Waterloo Community Schools says its high schoolers are posting some of the sharpest gains in Advanced Placement testing the district has seen in years, with East and West High both reporting three straight years of growth in the share of students earning qualifying AP exam scores. The district also says families saved more than $785,000 in college tuition costs over the past school year through its advanced coursework options.
According to KWWL News 7, West High's AP exam passing rate jumped from 57% in 2024 to 73% in 2026, while East High's rate rose from 31% in 2024 to 55% over the same span. West High's AP course enrollment also grew to 153 students this year, per the station's report. Waterloo Community Schools, which the outlet says celebrated the achievements across its high schools in Waterloo, Iowa, offers 61 college-level course options across its campuses and provides college credit opportunities to hundreds of students before they graduate.
Tuition Savings Add Up Across Campuses
Those advanced courses translate directly into dollars saved. East High students saved nearly $225,000 in college tuition costs, while West High students saved more than $521,000, the station's report notes. Expo High School students saved nearly $39,000, with 89% of participating Expo students enrolled in career and technical education pathways, according to the same account.
The tuition-savings trend isn't new for the district. wcfcourier.com reported that Waterloo Community Schools graduates enrolled in advanced programs saved nearly $1 million the prior year, underscoring how the district has leaned on AP, IB, and concurrent enrollment to cut college costs for local families well before this year's figures came in.
Rankings Climb Alongside Test Scores
The testing gains have come alongside movement in national rankings. East High earned the largest year-over-year improvement among Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro high schools in U.S. News & World Report rankings, climbing 51 spots in Iowa rankings and 2,883 positions nationally, per the station's report. A separate account from wearecedarrapids.com describes Waterloo East climbing 623 places nationally and rising to 9th among 16 metro-area high schools in the 2025–26 rankings, up from 11th the previous year — while Waterloo West landed in the top 35% of high schools nationwide and the top 10% in Iowa, ranking 36th out of 352 school districts statewide.
Waterloo Schools is also the only public school district in Iowa offering the International Baccalaureate diploma program, the station notes. Full IB diploma candidates claimed valedictorian and salutatorian honors at both East and West High, and every IB diploma candidate earned an honors diploma. Recent IB graduates secured more than $907,000 in academic scholarships, with 77% of IB diploma candidates earning the Seal of Biliteracy, according to the same report.
District Leader Points to Broader Academic Pathways
Sherice Ortman, cited in the station's coverage, said providing rigorous, accessible, and diverse academic pathways is central to the district's mission. Ortman said the district helps every student graduate ready for college, career, and beyond through AP, IB, concurrent enrollment, and expanded learning programs, per the same account.
Those pathways include concurrent enrollment partnerships with Hawkeye Community College and the University of Northern Iowa, the station reports. Waterloo Schools graduates have gone on to attend universities including the University of Southern California, West Point, Howard University, Emory University, and Swarthmore College, according to the same report. District figures attributed to National Student Clearinghouse data show 46% of Waterloo Schools graduates enroll directly in two- or four-year colleges after graduation, with a four-year college retention rate reaching 94% from freshman to sophomore year.
How Waterloo Compares Statewide and Nationally
The local gains echo broader trends. In 2024, 70% of Iowa students scored three or higher on AP exams compared with 65% nationally, according to the Des Moines Register. The number of Iowa schools offering at least one AP exam rose from 156 in 2001 to 190 in 2023 before dipping to 177 in 2024, the paper reported, even as the number of Iowa students taking at least one AP exam grew from just over 4,000 in 2001 to more than 12,000 in 2024.
Nationally, 37.0% of U.S. public high school graduates in the class of 2025 took at least one AP exam, and 24.8% scored a 3 or higher on at least one exam, up from 20.7% in the class of 2015, according to College Board data. Massachusetts led the nation in 2025, with 35.8% of its public high school graduates scoring 3 or higher on an AP exam. College Board's 2026 AP score-distribution tables, which show the percentage of students earning each score from 1 to 5 in every AP subject, are being updated on a rolling basis as this year's scores are announced, per the organization's AP Students site.
Waterloo's rankings momentum has also drawn regional attention. A national report placed five area high schools among the top 25% of public high schools in the United States, according to a separate wcfcourier.com report, adding another data point to the district's recent run of academic recognition.
