If success on Advanced Placement exams offers true insight into college readiness, then Florida's high school students are among the most prepared in the country.

A new College Board report shows that more than 20 percent of Florida public high school seniors earned a score of 3 or higher on AP tests during 2007, fourth best in the country (behind only New York, Maryland and Virginia) and up 5.1 percentage points from just five years ago. The group also praises Florida for its efforts to get more African-American and Hispanic students to take the tests and do well on them.

Still, the College Board states, "While several states — including Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and Oklahoma — have been able to close the equity and excellence gap for Latino students, no state with large numbers of African American or American Indian students has yet to close the gap."

Other interesting tidbits from the Florida section of the report:

• 38 percent of the Class of 2007 took at least one AP exam.
• The top three categories for AP test takers were English language, English literature and U.S. history.
• Even with all the attention paid to minority students taking the test, white student participation also grew from 23,853 taking an AP test in 2006 to 25,967 in 2007.