WASHINGTON — Public schools often get knocked for doing a poor job preparing their students for life, but here's some good news: The portion of high school students passing college-level courses has grown nationwide since 2000.

Led by New York, Maryland and Utah, 14.1 percent of the nation's nearly 2.7 million high school seniors in 2005 passed an Advanced Placement exam during their high school careers, up from 10.2 percent for the class of 2000, according to the report by the College Board, the nonprofit association that administers the test. States showing the largest growth of AP test passers included Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.

The number of Hawai'i students taking AP courses and tests has increased over the past two years, while the number of students who actually pass the test has remained about the same, according to the College Board.

AP courses allow high school students to receive college-level credits if they successfully pass an exam at the end of the class, according to the College Board.

Unlike honors classes, AP courses are designed by college professors and experienced secondary-school teachers. They cover a wide swath of material and use a national measure to determine whether the student has achieved college-level mastery.

Greg Knudsen, state Department of Education spokesman, said more students taking Advanced Placement is an encouraging sign.

"If we're having more students who are feeling confident to get in and take Advanced Placement tests and courses, then that is a positive thing," Knudsen said. He said it's a sign that more high school students want to attend and succeed in college.

There has not been a push to get more students into AP courses as in other states, Knudsen said, mainly because Hawai'i is limited in the number of instructors trained to teach the classes.

Thirty-five AP courses and exams are offered in 20 subject areas, such as calculus, Latin and U.S. history. Students pass if they score 3 or higher (on a scale of 1 to 5) and do not have to retake those courses in college. U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said students who take an AP course are likelier to graduate from high school.

College Board president Gaston Caperton said exposure to classroom rigor is key.

"Kids may not get a 3, 4 or 5 (on the test), but they're in front of a good teacher, they have an opportunity to fall in love with learning, they understand the value of an education, and that's a lot of it," the former West Virginia governor said.

President Bush made the expansion of AP course offerings a centerpiece of the education budget he released Monday. Amid some $3.2 billion in cuts, Bush is proposing to spend $90 million more to train teachers and increase access to AP classes, especially those in impoverished neighborhoods.

Matthew Richardson, a black high school senior from Chicago who has already passed four AP exams, said that more inner-city students would take AP classes if they were offered.

"If there are greater opportunities, I'm sure student performance would improve," said Richardson, 18, who attended the College Board news conference releasing the report. "The problem really is exposure."

Some states are taking extra steps to promote AP courses. Arkansas last year required that every school district offer AP courses.