Visiting another state always reminds me how good my own county’s education system is. In my role as College Board consultant, I have visited West Virginia, New York, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, and the southern part of Virginia. In every single venue, there are hurdles teachers must overcome in order to do their jobs, and in some places those hurdles are formidable. With every workshop I conduct, I return to Fairfax County, Virginia with renewed appreciation for our school system.

Last Friday, my Advanced Placement workshop drew 28 public and private school teachers from the Ft. Lauderdale region. They ranged from new teachers to one in her 60’s who had been plucked from retirement to start an AP program in a struggling school. Their AP class sizes ranged from 6 (in a private school) to 25 in the public schools, and I applaud Florida for its class size amendment limiting high school classes to 25 students. The teachers told me that before the class cap, even AP classrooms sometimes exceeded 40 students.