Are you teaching Calculus next year?

I've been doing it for how many years now? 27 years (I think) ... so much time, so many really cool kids. I guess one thing I really like about teaching calculus is that I can't recall a bad student.

Anyway, for those who are setting up a course for next year:

Text (by author):

• It will probably be Larson or Stewart. Stewart is the more common college text, but Larson is the more HS-friendly. I personally use Larson 7th. I've taught from this book since the third edition and I feel very comfortable with it.
• Hughes-Hallet-Gleason did things in an odd organization, IMNSHO. In a tutoring situation, I had this thing and it was oddly laid out, with integration happening before the end of differentials. You might like it, but I'm too used to the Larson / Stewart / Thomas Finney organization.
• Ostebee-Zora is dense for highschool students.
• Thomas and Finney was cool ten years ago but seems to have fallen out of favor. Don't know why.

If you want to stretch your boundaries and go 21st Century on your kids, there are many online texts.  I'd love to try this and I'm planning on putting selected sections on the Moodle. WolframAlpha will be required for some assignments.

• Neat place to start is the California site: http://www.clrn.org/home/
• http://www.whitman.edu/mathematics/calculus/
• MIT OC: http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/resources/Strang/strangtext.htm

Additional resources:

• http://www.math.temple.edu/~cow/
• http://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus/
• and of course, Salman Khan on YouTube.

VERY IMPORTANT
AP insists you fulfill their audit process - mostly they need a syllabus, but you have to complete it if your school wants to put the "AP" label on it. Someone at your school may have already fulfilled that requirement -- make sure to check. Soon.  Here's my syllabus if you want to copy it.

The Summer Before
If you can, and can afford it or if your school with cover costs, hit up a summer AP seminar. The Summer AP Institute at St. Johnsbury VT is one of the best.
http://www.stjacademy.org/page.cfm?p=278
http://www.stjacademy.org/uploaded/documents/AP_Institute/AP_Institute_2011.pdf

The environment is as close as you can get to smart-people nirvana. One week surrounded by a bunch of AP teachers in an informal setting in the Vermont summer. Learn, work, relax, eat REALLY good food, play bocce on the lawn and drink free beer with a slew of brilliant people till dinner. Like you can get better than this? It's $1100 but worth it ... especially if your school will pony up. Skip the dorm and use the savings and a little extra of yours and take your wife -- a hotel isn't much more and it's a wonderful town.

Yeah, what the Hell, TI?

(from Randall at XKCD) And the marginally colored TI-Inspire doesn't get you off the hook, either.

Technology

• Every kid should have a TI-84 or the equivalent.  I don't require them to buy one but I'll warn them that the ones available in the room for borrowing are often changed and reset by the algebra I kids, making it difficult for the occasional user to get started. "Radians or degrees", language set to Deutsch, etc.  There is a new wrinkle, though:  The graphing calculator app for iPhone and Android devices.  It's got a better screen resolution and it only costs $3 for the phone they already own. 
• Excel is useful - Google apps works, too. Just be ready to reserve time occasionally in the computer room.
• Pencil and paper

To be continued.

Calculus Syllabus for the AP Audit.

This was enough to satisfy the review process wonks.  Feel free to use it verbatim as I can't claim to have made much up on my own. It is mostly a regurgitation of the table of contents.

I certainly don't feel that anyone should spend an iota of psychic energy on the syllabus - spend it making plans and working toward the best you can do for your students.

Case in point: "Definition by limit: epsilon-delta." was de-emphasized in AP years ago, is usually ignored by most college professors for MAT121 but emphasized by the Audit review process. I couldn't get the audit accomplished without lip service to it.

A change from this syllabus for me: I am changing from a school-hosted ePortfolio to a Moodle, blog and Wiki based on my personal server. There are several places to find free hosting for those. Additionally, I will be requiring certain homework to be done on WolframAlpha since no one can afford Mathematica.  I'd love to require an iPad but I'll have to win the lottery first!

Good luck in your setup.

