In the end, success on an Advanced Placement exam matters only to the student who takes it. High school students take AP courses with the goal of earning college credit by passing the end-of-year AP exam. So the only real winners and losers are the students who pass and fail the exams.

That puts the pressure for success clearly on the shoulders of students, so we would encourage young people taking AP classes to take them seriously. Simply put, the pace of college life is less hectic for freshmen who arrive with a few college credits already under the belt.

And we would encourage parents to encourage their teens to take the courses and the exams seriously. After all, parents, assuming they’re footing the bill for college, will be the ones saving money when their high school children earn college credit.

Honestly, the schools have the smallest stake in the AP game. Oh, we suppose high schools want to be able to say that they have a lot of kids earning college credit by passing AP exams. But as best we can tell, pride is the only incentive the schools have; at the very least, the state isn’t going to take over high schools that don’t post a particular passing rate on AP exams.

Still, if the high schools are going to offer AP courses, the quality should be high. And that’s why we were happy to read the words of Associate Superintendent Keith Beamon, who oversees curriculum and instruction for the Johnston County schools. When asked how the schools planned to help more students pass AP exams, he said, “Teacher training, teacher training, teacher training."

That’s acknowledging that a course is only as good as the person who teaches it.