From jbr's link:

Florida got high marks for closing the gap on math scores for the poverty disadvantaged but its overall achievement gains got just a "C" minus, and it was AP or advanced class performance that saved the state from a worse ranking.

I think I mentioned this about a year back, but when I attended a school open house one term last school year to meet my son's teachers, his Honors Algebra II teacher told parents that honors and AP students statewide no longer take a high school end-of-course exam designed expressly for students in those accelerated classes.

He said that since TN adopted the "more rigorous" American Diploma Project curriculum standards, all honors and AP students take the exact same state-designed subject matter exam for their accelerated classes as is taken by students studying that same subject in the so-called "college prep" or standard classes.

He laughingly acknowledged that the new "one size fits all" state-designed exams cause TN's aggregate test results to be inflated since adoption of the "more rigorous" standards.

(Just back from the spring semester open house at my son's high school tonight, BTW. His classes average 20 to 25 students, but only three to five students in each class had any parent attend this event to meet and speak with their teachers. Par for the course, even in this fairly supportive school community...)