---

Calculus Syllabus

Instructional Materials

• Textbook: Calculus, 7th edition by Larson, Hostetler, Edwards; Houghton – Mifflin Publishing Company.
• Technology: TI-83 / TI 84 graphing Calculator 

While materials can be borrowed from the school, it is highly recommended that students purchase both the book and the calculator. The book will be useful for many years and the utility and convenience of writing notes in the margins and highlighting passages cannot be minimized.

• When appropriate, the class will make use of Geometer's Sketch Pad, excel, Google apps.
• a gmail account would be most helpful.
• E-Portfolios will be a part of the Course. See ____ for account and access information. Work will be done in groups, handed in separately (and included here). Typical Contents:
• Your two sets of school-wide showcase materials
• Chapter projects/labs assigned monthly.
• Past years FRQ questions worked out and scored by each other.
• Inter-curricular questions.

Introduction: What is Calculus About?

Functions Review

• I. Sign Graph solutions
• II. Coordinates, Slope
• III. Linear Equations: [point slope, slope intercept, general]
• A. Formulae [ distance, angle, perpendicular, bisectors]
• IV. Polynomial functions – library of Functions
• A. Domain, range, discontinuities, roots, synthetic division
• B. Odd, even, Symmetry
• C. composite functions g(f(x)), (g*f)(x), (gof)(x)
• D. Slope = derivatives, differentiability,
• E. "How to say it in Math." Introduction of proof techniques and format.

Limits

• I. x =>a, one sided limits at discontinuity, peak, break in curve, inf. disc, etc.
• II. [ graphically, algebraically, numerically]
• III. definition of derivative as lim h =>0, delta, epsilon (refer back to "More or Less")
• IV. Limits : add sub / mult / div
• V. Infinite Limits
• VI. Continuity, max-min theorem, Intermediate Value Theorem, Computer/calculator-aided exploration of situations in which lim f (x) x a D.N.E.

Derivatives of Polynomial Functions

• I. Definition by limit: epsilon-delta.
• II. Computer-aided exploration:
• A. Using the definition of the derivative as a limit of slope
• B. secants to plot f'(x)vs x. The relationship of the graph of f'(x)to f(x).
• III. Power Rule, Constant Rule, Sum Rule, Product Rule, PowerRule2, Quotient Rule
• IV. Implicit Differentiation
• V. Chain Rule: composite functions
• VI. "Explain" "Show that" "Why or Why Not" – how to justify an answer. Includes review of past free-response questions, and scoring methods, practice developing an appropriate answer with explanations. presentations by students
• VII. Trigonometry
• A. one-day review of basic functions, then Derivatives of trig functions
• VIII. Linear
• A. Tangents and Normals, Linear Approximations and Differentials – ZOOM and compare – analytic results vs. calc – relate back to epsilon/delta
• B. Newton’s Method – writing a recursive program
• C. Calculator computation of derivatives and graphs of derivatives.

Derivative Applications

• I. Sign Graph analysis recap
• II. Graphing
• A. First derivative: increase, decrease,
• B. Second derivative: concavity
• III. Symmetry
• IV. Asymptotes, limits, dominant terms, derivative of hyperbola vs parabola: behavior at extremes
• V. Extrema Theory: Relative and Absolute Maxima and Minima;
• A. 1st derivative test and the Extreme Value Theorem; Intervals,
• B. Continuity;
• 1. Why are the notions of continuity and limit crucial to the Calculus?
• 2. Informal discussion of "function niceness."
• 3. Definition of continuity theoretically compared to on the TI.
• C. 2nd derivative test for maxima and minima
• VI. Recap of "Explain" "Show that" "Why or Why Not" – justify an answer. "How does one know f(c) is minimum?" 1999 FRQ BC:4 Student Sample A and others.
• VII. Maxima and minima: Problems
• VIII. Related rates of change, physics, chemistry, Real Problems, dist-vel-acc-jerk, best solutions. Include here the instantaneous numerical calculations.
• IX. Rolle's Theorem, Mean Value Theorem, Intermediate Value Theorem
• X. Indeterminate forms and L'Hopital's Rule
• XI. Fall School-wide Showcase: Presentations and Explanations (similar to typical portfolio except this is a chance for students to present some of their work to parents, faculty and members of the community.)

