"Strive for a Five" Tradition

The 6th annual Mock AP exam was a huge success.  AP students from across the district walked out of the Mock exam with many tidbits on how to improve their performance on the May exam. 

AB/BC Mock Exam at Metro Tech 

For the past 6 years, we gather all of the AP students from across the district to take a Mock AP exam.  In the morning, the students model Mathematical Practice #1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them!  The test is timed and this experience truly gives them a "flavor" of the actual exam.  In the afternoon, AP readers guide the students through a self- assessment of the free-response section of the exam and share "pearls of wisdom" on how to get the ultimate score of a FIVE! 

Congratulations to the following students.  They were recognized for their performance on the Multiple Choice portion of the exams: 

AP Calculus AB (Top three scorers)

·        1^st Place:  Imar Uriostegui, Carl Hayden  

·        2^nd Place:  Juan Gonzalez Salazar , Carl Hayden

·        3^rd Place:  Martin Cruz Arroyo, Trevor Browne 

BC Top Scorers 

AP Calculus BC (Top three scorers)

        1^st Place:  Miguel Valdez, Metro Tech

        2^nd Place:  Dylan Dilla , Carl Hayden

        3^rd Place:  Jesus Corona, Trevor Browne and Crystal Loza, Metro Tech

AP Statistics top three 

AP Statistics (Top three scorers)       1^st Place:  Harrison Wolf, North

      2^nd Place tie:  Stacy Espinoza, North

      3^rd Place:  Phung Tran, Alhambra    

We also recognized the Highest Score from each school and they received a certificate:  

AB Top scorers from each site 

AB: Juan Solis- Alhambra, Miguel Galvez Corral - Chavez,  Abel Deleon Sanchez -  Camelback, Imar Uriostegui -Carl Hayden, Jonathan Muro Villegas - Maryvale, Martin Lopez Martinez - Metro Tech, Michael Strong- South, and Martin Cruz Arroyo - Trevor Browne
 

              

Statistics: Phung Tran - Alhambra, Ariana Alejo Rosario - Cesar Chavez, JaQuan Vanorsby - Betty Fairfax, Aliesha Overton- Camelback, and Harrison Wolf - North 

Congratulations to the following schools for having the highest average on the Multiple Choice section of the exams!  They will receive their plaques in a few weeks. 

      
      AP Statistics:  Camelback 

·     AP AB Calculus: Carl Hayden  

I also want to say thanks to our sponsors:   

·    Immedia:  Thank you for your continued support for PUHSD mathematics and providing the food for the event.

·    Phoenix Union Foundation for Education:  Thank you for sponsoring the AP readers.  

·    AP Readers:  John Losse (AP Reader and consultant) and John Doherty (PUHSD North Instructional Leader and AP Reader).  The teachers and the students were grateful for the opportunity to learn from the AP Readers experience grading the AP exams.  Each reader gave the students an open forum to ask questions and I was impressed with our students and their abilities to ask important questions to support their own understanding of the exam. 

·    PUHSD Public Relations:  for providing the medals and the plaques! 

·    Camelback and Metro Tech:  Thank you for hosting the events.  Everyone at the campus was incredibly helpful and each event ran smoothly!

·    Last but not least, thanks to the AP Teachers!  This day would not happen without their continued support and guidance with improving our AP mathematics programs across the district. 

Once again, Thanks to everyone involved for making this a successful event for our students.  

What is your vision for Formative Assessment?

As we are implementing AZ College and Career Readiness standards, the PUHSD math teachers have also been addressing the alignment between the Curriculum, Instruction, and the Assessment expectations.  When we started transitioning to the new curriculum, we intentionally created structures to provide feedback to students on how they are progressing with the new content.  The teachers didn't want to focus on assessments solely as a grade, we wanted to learn how to use assessments to promote student understanding and student engagement in the Assessment cycle.  After two year of implementation, we reflected on our progress and formalized our Vision for Formative assessment.  We wanted to be able to answer the following questions: 

• How do we effectively integrate formative assessment into our classrooms?
• How can formative assessment support the new curriculum?
• How can formative assessment be used as a teaching strategy?
• What types of formative assessment are most effective for assessing student understanding?
• How do we differentiate instruction in response to formative assessment findings?

Dylan Wiliams (2011), states:  

When formative assessment practices are integrated into the minute-to-minute 

and day-by-day classroom activities of teachers, substantial increases in student achievement—of the order of a 70 to 80% increase 
in the speed of learning are possible. . . 

Moreover, these changes are not expensive to produce. . . . 

The currently available evidence suggests that there is nothing 

else remotely affordable that is likely to have such a large effect. (p. 161)

Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

The Math Instructional Leaders reviewed the Five Key Strategies for Effective Formative Assessments and listed the supporting evidence from their teacher teams. This is our vision and our starting point to truly understand the power of Formative Assessment.