For the fifth consecutive year, students enrolled in National Math and Science Initiative programs passed Advanced Placement exams at significantly higher rates than the average for students nationally, new College Board data show.

According to NMSI, high schools that implemented its comprehensive AP program during the 2012-13 school year saw a 72 percent increase in the number of students who passed AP exams in math, science, and English. Increases in the number of passing scores over the program's three-year life cycle have averaged 144 percent, compared with 23.2 percent nationally.

The increase in the number of passing scores in math, science, and English for minority students enrolled in NMSI programs averaged 219 percent, compared with a national average of 48.5 percent, while the number of African-American and Latino students who passed tripled. The number of passing scores among female students enrolled in the three-year program also tripled, while the average three-year increase for female students was 200 percent, compared with 27 percent nationally.

Launched in 2007 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Michael & Susan Dell foundations, the Exxon Mobil Corporation, and others, the program has been implemented in more than five hundred and fifty schools in twenty-two states to date.

"The knowledge economy demands that all students have strong foundations in STEM disciplines, yet so many of our students do not have access to rigorous content," said National Math and Science Initiative CEO Sara Martinez Tucker. "By encouraging more students to take college-level courses and equipping them to succeed, we're closing the achievement gap. We're also expanding access to promising careers in STEM fields and the industries increasingly dependent on college-educated professionals."