|
|
 |
|
|
|
One Chancey in a Million
|
|
| |
by Dan Kennedy
Baylor School
Chattanooga, Tennessee
|
|
| | Farewell to an ETS Legend
At the close of 2003, in an event that went largely unnoticed outside the famously secure walls of the Educational Testing Service, one of the major architects of the AP Calculus program officially ended a long, colorful, and highly successful career. After 37 years of shepherding some of ETS's best-known mathematics assessments, Chancey O. Jones was finally allowed to retire.
Chan Jones graduated from the University of Toledo in 1955 and took a job as a high school teacher of mathematics and physics in Royal Oak, Michigan. While on the faculty at Royal Oak, he also rose to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army, earned an M.Ed. degree in Administration from Wayne State University, and earned an M.A. in Teaching of Mathematics at the University of Detroit. In 1967 he left high school teaching (but not, as it turned out, high school education) to take a job as Associate Examiner with the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. Chan started working in test development, where he quickly became a protégé of Irene Williams, main ETS consultant to the AP Mathematics Development Committee (soon to become known as the AP Calculus Development Committee). By 1972 he had been promoted to Examiner, and in 1975 he assumed the title of Group Head for Mathematics and Science Test Development, College Board Division. Although Irene Williams would remain less formally involved with AP Calculus for many years after her retirement, Chan had become the main ETS liaison to the program. In December of that same year, he was introduced to AP teachers all over the country as the lead author of the famous "AP Update" article in the Mathematics Teacher — only the second released exam in AP history at that time, and the first that could be easily read without a magnifying glass. For the next 28 years, it would be rare to see an AP Calculus publication of any kind that did not include the name of Chancey O. Jones somewhere among its pages.
Although he played a leading role in the development or analysis of other high-profile assessments — notably the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Sciences Studies (TIMMS) — Chan always claimed to have a special spot in his heart for the AP Calculus Program. He did everything he could to make Development Committee work enjoyable, and ostensibly nobody got more enjoyment out of it than Chan. A Committee meeting in Princeton would invariably call for a trip to Freddie's, Chan's favorite local restaurant, while a meeting in another location would call for a large and raucous table in some less suspecting venue. No matter how tiring, depressing, or rancorous the meeting from 8:00 to 5:00, Chan would have everyone in high spirits before bedtime and ready to face their challenges with renewed optimism the next morning.
In the early days of AP it was easy for the ETS liaisons to remain in the background while flamboyant committee leaders like John Kenelly, John Neff, and Don Kreider represented the program in public appearances. Not enough AP teachers ever got to know Irene Williams, but during Chan's tenure the number of students taking the AP Calculus Exam grew from 10,000 to more than 200,000, necessitating a higher profile for all leaders of the program, including the Group Head for College Board Test Development. Chan gradually warmed to his more visible role, and by the late 1980s his gravelly voice and warm smile were known to AP teachers all across the country. He never took them all to Freddie's (although it might have seemed that way to Freddie), but he treated them all as colleagues and professionals, and he left them feeling proud to be teaching AP.
Surely there is nobody who knows more stories about the AP Program "behind the scenes" than Chan Jones. He knows more about the examinations than the Development Committee, more about the Reading than the Chief Reader, and more about our AP students than any one teacher could. He has filled in for Readers at the grading table, joined them later at the lunch table, and relaxed with them still later at the card table. On one occasion, later still, he actually bailed a Reader out of a New Jersey jail. If he ever gets around to writing his AP memoirs, every AP teacher will have to buy a copy. Not only will it be a great read, but some people will have alibis to prepare.
Chan observed five years ago that, when he retired, he would miss the AP people the most. Every AP person who has worked with Chan knows that the feeling is mutual.
Dan Kennedy is a mathematics teacher at Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with more than 20 years of experience as a College Board consultant in AP Calculus.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Course Home Pages