The education group behind Advanced Placement and SAT tests honored four Butler County school districts for year-over-year AP test improvements.

Every year, College Board — a not-for-profit — releases a list of school districts that increased AP class participation by a certain percentage and maintained or improved the number of students earning a score of 3 or higher on AP exams. The exams are graded on a 1-to-5 scale and allow high school students to earn college credit.

Three districts — the Butler Area School District, Slippery Rock Area School District and Mars Area School District — have earned the distinction for multiple years. They're joined this year by the South Butler County School District.

In a news release announcing the honors, College Board senior vice president of AP and instruction Trevor Packer applauded the districts.

“We are pleased to honor the teachers and administrators who have worked to clear a path for more students of all backgrounds to advance through AP,” Packer said in a release.

At Butler Senior High School, 38.3 percent of students participated in AP classes in the 2018-19 school year, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Butler Senior High School Principal John Wyllie said he was proud of his school making the list again, as it's the district's third year in a row. Schools must post improvements over prior years to make it on the list, making repeat appearances tougher.

“It's about 250 districts in North America,” Wyllie said. “That's the United States and Canada. So, you're talking about the top 1 or 2 percent of school districts. Making it for the third year in a row, that's a big deal.”

Butler schools gave 377 AP tests in the 2018-19 school year, up from 313 the year before, according to Wyllie.

In 2019, 74.5 percent of those tests earned a score of 3 or more. That's the typical cut off for which colleges will give course credit for the scores.

“I think we have been more persistent with our students in terms of encouragement to take the tests,” Wyllie said.

At Butler Senior High School, 38.3 percent of students participated in AP classes in the 2018-19 school year, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

At Slippery Rock High School, 37.6 percent participated in AP.

At Knoch High School, 50.5 percent participated in AP.

At Mars Area Senior High School, 55.8 percent participated in AP.