Indefinite Integrals

• I. Indefinite Integrals - Primitives (antiderivatives) differential equations, Separation of variables, basic integration formulae, constant of integration.
• II. Finding the constant of integration (C)
• III. Substitution Method - U and dU
• IV. Integrals of Trigonometric Functions
• A. Basic Functions
• B. Using Trig identities to solve integrals
• V. The Area Under a Curve - Definite Integrals
• A. Rectangles & Summation (Sigma notation)
• B. Riemann Integral = Lim as number of rectangles incr. to infinity
• VI. Calculating Areas by Summation
• A. Rectangles
• B. Trapezoids
• VII. Fundamental Theorems of Calculus -
• A. First F.T. of C. -- definition of Primitive F(x): derivative F(x) is f(x)
• B. Second F.T. of C: definite integral is equal to F(b) - F(a)
• VIII. Substitution
• IX. Approximations of Definite Integrals
• A. Trapezoidal Rule A=h/2 (1 2 2 2 2 ...... 2 1)
• B. Simpson's Rule A= h/3 ( 1 4 2 4 .... 2 4 1 )

Integral Applications

• I. Distance - velocity - acceleration - jerk
• II. Areas: horizontal rectangles - dy, f(y), g(y); vertical rectangles - dx, f(x), g(x)
• III. Volumes, by revolution
• A. Creation: use potter’s wheel as example; zucchini-carving to show slicing; cardboard discs, wood tiles. Group–think: Given a lathe template for vase, find the volume
• B. Volumes of revolution around x-axis and y-axis using Discs, Washers, Shells
• IV. Known Cross Section
• V. Average Value, average rate of change
• VI. ** Optional extensions of integral theory
• A. Length of Plane curves, Area of Surface of Revolution
• B. Physics: Moment of Inertia, Center of mass, Centroids, Nonuniform mass distribution, Work done by variable forces (concurrent physics preferred)

Transcendental Functions

• I. Inverse Functions and their derivatives
• II. Inverse Trig functions
• III. Derivatives of the Inverse trig functions and associated integrals
• IV. Natural Log and Derivative
• A. INT (1/cabin) d(cabin) = log (cabin) + C = houseboat
• V. Exponential and logarithmic functions
• A. derivatives and integrals
• B. Applications [ rates of growth, decay, compound interest, Richter scale]
• VI. Spring School-wide Showcase

Integration Methodology

• I. Basic Forms
• II. Integration by parts [Berger method]
• III. Trig Functions, odd powers and even powers
• IV. Trig Substitutions
• V. Integrals involving .....
• VI. Partial Fractions [Alfonso’s Method, Matrix solutions, Millitello cover]
• VII. Numerical integration

** Post – Test Optional

• I. Conic Sections – Definitions and uses of calculus – areas, etc.
• II. Hyperbolic Functions –
• A. Definitions, Derivatives and integrals
• B. Cables, Catenaries (Gateway Arch and Power lines), and the suspension bridge.
• C. Inverse Hyperbolics
• III. Polar Coordinates
• A. Graphing and common figures,
• B. Derivatives and integrals in Polar coordinates
• II. Infinite Sequences and series
• A. e, sin, cos, pi expansions
• B. Taylor, MacLaurin etc.

Just don't call it tracking

Mike Petrilli on Education Gadfly:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist—or even a cognitive scientist—to know that kids (and adults) learn best when presented with material that is challenging—neither too easy so as to be boring nor too hard as to be overwhelming. Like Goldilocks, we want it just right. Grouping kids so that instruction can be more closely targeted to their current ability levels helps make teaching and learning more efficient.

Apparently, it takes someone a lot more intelligent than a rocket scientist because it's news to all the guidance counselors and schedulers that I've talked with.

Why I support Unions.

The Union will block spurious, petty and mean administrators from firing the competent as well as the incompetent. This is good because the administrator usually has no real idea which is which.

The Union will ensure that teachers get a fair shake when they are dealing with someone who has no real need to be fair.  This is not the owner of a company who is watching every dollar out of his own pocket -- this is a transient employee who has too much power and not enough knowledge.

