The College Board has released data that shows that last year New York State had about a quarter of its students pass an Advanced Placement exam, but the city's scores lag far behind.

After Maryland, New York had the highest percentage of the class of 2010 students pass the prestigious tests.

Approximately 25 percent New York State students scored a 3, 4, or 5 on at least one of the subject exams, which are scores considered equivalent to college-level performance. The national average was 17 percent.

For city students, however, the numbers were not as good, as less than 15 percent of city seniors passed an AP exam.

While New York State also had one of the highest rates of participation, with 38 percent of students taking at least one exam, only 26 percent of city seniors participated. The national average was 28 percent.

Both the participation and passing rates have been steadily increasing during the past decade for the city, state and nation. Yet the city still lags behind both the state and national averages.

When it comes to closing the racial and ethnic achievement gap, New York still has a long way to go.

In the city, 32 percent of students in the class of 2010 were black, but they represented only 10 percent of those who passed AP exams.

While 65 percent of white students who participate in AP tests end up passing, the passing rate among black students in the city is just 28 percent.

Chancellor Cathie Black released a statement, saying, in part, “We have to do much more work to ensure all of our students are ready to succeed in college.... In New York City we plan to hold schools accountable for their students’ success in these and other higher-level courses."

Starting this year, each high school report card will include the percentage of students who passed AP exams. Next year, those percentages will be factored into the schools' letter grades that range between "A" to "F."

The AP results come just days after the State Board of Regents revealed research suggesting only 23 percent of city high school graduates are actually prepared for college.

Earlier today, Matthew Goldstein, the chancellor of the City University of New York, called those results "appalling." He said he hopes to work with Black on changing the public school system so it prepares students for the public college system.

“These two systems really have to open up their hoods and let us look inside and see how we can gauge what are the impediments for success and how do we align curricula for the high schools and the first stages of colleges," said Goldstein. "And we’re making some progress, but boy, we’ve got a lot of work yet to do.”

Even with the Advanced Placement numbers steadily improving, the city still has a long way to go before most graduates are prepared for higher education.