Amid more negative fallout about FCATs–including their validity– some “good” school-district news was most welcome. It came in the form of ballyhooed improvement statistics in Advanced Placement exams. The hike is seen by officials as further vindication of the trend, particularly notable in Hillsborough, to place more and more non-traditional AP types in such classes. Besides, a new state grading system rewards schools for their AP enrollments. Critics, however, have been saying ever-ratcheting AP enrollments were undermining the quality of AP teachers and compromising the experience of traditional, high-achieving AP students. What is obvious, however, is that “improvement,” is certainly relative. The district’s overall AP-exam pass rate was announced as 38 per cent. That means more than three out of every five AP test-takers didn’t pass. But last year it was 36 percent. Therein, the “good” news — and the continuation of the egalitarian experiment that rewards schools for numbers.