Oak Park and River Forest High School students set school records last year for the number of students taking Advanced Placement courses and exams, the number of AP exams taken and the percentage of students getting AP exam scores of three or higher as both the number of students taking AP exams and their performance on the exams rose for the fifth consecutive year.
Last spring 1,352 OPRF students took a total of 3,310 AP tests. In 2022 900 OPRF students took 1,807 AP exams. Since 2022 the number of OPRF students taking at least one AP exam has increased by 50% while the number of AP exams taken by OPRF students has increased by an impressive 83%.
Despite more students taking AP exams, OPRF students are doing better on the exams than they ever have before, which is in line with a national trend. Nearly 92% of OPRF students received a score of at least 3 or better on at least one of the AP exams they took last spring. That’s a nearly one percentage point increase over 2025. In 2022 just over 80% of OPRF students who took AP exams received a score of 3 or better. AP exams are scored on a scale of 1 to 5 with 3 typically being the minimum score that will earn college credit.
“We’re delighted to see that so many of our students are not just taking on the challenge of taking the course but also succeeding in it at an incredibly high level,” said Greg Johnson, OPRF superintendent, at the Sept. 24 school board meeting.
OPRF is not alone in seeing an improvement in AP exam results in recent years as AP exam scores have been rising nationwide since the scoring methodology was changed. In 2022. The College Board, which administers both AP exams and the SAT, began changing its scoring methodology for its most popular AP courses and test scores have improved markedly since then.
For example the percentage of students nationwide who received a score of 3 or above on the AP U.S. History exam rose from just over 48% of the test takers in 2022 to 74% in 2026. Similar jumps in scores are seen in some other subjects.
OPRF offers 29 AP courses; the three most popular are AP Language and Composition, AP Biology, AP U.S. History. OPRF students took AP exams in 34 different subject areas as some OPRF students took AP exams in classes that OPRF didn’t offer.