<p>Massachusetts students in the class of 2010 outpaced the national average (16.9 percent of seniors scored a 3 or higher on an AP exam) and came in just behind the top performing states of Maryland (26.4 percent), New York (24.6 percent), Virginia (23.7 percent), and Connecticut (23.2 percent).</p>
<p>I just grabbed this from a report I googled as an illustration. I think it would be smart to also get an understanding of how kids nationally do on AP testing as well as how well kids in your state do. This might bolster your quest. 20 out of 90 students (as you mentioned in your post) if a “real” fact, is out pacing the national average and there’s no guarantee that those 20 students are the best and the brightest…it was one sampling of one AP test so it’s just a surface glimpse. If you really are simply interested in enrichment for a small fraction of your school’s students you might have more success/traction trying to organize some of those kids’ parents and look for opportunities or a work group for parents/students etc. The school may also be reluctant to clarify who the “top students” are…I know in our school they would not release that information and don’t even do the calculations for “senior scholars” until mid-late spring of senior year. I’m guessing they would release aggregate info on AP scores, but then again that would be a hodgepodge of sophomores, juniors and seniors. Just my opinion. </p>
<p>The composition of your school would be important also. There is published data on income levels, educational levels, how your school fares data-wise with other schools in neighboring districts…things that will clarify how your district is composed which can impact the services that the school needs to provide as well as the general make-up of the student body and all these things would be good to know before you go in and “ask” for potentially priviledged information private or not. Finally you would be smart to understand the opportunities within your state public universities…you would need a compelling rationale why it is “better” in general for these kids to look further than their public system. This would hold true for states like California, Texas, Virginia, Michigan and many others I haven’t even mentioned that have world class or near world class public universities…</p>