Even though it’s 2019 Summer break for CUSD 10 students and staff, CHS Math Teacher Bill Gottschalk graded 2,300 Advanced Placement (AP) Statistics exams.
Gottschalk joined approximately 865 other high school AP Statistics teachers and college statistics professors as “Readers” to grade the 2019 AP Statistics exam in Kansas City.
“As a group, we graded approximately 215,000 exams over the course of the week,” said Gottschalk, “Out of the six free-response questions students answered by hand, I was responsible for grading two.”
“We train on our first question for a couple of hours on the first day and then grade that one question between 2-3 days before being trained on our second question.
“Even though grading the same question over and over, day after day can start to make you crazy, there are after hours activities that make the time more enjoyable,” he says.
The Readers unwind with activities like geocaching, a 1.96 mile Fun Run along the River Walk, the chance to see a Kansas City Royals game, a social lounge where they learn about new tech tools or apps from one another, or where they just unwind.
“There are also professional development opportunities where we listen to guest speakers or hear from the people who created the questions we are grading. One night, teachers give 2-3 minute presentations on ideas worth noting for us to take back to our classrooms,” says Gottschalk.
This was his fourth year as a AP Reader. Gottschalk teaches AP Statistics at Collinsville High School.
“I love the experience every year,” says Gottschalk, “I have grown close to a group of five other teachers, and this is our one week to geek out with each other every year.