Students are definitely high achieving in the state of Montana. 44 percent of public high schools in Montana's offer Advanced Placement (AP) courses where high school students can earn advance college credit, as do 23 percent of Montana's private high schools. The number of high scores on Montana SAT exams is constantly increasing as well.
The number of Verbal SAT high scores has increased 36 percent and the number of Math SAT high scores has increased 42 percent since 1994. (High scores are defined as being those of 600 or above.) The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education gives Montana a score of '89' for college preparedness among graduating seniors - the eighth highest score in the country.
So what is required to succeed in one of Montana's high schools? Montana's Office of Public Instruction, www.opi.state.mt.us, has set the following standards:
- Four credits English and/or language arts
- Two credits mathematics
- Two credits social studies
- Two credits science
- One credit health
- One credit arts
- One credit vocational or technical education
Note: Three units of credit earned in any board of public education accredited Montana high school will be acceptable by all Montana schools. Montana students can take more challenging AP (Advanced Placement) courses to earn college credit, and Montana's AP Incentive Program awards grants to school districts for Advanced Placement teacher training and online AP course delivery.
