.

Private schools had a big range of offerings, with some authorized for just one course and others offering more than 20.

Montgomery Academy led the state’s private schools with 28 course offerings. It was followed by UMS Wright Preparatory School in Mobile, which was registered for 21 courses.

AP English Language and Composition was the most popular offering, with 204 schools registered for the course, followed by AP Computer Science Principles, with 179 schools registered.

Less than 50 schools offer high-level calculus or physics courses.

Fewer schools, 21, offered pre-AP courses for ninth graders. And just 16 now offer both of the AP Seminar and Research courses required for the program’s capstone track, which was created in 2014.

Among elective courses, AP 2-D Art and Design was the most popular, with 63 schools registered. A small, but growing number of schools are now registered for AP African American Studies and languages such as German or Latin.

Look up your school’s offerings below. If you can’t see the table, view it here.