Each year, African American high school students in grades 11 and 12 take the College Board/Educational Testing Service Advanced Placement (AP) Examinations. Large numbers of these students are not successful. Nationally, African Americans take a total of 13,844 examinations and 5,447 qualify for advanced placement. This means that 61 percent of all African American students are systematically screened out of the academic process at this level of achievement, while white students have a more than 64 percent success rate. Some states produce greater numbers of African American AP candidates than others, while some have a greater percentage of candidates who qualify and some have students with a higher mean score than others. Gender, subject of test, and type of school attended are also factors in test performance. The data indicate that educators serving African American high school students have a specific responsibility to address student achievement in preparation for these tests. Furthermore, it is incumbent upon the test publishers and school districts in which these students are enrolled to begin a serious re-evaluation of curriculum, materials, teaching methodology, and student learning habits in order to alleviate the problem that currently is being inflicted upon African American students. Three tables and two references are included. (JS)