Advanced Placement Test Fee Program

The Advanced Placement Test Fee (APTF) program awards grants to eligible State educational agencies (SEAs) to enable them to pay all or a portion of advanced placement test fees on behalf of eligible low-income students who:

• are enrolled in an advanced placement course, and
• plan to take an advanced placement test.

The program is designed to increase the number of low-income students who take advanced placement tests and receive scores for which college academic credit is awarded.

Types of Projects

Awards may be used only to support advanced placement test fees for low-income students. Fees for the College Board Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) or Cambridge International (CI) tests taken by low-income students are covered. The Secretary of Education may approve other advanced placement tests.

Additional Information

The Department makes awards to SEAs to enable them to cover part or all of the cost of test fees of low-income students who are enrolled in an advanced placement class and plan to take an advanced placement test. Funds from the APTF program subsidize test fees for low-income students to encourage them to take advanced placement tests (AP, IB, or CI) and obtain college credit for high school courses, reducing the time and cost required to complete a postsecondary degree. In determining the amount of the grant awarded to a State for a fiscal year, the Secretary considers the number of children eligible to be counted under the ESEA Title I Basic Grants programs.