They float through once, twice a year in a choreographed display of feigned interest in what I am doing. Three weeks before, I get a note saying when they'll arrive and which class they'll be observing - get a lesson plan ready and do the pre-observation meeting. Then they'll watch the class, make a few notes. In the case of the more recent attendees at admin training workshops, they'll attempt to record my speech verbatim in the vain hope that recording every word spoken will somehow tell them more than just listening attentively. This is real?

We meet for the post-op and I'll be given a letter that specifies what they observed. Some of the more insightful comments were "Good lesson" and "knows the material." One of the less insightful was "Separates the kids into two groups by gender." I taught algebra in the chorus room -- apparently Mr. HIP didn't notice that the aisle down the middle separated the kids into two groups and that they took the same places as they normally did during chorus -- I don't do seating charts and usually pay no attention to where students sit. No, he thought I was being discriminatory.

I went 6 years before I was observed again. How was that principal supposed to know anything about me or anyone else in the building? How were they (five in six years) supposed to determine that X should go?

When an admin played games, got in the face of someone improperly, tried to ruin a teacher, there was always the Union stepping in to make sure that things were proper. That is its best role, to act as a buffer, to make sure that each i is dotted and t crossed. I was lucky (knock on wood). I had developed a CYA model and kept tons of paperwork and evidence. When parents complained or school boards took a closer interest, I always had a defense. What if I weren't paranoid?

The Union negotiates a contract. The contract is held up as a object of derision by many on the right - "Look at this egregious waste of taxpayer money. Look at this contract. We shouldn't allow teachers to quote the contract when they might get into trouble!" What an incredible thought, that a contract shouldn't be followed by both sides. "Gullible Boards sign outrageous contracts!" Actually, they sign a contract that both sides agreed to.

Show me any industry that breaks contracts at a whim. I'll wait.

Everybody complains about the LIFO, salary schedule, no merit pay clauses in the contract. When the dust settles, these clauses are seen as the most manageable. Since the admins are rarely around long enough to figure out the names of the teachers in the building, how are they supposed to know which one is worth keeping? The one who has been there for ten years or the kid just out of college who has no idea of what she's getting into? If you eliminate the salary schedule, then you'll have people like me getting $15,000 signing bonuses and thousands more than the English teachers. Really? Same job. Same experience. Think there won't be any bad feelings? Think the school will run just fine anyway? If you don't have a contract, then I'll demand more money and different working conditions because I know the school is desperate. Maybe I'll train for six weeks and be a dilettante TFA who does the school a favor by my presence and leaves when a real job is available.

The Union works for that contract and makes sure that both sides abide by it.

As for merit pay, this is a fantasy dreamed up by a billionaire. If I get a bonus every year because I suck up to the principal, how long do you think there will cooperation in the department? If I don't trust him to know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to hiring and firing, I sure don't want a large fraction of my income held over my head - "maybe you will and maybe you won't."

Far from being the leech on the blood veins of education, unions are the force that makes education work as smoothly as it does.

Bill Gates and Teacher Spaghetti Sauce

Bill Gates is at it again.  For such a smart guy, it is amazing how dense he can be when it comes to education reform. To wit:

We can “flip the curve,” raising performance “without spending a lot more,” if we “measure, develop and reward excellent teaching." ... of all the variables under a school’s control, the single most decisive factor in student achievement is excellent teaching. To flip the curve, we have to identify great teachers, find out what makes them so effective and transfer those skills to others so more students can enjoy top teachers and high achievement.

SO, Billy, we have to identify great teachers and find out what makes them so effective. Then we have to transfer that to other teachers. That will flip the curve.

Hey !  "Find out what makes them so effective"???

If you don't know WHY the great teachers are great, how in Bloomberg's Bloomers can you say definitively that

1. You can identify these great teachers and find out what makes them so effective.
2. These unknowns are transferable.
3. This transference will raise performance “without spending a lot more."

Sometimes life is like judging pasta sauce.

There might not be a best, only a best for you. That teacher might not be the BEST because you can't define best for more than one type of student. There are more types of teachers than there are types of spaghetti sauce. Go watch the Malcolm Gladwell talk at TED.

Academic Xenophobia.

NPR is reporting on school districts who are cracking down on residency issues.

Why?

