Advanced Placement exam increase among Tennessee's Hispanic high schoolers

"They are sticking it out."

The Greeneville Sun reports here that the number of Hispanic high school students in Tennessee who take at least one Advanced Placement exam has risen 35% since 2007.

The Tennessean quotes one source here who says that the uptick represents a higher mastery of English among those Hispanic students whose native language is Spanish (not all Hispanic students are immigrants or native Spanish-speakers). Overton High School is used as an example:

"In those higher-level classes we have not had that population of bilingual kids, but now we do," she said. "We had 25 Hispanic seniors (at Overton) last year. This year we have 75. This tells you they are sticking it out."

The Tennessean further reported that 14 percent of the overall Metro student population is Hispanic, with the number at 5 percent for the entire state.

Photo by Stephen S. Licensed under Creative Commons.