JACKSON TWP — The Seneca Valley School District set a district record this year for the number of students who earned Advanced Placement awards, according to officials at a school board meeting Monday night.

Superintendent Tracy Vitale said 41 students at the high school earned AP Scholar Awards, which are given nationwide in recognition of students’ exceptional achievements on the AP exams.

In the school district, 184 students took at least one AP exam, while 41 of them scored at least a three or higher on the test to qualify for the AP Scholar Award.

The AP exams are graded on a scale from 0 to 5.

Advanced Placement courses offer college-level instruction to high school students, some of whom receive college credits after passing a test.

As a result of increased AP course offerings and more student interest, the number of students at Seneca Valley who received AP Scholar Awards jumped from 27 to 41.

“Encouraging student participation in AP courses and exams is important to meeting and even challenging an honor student’s academic abilities,” Vitale said.

The College Board, the organization that oversees the AP program nationwide, also recognizes several other levels of achievement on its tests.

For instance, former student Katharine Miller last year qualified for the National AP Scholar Award by earning a perfect score on all eight AP exams she took.

Miller graduated this past school year.

According to school officials, 22 percent of the 2.2 million students worldwide who took the AP exams did well enough to earn an AP Scholar Award.