1. Those parents who are going to go out of their way to "work" the system and exert extra effort to get their kids into your school are statistically more likely to have better motivated students.That's the KIPP difference, the charter difference.  Why not use it? Helping your AYP is nice.
2. It's not like the kid is free-loading. You get the money for every kid who attends regularly and these kids are already going out of their way to get there, so they'll probably have better attendance.
3. The kids are more likely to behave because calling the parents would expose the scam. 
4. District lines are very often arbitrary at best. Gerrymandering the lines doesn't make the bus ride shorter, the school better or the environment safer.

In my mind, I think the best thing would be to make noise publicly. "We're cracking down in the best interests of our community" while making sure that only the troublemakers who try this get caught at it.

Besides, I never quite figured out why it was so important.  We have to educate every kid somewhere and isn't it a compliment that family after family wants to be at YOUR school? I'd be rolling out the red carpet for kids who wanted to come and bragging about it if I could, but maybe that's the private school experience coming out of me.

How do I square this with my stand against vouchers? Because it is a switch between public schools. Most often, vouchers are touted as a transfer of funds from the public school system to a private school and that's the part I don't like.

I can be a member of the local school board (actually have been). I can pick up the phone and directly effect what is going on at the public school in my town. Even as a private citizen, I can walk into the principal's office and ask a question directly - and get an answer (okay, yes, make an appointment and wait a little but you get what I mean). If I am calm, dispassionate, and right, the school will make a change to its policy because I am a taxpaying member of the town and the school is being run by the town for the benefit of any citizen who wishes to take advantage of it.

The Catholic Schools and the private schools won't do that. Why should they?

I do not have a problem with the public - public voucher system. It works well here in Vermont.  I really have a problem when money goes to private institutions which don't follow the same testing and accountability requirements that the rest of the schools do.

What's it all for, really?

Coach Brown writes about a senior who said "You'd think that by now teachers would realize that giving seniors homework in the last quarter is pretty pointless and just a bad idea in general ... most of us already know what schools we're going to, and we no longer need to try to get the best grade possible. All you have to do is pass." Coach asks if the student is right.

Yes and No.

I disagree with what Utah is doing with the incentives to graduate early, I disagree with the students who take the senior year off and I disagree with the parents, schools and states who encourage either.

What is high school for, anyway? It's not for job training, although some kids get some of that from it. It's not for practical purposes, although some get that, too. It's not for babysitting or socialization or any of those things.

It's for the mind.

You may be stuck in a boring job but you learned about poetry from someone who thought it was cool and now you realize it really was - now it's your escape from the drudgery. Or maybe that science teacher turned you on to Biology and the processes and you went and became a brewmaster for Sam Adams.

The only way to deal with senioritis is to realize that, for once in the student's educational life, the scores don't matter but the class is still free. How liberating is that? Finally, you can take a course and learn strictly for the intellectual pleasure of it.

Why study Russian history? "ForDaHellofIt"
How about organic chemistry? "ForDaHellofIt"
AP Statistics with the boring teacher? Okay, that sucked but nothing ventured, nothing gained and nothing lost in the long run.

This is the ultimate in heads I win, tails I win.

Cats.

Can't Lie -- That just makes it worse.

It's bad on every side but I wish that our side
wasn't feeding the "I am Stupid" fire.

The mess in Wisconsin keeps getting messier.  Stupid people on both sides get recorded doing and saying stupid things. The Governor gets "crank-called." A doctor hands out hundreds of notes and says that many protesters he met with seemed to "suffer from stress."

"Some people think it's a nod-and-a-wink thing, but it's not," Sanner said. "One of the biggest stresses in life is the threat of loss of income, loss of job, loss of health insurance. People have actually been getting ill from this, or they can't sleep."

Sorry, bud. When you are handing out absentee excuses en masse, you are not being a trustworthy doctor, any more than the ones who prescribed way too many painkillers for Rush Limbaugh. The protestors tell their schools they're "sick." The lack of teachers forces many schools to close. So the schools responded.

Workers were told they would need to provide a form from a medical professional for any absence after Feb. 16, according to Ken Syke, a spokesman for the school district.

