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College Readiness & Participation Data
Minnesota high school student college prep activities and college-going rates
College Preparation: PSEO, AP and IB
Minnesota high school students have opportunities to prepare for college by challenging themselves with college-level courses in high school. Students may:
- Enroll in the College Board's Advanced Placement courses either at their local high school or online.
- Enroll in classes at local colleges through the Minnesota Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) program.
- Enroll in "college in the schools" or other concurrent enrollment classes at their high school. These classes are part of the PSEO alternative to attending a college.
- Enroll in the International Baccalaureate curriculum at participating high schools.
During the 2010-11 school year, 63,420 high school juniors and seniors participated in the following activities:
| Program | Number of juniors and seniors participating |
|---|---|
| Postsecondary Enrollment Options* | 28,551 |
| Advanced Placement** | 32,541 |
| International Baccalaureate | 2,328 |
| Total*** | 63,420 |
* Includes 7,281 students who enrolled on college campuses, plus 20,290 who took college-level courses in their high schools.
**Students who took Advanced Placement exams. Students may take AP courses but are not required to take the AP exam.
*** Total is not unduplicated. Some students may be participating in more than one option.
Approximately 20 percent of Minnesota high school seniors earn college credits by the time they graduate from high school, according to a report on the Postsecondary Enrollment Options Program prepared by the Office of Internal Auditing at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.
Nine percent, or 3,080 students who graduated from a Minnesota high school during 2009-10 and enrolled in a Minnesota postsecondary institution in fall 2010, had earned enough college credits through one or more of the above activities to have a college class standing of sophomore or higher upon admission.
For more information on high school student participation in college prep activities, see the following:
College Entrance Exams: ACT and SAT
Most high school students who intend to enroll in a four-year college need to take a college entrance exam. About 70 percent of Minnesota high school seniors take the ACT or SAT college entrance test. Scores on these tests are an indicator of the college readiness of Minnesota's college-bound high school graduates.
More information on high school student college entrance exam scores:
College Participation Rates of Minnesota High School Graduates
College participation rates are defined as the number of high school graduates who enroll in a post-secondary education institution the fall after high school graduation. Minnesota's participation rate provides a glimpse of student behavior in the months following high school graduation.
More information on college-going rates of high school graduates:
College Remediation
The report, Getting Prepared: A 2010 Report on Recent High School Graduates Who Took Developmental/Remedial Courses is prepared by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities and the University of Minnesota. Highlights of the report include:
- 40 percent of Minnesota's recent public high school graduates who enrolled in public higher education in the state have taken at least one developmental or remedial course within two years after graduation. That is up slightly from a report three years ago, when 38 percent of recent high school graduates took at least one developmental course.
- Most students take only one remedial course. Forty-five percent of the nearly 13,000 recent high school graduates taking developmental courses needed only one course. Thirty-nine percent took two or three courses, and 16 percent of the students took four or more such courses.
- Math is the weakest area. Of all the development credits taken by the class of 2008, 50 percent were in mathematics, 23 percent were in writing courses and the rest were in other subjects, such as reading or study skills. Developmental mathematics ranges from basic arithmetic to the equivalent of high school intermediate algebra.
- Students who take developmental courses are increasingly concentrated in the two-year colleges. Of the 2008 graduates who took developmental courses, 87 percent attended a two-year college, 12 percent went to a state university, and 1 percent attended the University of Minnesota.
About the High School Class of 2010
College readiness and participation data on the high school graduating class of 2010
| High School Graduates | Minnesota | Nation |
|---|---|---|
| Number of graduates | 63,781 | 3,321,380 |
| ACT Tests | Minnesota | Nation |
| Number and percent of ACT test-takers for this class | 44,323 70% | 1,568,835 42% |
| Mean ACT scores for this class: | ||
| English | 22.3 | 20.2 |
| Reading | 23.2 | 21.3 |
| Mathematics | 22.9 | 21.0 |
| Science | 22.8 | 20.9 |
| Composite | 22.9 | 21.0 |
| Advanced Placement Exams* | Minnesota | Nation |
| Number and percent of exam-takers for this class | 32,541 50% | 1,845,006 55% |
| Number of exams taken (students can take more than one exam) | 53,239 | 3,213,225 |
| Number and percent of AP exams with scores of 3 or higher (the minimum necessary to receive college credit) | 34,145 64% | 1,861,669 58% |
| College Participation Percent of 2010 high school graduates enrolled in a college in fall 2010 | Minnesota | Nation |
| Number and percent enrolled in Minnesota** | 32,454 51% | |
| Number and percent enrolled out of state | 12,756 20% | |
| Number and percent enrolled anywhere | 45,210 71% | 70% |
| Within Minnesota Only: | ||
| University of Minnesota | 6,067 19% | |
| State University | 6,553 20% | |
| Community or Technical College | 12,316 38% | |
| Private College | 6,240 19% | |
| Private Career School | 1,278 4% | |
| Total enrolled in Minnesota** | 32,454 100% |
*While AP tests may be taken by high school students who are other than seniors; test-takers percentages will be benchmarked against the graduating class.
**This percentage is adjusted for missing data. The total percentages at the various types of postsecondary institutions will not add up to the state total due to missing data.
Data are displayed for the class of 2010 since this is the most complete data available from all the various data sources. More recent data on ACT and Advanced Placement test-takers may be found in their topic specific sections.
Source: ACT, College Board, Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota Office of Higher Education
More Information:
Related Pages
Related Links
- ACT
- College Board
- International Baccalaureate Organization
- Stretching Minds and Resources: 20 years of post secondary enrollment options in Minnesota (.pdf)
- College in the Schools at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- Progress and Possibilities: Trends in Public High School Student Participation with Minnesotas Dual Credit Programs 2006-2011
- Minnesota Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships
