Lake Travis ISD saw a slight increase in the number of students who passed Advanced Placement exams this May, which was discussed at a July 17 board of trustees meeting.

Overall, 85.85% of students received passing scores of three or higher in 2024, compared to 84.24% in 2023. Kathy Burbank, LTISD director of accountability and assessment, presented this year’s breakdown of results to the board.

AP exams are scored on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being the highest. Depending on the college, credit is typically given to scores of 3 or higher, but a specific college’s requirements can be confirmed on College Board’s website.

The gist

This year signified LTISD’s highest number of AP test-takers in five years. According to updated information provided by Burbank, a breakdown of exam numbers are as follows:

  • 1,300 total AP students
  • 3,073 total exams taken
  • 1,116 AP students with scores of 3 or higher
  • 75 freshmen, 322 sophomores, 526 juniors and 376 seniors at LTISD took AP exams
  • Two students unaffiliated with Lake Travis High School took AP exams with LTISD students, one in-district and one outside


Sorting out details

At the meeting, the board of trustees discussed efforts to gather more data from Skyward, an internet-based student information system that allows parents to view their student’s grades, according to LTISD’s website.

The board discussed examining if students perform better on the exam with different teachers for the same course. Place 1 board member Phillip Davis asked if there’s a correlation with exam scores and class grades.

“If 20% of students are not getting a 3 or higher, how does that correlate with their grade performance in the class?” Davis said.


A closer look

Scores of 4s and 5s grew from the 2022-2023 school year, when they were at 28% and 22%, respectively, Burbank said at the meeting. This year, 30% of students received a 4 and 26% received a 5, according to Burbank’s presentation.

In LTISD, the Environmental Science exam was the most taken, with 283 students taking it and 37% passing, according to the presentation. Compared to College Board’s 2024 student averages, LTISD students struggled more, with a little over 62% of students not passing the exam.