Protesters in Madison who obtained medical excuse slips to cover their absences from work, and the doctors who issued them, are likely to be subjected to more intensive examinations.

Well, duh.

Look, people. Call it a personal day and go protest, or call in sick and stay home.  Don't call in "sick" and then go marching through the Capitol waving your hands and banging a drum. (Do you know how stupid that looked?) Call a strike, do it up front, in the open and without suberterfuge. If you get on TV, answer the question simply and succinctly, don't just start screaming slogans. (Do you know how stupid THAT looked?) If you really can't afford to be docked a day's pay and feel that this obviously transparent line of BS will cover you, then perhaps you'd better rethink how the public will view you because you're feeding the beast that will devour you.

At the very least, don't brag about it publicly and dare the school system to do something about it. We teachers, and those we have "helping us" need to be the voice of reason.

The questions come easily to a TV watching public and if you are publicly protesting, that who you are trying to talk to. I have heard/read variations of these and other, very important, PR and policy questions

• Should I believe you now if you claim you are being treated unfairly, or that you need a raise, or that the student-teacher ratio is too excessive? 
• Should I believe the Governor who is calm and dispassionate or the teachers who are comparing him to Hitler and Mussolini (didn't any of those teachers study history?) or comparing Wisconsin to Egypt and Tunisia (didn't any teachers have a sense of perspective?) 
• Can I trust the teacher who blatantly lies in this fashion? 
• Do I really want this kind of person to coagulate into a mob for collective bargaining or have they already become a mob? 
• Who invited Jimmy Hoffa to this party, anyway? He doesn't represent a public union and probably just wants to become nationally relevant again.

Most importantly,

• What is your word worth if this is its standard?

Quotes from journal-sentinel.

Getting in trouble for blogging.

There's an English teacher who publicly said things (link is dead, try googlecahe. Darren's got this which links to this paper's article and whose tech guy found a cached version of this rant and this one. Whew!) about her school, her admins, her students. She faces "disciplinary measures." I found some of it and I'm not surprised that the school took action.

Even if she didn't post from school, public attacks aren't the smartest thing in the world. "But she didn't name any students!" shouts the defense. That may be true, but her face is there, her name "Natalie M." and it doesn't take much for a student to "know she's talking about me." As soon as she found out that folks were reading her stuff, it needed to come down if she wanted to be that direct.

Having said that, one of her posts was "Comments that should be on the report card." Instead of "Not working to potential," Miss M. wanted some new comments:

• Concerned your kid is automaton, as she just sits there emotionless for an entire 90 minutes, staring into the abyss, never volunteering to speak or do anything.
• Seems smarter than she actually is.
• Has a massive chip on her shoulder.
• Too smart for her own good and refuses to play the school 'game' such that she'll never live up to her true potential here.
• Has no business being in Honors.
• A complete and utter jerk in all ways. Although academically ok, your child has no other redeeming qualities.
• Lazy.
• Shy isn't cute in 11th grade; it's annoying. Must learn to advocate for himself instead of having Mommy do it.
• One of the few students I can abide this semester!
• Two words come to mind: brown AND nose.
• Dunderhead.
• Complainer.
• Gimme an A. I. R. H. E. A. D. What's that spell? Your kid!
• There is such a thing as too loud in oral presentations. We shouldn't need earplugs.
• Att-i-tude!
• Nowhere near as good as her sibling. Are you sure they're related?
• I won't even remember her name next semester if I see her in the hall.
• Asked too many questions and took too long to ask them. The bell means it's time to leave!
• Has no business being in Academic.
• Rat-like.
• Lazy asshole.
• Just as bad as his sibling. Don't you know how to raise kids?
• Sneaky, complaining, jerkoff.
• Frightfully dim.
• Dresses like a street walker.
• Whiny, simpering grade-grubber with an unrealistically high perception of own ability level.
• One of the most annoying students I've had the displeasure of being locked in a room with for an extended time.
• Rude, beligerent, argumentative fuck.
• Tactless.
• Weirdest kid I've ever met.
• Am concerned that your kid is going to come in one day and open fire on the school. (Wish I was kidding.)
• I didn't realize one person could have this many problems.
• Your daughter is royalty. (The Queen of Drama)
• Liar and cheater.
• Unable to think for himself.
• I hear the trash company is hiring...
• Utterly loathsome in all imaginable ways.
• I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son.
• There's no other way to say this: I hate your kid.

