ASA/NCTM Joint Committee Highlights
AP Statistics and Beyond
Roxy Peck, Associate Dean, College of Science and Mathematics, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
W
ho would have guessed when the have not yet encountered. A committee that of participating in the reading, it is a
first AP Statistics exam was given includes university faculty and experienced great opportunity to work with colleagues
to about 7,500 high-school stu- AP Statistics teachers develops the exam. who share an interest in teaching and to
dents in 1997 that almost 110,000 kids The free response section is scored using interact with and contribute to the pro-
would take it just 11 years later? That means holistic rubrics. The exams are scored fessional development of some of the best
more than 100,000 students took a college- during a week-long ‘reading’ that usually and brightest secondary teachers in the
level introductory statistics course in 2008 occurs in early June. For the past two years, country. The reading is an enjoyable expe-
while still in high school. With continued the reading has taken place in Louisville, rience, and those who have participated
growth anticipated, AP Statistics provides an Kentucky. The continued growth of the AP return because, although they work hard
opportunity to showcase our discipline to Statistics program means more people are during the day, they also find they learn
high-school students across the country. To needed each year to assist in scoring. This a lot along the way and have fun at the
make the most of this opportunity, the ASA/ year, approximately 500 college and high- same time.
NCTM Joint Committee has been working school teachers of statistics participated. Please consider becoming a reader for
to provide high-school statistics teachers with About half were statistics faculty from col- the AP Statistics exam. Expenses
engaging, high-quality materials and appro- leges and universities across the country, (travel, lodging, and meals) are paid
priate professional development experiences. while the other half was comprised of expe- for by ETS, and readers receive a
rienced AP Statistics high-school teachers. stipend for their work during the week.
BAPS at JSM
To maintain the integrity of the exam To become a reader, complete the
One successful program sponsored by
and its scoring, the participation of col- application found at http://apcentral.
the joint committee is BAPS, Beyond
lege and university faculty members is collegeboard.com/apc/public/homepage/
AP Statistics. The brainchild of former
critical. In addition to the service aspect 4137.html. n
Committee Chair Jim Matis, BAPS is a
workshop for experienced high-school sta-
tistics teachers. Designed to strengthen and
expand teachers’ statistics backgrounds by
introducing them to topics just beyond the
content of the typical AP Statistics course,
BAPS has been offered at JSM for the past
seven years.
This year, 14 teachers from around
the country came to Denver for a full day
that included sessions on complex survey
design, experimental design and analysis of
variance, logistic regression, and bootstrap
estimation of standard error.
Presenters in recent years have includ-
ed Bob Stephenson, Tom Short, Steve
Miller, Roxy Peck, Brad Hartlaub, Tim
Hesterberg, Linda Young, Dick Schaeffer,
and Jim Matis.
Get Involved
The AP Statistics exam, developed by
The College Board and administered by
Educational Testing Service (ETS), con-
sists of a 40-question multiple choice sec-
tion and a free response section composed
of five questions and an investigative task.
The investigative task is a more complex
problem that requires students to integrate
knowledge from different parts of the course
to solve a type of problem they probably
OCTOBER 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 45
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