<p>IMO, Mathews does realize it, marite. I think his first priority is to worry about getting the programs in place. His hope is that once that is the case, the the quality will follow by virtue of the feedback of the AP test scores. But as garland points out, in order for that to happen, the real changes have to be made at the level of supporting qualified teachers.</p>
<p>Again, what’s so disingenous in this case is to say that this list represents the “Best High Schools” and then go on to say that “Best” can mean different things to different people. He admits to using the rankings as an attention grabbing device and to the use of the word “Best” as promoting his own criterion and goals. </p>
<p>The problem is that many people won’t read beyond the rankings.</p>