Pretty funny, if it's kept to the teacher's lounge.

Testing, Scoring and Trusting the Data

A fascinating case study is the NY Regents, scoring, and the unintended (or purposeful) consequences of a line in the instructions to the scorers.

First, here's the graph of the number of kids getting each score (from WSJ).  The issue can be seen quite clearly. The graph overall is a typical left-skewed distribution, as you'd expect from this type of test. The trouble comes when you explore that jump in the middle at the passing mark.

Of course, the nattering class is all up in arms over this, claiming fraud and misconduct.  You can almost hear jeers of "Union Bastards trying to save their jobs by lying on the tests."  Unfortunately for those people, the reason comes down to one sentence:

"[State officials] note that the state actually requires teachers to regrade certain Regents tests where the student barely fails in order to check for grading errors."

When you are singling out tests for special consideration, and the stated focus is to look for "scoring errors" on "barely failing tests", the only way for the scores to change is up.  Since it's easiest to give one or two points to a 64 or 63, it's logical that those would be the most effected.


Looking at the graphs, you can see that some teachers (probably a school at a time) set their cut off at 50 while the majority set the cutoff at 55.

Why the negative slope in that region? When looking for ambiguous answers which could be scored higher, you have to "rescore" each problem until you get an appropriate number of points. It's easier to find one such than 10 such.

Similarly, since there was no reason to check more answers than just enough to get the kid to pass, the uptick was only to 65, though it seems that many teachers weren't keeping close track of the extra points and brought the kid up to a 66 or 67.

Conversely, if the teachers had been instructed to rescore all students within ten points of the cutoff instead of just those who were below it, then you would have seen some students adjusted downward, balancing out much of the upward movement.  If there were a similar uptick at the 65 mark in this hypothetical, then and only then can you claim that teachers are deliberately mis-scoring to jigger their VA measures. (and even then, I'd put the reason as teachers wanting to help students rather than being so coldly self-interested.)

The place where I found the link to this article had this comment: "Teachers don't want to flunk kids that just barely miss the passing score. Until all responsibility for creating and scoring state exams is given to an independent body with no interest in the results of the tests, the results reported should be viewed skeptically."

Ummm, no. Scoring tests is really complicated.  Pearson, the biggest company, uses part-time, barely out of college, minimum wage people to do the scoring. Getting the "right" score is more a matter of whether or not the scorer speaks English and actually knows the material.

Frankly, given the mess that the testing industry is in when it comes to scoring, I have a feeling that the teachers are doing a more conscientious job. If you want a nasty introduction to the follies of testing company scoring sessions, check out Todd Farley's "Making the Grades." It's well-written but damn depressing if counting on accurate test scores because you're stuck in the hell of value-added and merit pay.

PD Follies - part six, Stepford Teachers

Sometimes people have conflicts. In a school, you can have some real petty politics with people choosing sides and teachers arguing.  There's always intrigue, spite and malice. There's that famous line about educational politics being "so nasty because the stakes are so small."

This person gets a department chair post over the objections of the members of the department.  That person gets a cushy schedule and glowing evaluations while this person gets slammed and is nearly run out of the school. A teacher commits a crime and the issue is ignored. The principal has an affair with the science teacher's wife causing a divorce. The other principal is committed secretly to a mental institution for three weeks in February; upon her return is even nuttier than before.

The faculty are evenly divided between hardline republicans and softheaded liberals. (I was the token liberal in the conservative camp.) The principal took the liberal side against the "Good Ole Boys," who were also the Upstanding Long-Time Members of the Community. When a G.O.B. can point to the classroom teacher's desk that had been used by successive family members for the last 50 years, any new principal should think carefully about taking on this cabal. This one didn't think. It wasn't pretty.

It got stupid, too. One teacher puts up a sign outside her door: "Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain.  And most do." The other replies with "But it takes a greater fool to say nothing."

Obviously we needed professional development to help teach us conservatives why we were wrong. Enter the

Conflict Resolution Specialist.

