<p>Here are some interesting excerpts:</p>
<p>In the 1 million-student New York City system, the nation's largest, black students produced 987 AP tests that earned scores of 3 or higher on the five-point AP grading scale in 2006. Philadelphia yielded 144 passing AP tests from black students. District schools had 108.</p>
<p>Four other school systems in the Washington and Baltimore suburbs with large black populations -- Prince George's County, Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County in Maryland and Prince William County in Virginia -- each outperformed black students in the nation as a whole in AP testing, although none approached the national average for all public school students.</p>
<p>Baltimore City, on the other hand, yielded only 90 passing AP tests from a population of more than 20,000 black high school students.</p>
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<p>The Post reviewed AP data from nine of the 10 school systems in the nation with the largest black populations, from New York City, with 115,963 African American students in grades 9 through 12, to Baltimore City, with 22,225. </p>
<p>One of the 10, Detroit, declined to provide data. The analysis considered 20 other school systems, all among the 80 largest for black high school populations, that are known for their rigor. The smallest systems studied were Prince William and Anne Arundel, each with about 5,000 black high school students.</p>
<p>The analysis considered the number of passing exams by black students and weighed it against black student enrollment in grades 9 through 12. A score of 3 or higher on the five-point AP scale is considered passing because it is the typical cutoff for credit and advanced standing in college.</p>
<p>Outside the Washington region, no school system analyzed produced more than four passing AP tests for every 100 black high school students -- half the success rate of Montgomery and Fairfax.</p>
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<p>Superintendents, scholars and students point to several factors hindering black students' success in the AP program. Many African Americans are reluctant to enroll in AP courses, particularly if it means being the only minority student in the class. And those who enroll in AP study without adequate preparation might not be ready for the "shock of rigor" in a college-level course, said Trevor Packer, director of the AP program.</p>
<p>Research suggests that black students, who are concentrated in high-poverty, urban school systems, tend to have less effective teachers than those in other schools. Some urban high schools are therefore filled with courses that are AP "in name only," said Daria Hall, a senior policy analyst at Education Trust, a D.C. nonprofit dedicated to closing the achievement gap.</p>
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<p>Britney Pope, 18, who graduated this month from Gaithersburg High School, is going to Columbia University in the fall. Like many talented black students, she had a hit-or-miss experience with AP. She took four AP tests before her senior year but passed only one, in world history. She earned scores of 1 or 2, indicating partial mastery, on the others.</p>
<p>For her success in AP world history, Pope credits her teacher: "She came in on Saturdays to prepare us for the exam." For her performance on the other tests, she mostly blames herself.</p>
<p>"I'm just a poor test-taker, period," she said. "It takes more effort from the teacher to get me prepared."</p>