If you teach introductory statistics and have never attended the Advanced Placement Statistics Reading, you may be missing out on one of the best and most enjoyable professional development opportunities available. The AP Statistics program is now in its 21st year, and it is predicted that almost 220,000 students will take the exam in May. In 1997, the first year the exam was offered, 7,667 students from 752 high schools took the exam and reported scores to 748 colleges. Last June, 206,563 students from 8,759 schools took the exam and scores were reported to 2,768 colleges. With six questions per exam, that’s over 1.2 million questions that needed to be graded!
Fortunately, there are hundreds of teachers who are willing to help grade these questions. Last June, over 850 high school teachers and college faculty spent a week in Kansas City grading the free response questions on the 2016 exam. The Reading takes place over a seven-day period in mid-June each year, currently in Kansas City, but previously in Lincoln, Nebraska, Louisville, Kentucky and Daytona Beach, Florida. Participants receive a stipend in addition to all expenses.
Why would anyone want to finish their school year and then almost immediately sign up to grade more exams? It may not sound like much fun to grade exams for seven days straight from 8am to 5pm, but participants find that the experience is so much more than that. College faculty and high school teachers learn new ideas from each other. Most people find that the experience helps them learn how to assess their own students more effectively as well. I asked a few people who have attended the Reading for many years to explain why they keep coming back. Here are some of their responses:
"The AP Statistics reading is the best professional development opportunity for those that teach Introductory Statistics. The AP reading allows me networking opportunities with other college faculty but my greatest take away is the educational pedagogy I learn from the high school teachers. I have been attending the reading for 11 years, every year I bring home something that I immediately implement in my classroom. " Ellen Breazel, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
“The AP readings are the most valuable professional experience I have each year. Each day I have stimulating conversations with college professors and high school teachers about statistics and pedagogy. Even after attending 18 years of readings, I continue to learn every day. Most importantly, I have made life long friends from around the country.” Laura Marshall, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH
"The AP reading is the most significant professional development that I do each year. Besides the process of learning and following the rubric there are numerous evening activities such as an evening with a professional speaker and a best practices night. However, for me, as a high school teacher, the greatest value is the casual conversations that I have with college and university faculty. Over the course of the week, I gain a deeper understanding of the math and practice of statistics." David Spohn, Hudson High School, Hudson, OH
You can see the common themes in these quotes. The experience includes professional development, but it also includes social activities and impromptu discussions that help forge life-long friendships and professional connections. One person described it by saying “it’s like a huge family reunion except that you actually like all the people there.” As a college professor I have learned a great deal from the high school teachers about what goes on in their classrooms and have benefitted from numerous discussions about the interactive methods they use to help students understand statistics.
If you are a college teacher currently teaching and have taught an introductory statistics course similar to the AP course within the past three years, you are eligible to be an AP Statistics Reader. You can read more about the exam at the first link below, and you can apply online to be a Reader at the second website, but make sure you click the link for “onsite scoring” and not “online scoring” because AP Statistics currently does not use online scoring.
Don’t put it off because you need to apply by the end of summer to be considered for the Reading the following June. Please send any questions to me, jutts@uci.edu.
