|
|
 |
|
|
|
Recipe for Success: Calculus in an Urban Magnet School
|
|
| |
by Dorinda Rickels
Science and Engineering Magnet High School
Dallas, Texas
|
|
| | A Simple Formula for Success
The Science and Engineering Magnet High School, located in the Yvonne Ewell Townview Center in the Dallas Independent School District, has an enrollment of approximately 400 students. For the last three years, the school has been recognized as the number one school in the nation for the number of African American and Hispanic students earning grades of 3 or higher on the AP Calculus Exams. It was recognized in the 2005 Advanced Placement Report to the Nation as the world leader on the AP Calculus BC Exam in schools with a population under 500. It was also ranked number 6 in Newsweek magazine's list of the top 100 high schools in the nation in the spring of 2005. The formula for this success is simple: a principal with a vision for excellence, a math team that includes three AP Calculus teachers who work tirelessly, and a group of students who choose to leave their home schools in the district and travel across town every day for the opportunity to attend a different kind of school.
The Science and Engineering Magnet School is one of six magnet high schools that were created in response to a 30-year-old federal desegregation order. Although Dallas is no longer under this desegregation order, the Science and Engineering Magnet School is a reflection of what could be described as perfect diversity. The student population is almost evenly divided between Hispanic, African American, and white students. The ratio of boys to girls is almost one to one. Students must go through an application process in the eighth grade, and the incoming freshman class is limited to about 100 students. School bus service is provided between the students' home schools and the Townview campus.
For the last five years, student enrollment in AP Calculus classes at the Science and Engineering Magnet School has been over 100. In 2001, 93 students earned grades of 3 or higher on the AP Calculus Exams. That number was 103 in 2002, 113 in 2003, and 99 in 2004. During the 2004-2005 school year, approximately 115 students were enrolled in either AP Calculus AB or BC out of a total student enrollment of approximately 400 in grades 9 through 12.
A Fast-Track Program for Math
The primary factor that has made the Science and Engineering Magnet School's calculus enrollment average about 25 percent of its student enrollment is the "think outside the box" approach by the principal and the math team. About 60 percent of entering freshmen are placed in a fast-track math program, which enables them to take 90 minutes of math each school day. They complete Algebra II during the fall semester and precalculus during the spring semester. All of these students are simultaneously enrolled in geometry. Students who are not ready for the fast-track are enrolled in AP preparatory math courses and encouraged to complete AP Calculus AB by their senior year.
Our fast-track students take AP Calculus AB during their sophomore year and AP Calculus BC during their junior year. Having taught AP Calculus BC for several years in a suburban district where students usually took either AP Calculus AB or BC their senior year, I have been amazed at how well the younger students have done in AP Calculus AB during their sophomore year. The two-year calculus approach doesn't seem to be popular with many schools, but I can verify that in the Dallas high schools it has opened the door to AP Calculus BC for many students who would never have taken the course in a one-year calculus program. In 2004, 50 students at the Science and Engineering Magnet School earned grades of 3 or higher on the AP Calculus BC Exam.
When those students who have the desire can move through the curriculum at an accelerated pace, they build a foundation that allows them early exposure to other advanced mathematics and technology courses that are offered at the Science and Engineering Magnet School. These courses include AP Statistics, AP Computer Science, and Robotics. Some years, we have been able to offer Discrete Mathematics, Linear Programming, or Vector Calculus. Competitive math and computer teams round out the mathematics opportunities for students. Of course, students also have the full range of science courses available in which to apply their mathematics skills.
Providing a support system to ensure student success is paramount to our calculus program. Our school is on the alternating A/B block schedule, and all of our AP Calculus AB students are scheduled into a calculus lab class on the alternate day to their calculus class. Therefore, they get 90 minutes of calculus each day. All three of our calculus teachers hold daily tutoring sessions before and after school and team together to hold two-hour, after-school tutoring sessions during most weeks in February, March, and April. In addition, our district's strong AP Incentive Program sponsors three Saturday AP prep sessions in the spring for students across the district. The majority of the calculus students at the Science and Engineering Magnet School attend these Saturday sessions.
Benefitting from the AP Incentive Program
The Science and Engineering Magnet School is one of 10 Dallas high schools that benefit from an AP Incentive Program that is a partnership between the district and the Texas Instruments Foundation. In addition to providing funds for Saturday prep sessions and to pay teachers for extra tutoring time, the AP Incentive Program also pays for AP and Pre-AP professional development and supports vertical teaming efforts. Each fall, AP students are rewarded with bonuses of $100 for each score of 3 or higher that they attain on an AP math, English, or science exam taken the previous spring. Their teachers receive a bonus of $150 for each student earning those scores. The principal and the teachers are also eligible to earn an additional bonus if the number of scores that are 3 or higher exceeds the previous year's results.
A large number of students at the Science and Engineering Magnet School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Some of them will be the first in their family to graduate from high school, and many will be the first to graduate from college. Many of their parents speak little or no English. However, our expectations for our students' success are very high. This year, Science and Engineering graduates are among the freshmen classes at MIT, Notre Dame, Stanford, Cornell, the University of Texas at Austin, and Texas A&M as well as many other colleges and universities.
Take the example of Oswaldo Renteria, a former student of the Science and Engineering Magnet School. When Oswaldo was five years old, he came to the United States from Mexico with his two older brothers and his parents. He spoke no English. His mother still speaks only Spanish. Both parents worked more than one job in order for the boys to focus on succeeding in school. Now Oswaldo and his brother Juan are both graduates of the Science and Engineering Magnet School. Juan earned a grade of 5 on the AP Calculus AB Exam his senior year. Now an engineering major, he will begin his senior year at the University of Texas at Dallas this fall. His younger brother, Oswaldo, earned a grade of 5 on the AP Calculus AB Exam as a sophomore and a 5 on the AP Calculus BC Exam his junior year. He just completed his freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is majoring in mathematics. He called me one day last fall to tell me how well he was doing in his college classes and to tell me that he wants to be a math teacher. Oswaldo may have one of the brightest minds I've ever had the privilege of teaching. I hope he comes back to Dallas to teach.
The success of students like Juan and Oswaldo speaks volumes about the impact of the Advanced Placement Program. It changes lives!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Course Home Pages