She was going to help us teachers get along and she was scheduled right after that infamous, vision statement debacle.  She was watching how we dealt with that and starting setting up.

Anything, I thought, would be better than mindless blathering about the differences between "21st century skills" and "skills for the emerging century." Maybe even conflict resolution training. Anyway, I would be wrong.

We had to role-play.

"If there were aliens flying above the school, how would they recognize the respect you show each other?"

The response:
"They wouldn't, because we would be inside the building and they couldn't hear us." 
"Why do we care what aliens think? We're all adults here and if someone can't handle a little disagreement why would they feel capable of being a teacher?" Which was priceless because the next thing out of her mouth was, "Some teachers feel there is a culture of intimidation here."

That didn't work so well.

We now had to role-play a conflict between a student and a teacher.
"You will be a student who failed a test and are upset that the teacher is keeping you after school and making you miss practice."
"Okay, that's fair. I'm good with that."
"No, you have to be angry."
"But keeping me after school is the right thing to do. I failed and the teacher's trying to help me."
"We're trying to practice conflict resolution. Maybe someone else?"


"All of you stick your stickers on the board next to your choice ... "
"Noooooooooo."

Then, the coup de grace: "One of you will be a girl who wants to use the purple chalkboard. Another a girl who wants to use the pink one. Show me how you'd resolve this conflict." (This gem was said to a burly redneck weighing nearly 350 pounds with a pocketknife hanging from his belt.)
"I don't want to use either board."
"You have to role-play."

This is No Shit. Did I mention that we're a high school?

I hate "professional development."

PD Follies - part five, Mission

Professional Development Follies - part five.

Some time ago, at another school and time, it was decided that we needed to correct our mission. We needed a better one. It was not enough to say "Our mission is to teach."

We are "supposed to be so much more" and so the first hour of the day that supposed to be devoted to some professional development (that inservice from hell) consisted instead of discussing the various important facets of our "mission", arguing over nuances of meaning and whether to mention character and 21st century skills in an increasingly interconnected world.

Did I mention that we were discussing the report from the Mission Statement Development Faculty Subcommittee (no shit, actual name)?

The plan was that when we finished deciding on the perfect length and turn of phrase, the mission statement would be printed, laminated and was to be posted over the door in every classroom. The old mission statement should be thrown away - it being no longer relevant even though it was nicely printed on colored paper, laminated and already posted above each classroom door?

What did we argue about?

One teacher pointed out that we have no schoolchildren here, only "young men and women." This nearly causes angina in the distaff side of the room.  "Why not young women and men?" Right there, you know this isn't starting well.

Our young men and women will have "active and creative minds," and our young women and men will display "a sense of understanding and compassion for others, and the courage to act on their beliefs."

We will provide a "world-class education" with "significant knowledge creation" which is a great ideal until someone (me) notices that no one has actually defined "significant" nor have they defined how we're measuring it. I am ignored in the poetic rush.

"Empowerment" is an important word, too, and apparently "each child is an individual" with a strong sense of belonging to the community. Hopefully, that will stop the bullying and the Halloween pranks. Our environment (it's not a school, mind you) has to be "caring and creative" and we must emphasize the the "whole child," whatever that means.

Of course, it wouldn't be a mission statement in the 21st century if we didn't acknowledge that "all children are creative;" "that all children will succeed," and that we are "all dedicated to higher standards" and a "challenging learning environment" including a mandate to "prepare fully the citizens of the future." "Success for all" is important, and a couple teachers wanted to say that twice in the mission statement, pissing off those who feel that makes it too wordy. ""It's gotta be pithy."


"Crap! We forgot to mention 'building self-esteem' and all of the 'positives relationships' and the 'total development of each child." "Oh, and technology! We need technology in there, too."

"Hold it, this is getting too big."
"Well, I got this one off the Internet. It has 145 words."

Mercifully, this ended after the hour was up and so we got down to the real business of the day. We were "working with" a "conflict resolution specialist" who was going to help us teachers get along. This was scheduled because there was some friction amongst us. We couldn't agree on things and the "tone" of the school was being "denigrated by negative attitudes" of people who didn't instantly agree with anything said.

Ya think?