Dear Editor:
Lori Stuenkel’s article
”
Full-Court Parent Press
”
represents a level of journalism that I question. Dale Morejon’s
recent letter to the editor must also be questioned.
Dear Editor:
Lori Stuenkel’s article “Full-Court Parent Press” represents a level of journalism that I question. Dale Morejon’s recent letter to the editor must also be questioned.
Ms. Stuenkel reported the scores of my advanced placement statistics class from last year and left out the AP calculus scores where 58 percent of my students scored a three or higher – the highest rate in at least five years for calculus at GHS. Reporting the statistics results and leaving out calculus after questioning the qualifications of those teaching AP classes was unfair and serves a political, not journalistic, purpose. An objective reporter would have noted all scores from the same teacher.
The percentage of AP calculus students scoring a three or higher could have been higher. I could have told you the students who were going to score a one on the exam before they took it. Had I discouraged those students from taking the AP exam the three or higher rate would have been higher. Would I then have been a better teacher because of the “higher” scores? This makes no sense and is a misuse of statistics.
Ms. Stuenkel’s standard for using statistics does not meet those taught in my statistics class. Ms. Stuenkel quoted me in an article she wrote on Oct. 13, 2003 where I said, “Comparing (our AP scores) to a national average can be kind of dangerous.” Students at GHS are not representative of students across the nation and there is no typical AP class anywhere. Statistical analysis in such an environment is all but useless. Ms. Stuenkel should seriously consider taking a course in statistics before throwing statistically invalid numbers around.
If you assert the course content or my qualifications are substandard, PROVE IT.
Mr. Morejon, did your daughter seriously think my AP statistics course was watered down when she took it? Ask the individual who scored a five last year in statistics about my qualifications or the course content. Assertion may serve a political agenda or a preconceived notion but is not proof.
The fact is that we should be debating the educational purpose of AP classes. If the goal of AP is to get the AP exam scores to mirror those of the nation, then give me prerequisites for the AP classes I teach; if the goal of AP is to increase the educational opportunity for as many students as possible, then leave open enrollment alone.
I have had students in my AP statistics classes who have been the first from their family to graduate high school. Those students received an outstanding educational experience in statistics because they were exposed to all of the content and were better prepared for college. I fully support an open enrollment for my AP classes and encourage others to see the value of open enrollment for the majority of students served at GHS. Reasonable people will debate the goals of AP classes with evidence rather than write assertive personal attacks or hideous political screeds.
Wayne A. Scott, GHS Mathematics Teacher
Submitted Thursday, March 11 to ed****@****ic.com
EDITOR’S NOTE: Reporter Lori Steunkel did not use all the AP scores from any one teacher. The AP scores used represented a snapshot of across-the-board Gilroy High student scores. The article read, “Last year, of 36 students who took the AP statistics test, six passed with a score of 3 to 5, while the rest failed with a score of 1 or 2,” and did not even name Mr. Scott. Furthermore, The Dispatch reported better-than-average passing rates for GHS students in government and Spanish. Calling that report a ‘personal attack’ is truly irresponsible.
