Crist, Dept. of Education Confuse Activity for Achievement on AP Exams

Gov. Charlie Crist and the state Department of Education are touting "stunning" news about Florida's Advanced Placement scores.

Over the past five years, the DOE reported, the number of students registering passing scores on AP exams rose 54.7 percent. That beats the national increase of 36.9 percent.

Nice, but the "stunning" news isn't so impressive when one looks at the even-greater increase in the number of total test takers over the same period. In that time, 73.4 percent more Florida students sat for the AP exam.

Naturally, with an increase in test takers, one would hope for a rise in the number of test takers with passing scores. It would truly be impressive if those two sets of numbers roughly coincided -- but they didn't.

While Florida boasts about getting more students to sit for AP exams (not a particularly big deal, since Tallahassee pays test fees), the state would gain bigger bragging rights if those students scored at least somewhat commensurately. As things stand, the failure rate is going up.