Calculated Success

TU and the College Board partner to help more high school students pass Advanced Placement calculus.

Gail Kaplan, TU professor of mathematics, is a teacher’s teacher par excellence.

Just ask Laura Potter M.A.T. ’05, who teaches mathematics at C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air, Md.

Last summer Potter enrolled in TU’s professional-development workshop, “Integrated Approach to Improve AP Calculus Scores.” She was excited to learn that Kaplan would be teaching it.

“I had Gail for one of my master’s classes, and I loved it,” Potter explains. “She’s so dynamic.” 

It’s an apt word for Kaplan, who has devoted her career to helping students—as well as veteran teachers—become more creative and effective mathematics educators. Little wonder she was selected to play a key role in the university’s All SYSTEMs Go program , a STEM-education initiative launched in 2013 by Nancy Grasmick, Presidential Scholar for Innovation in Teacher and Leader Education.

Supported by a three-year grant from The College Board, Kaplan heads a triple-pronged pilot program designed to boost the number of Maryland students who pass Advance Placement (AP) calculus examination. A passing score enables a student to get college credits or advanced placement at most universities.

“Many students understand calculus, but they don’t have the prerequisite skills,” Kaplan points out. “It can be frustrating for teachers whose students comprehend the ideas, but can’t do the computations needed to pass the exam.”

The AP calculus exam is graded on a 1-5 scale, with a score of at least 3 needed to pass. “We can’t turn a 2 into a 5,” Kaplan says, “but we stand a good chance of turning a 2 into a 3.”


Teaching Teachers

The inaugural workshop, held in summer 2013, included 20 math teachers from Baltimore County public schools. “It wasn’t a typical lecture,” Kaplan emphasizes. “We were training teachers how to teach in a student-centered, hands-on fashion.”

A male teacher and a pipe cleaner creature
Teachers used pipe cleaners to create a three-dimensional model. The AP Calculus exam typically asks students to find the volume of such objects.

Passing the AP calculus exam requires not only understanding the concepts, but also preparing for the exam itself. “The rubrics for earning points are very specific,” she continues. “For example, if teachers don’t know that answers require three decimals, their students won’t earn points.”

The support didn’t end with the workshop. The Baltimore County teachers met throughout the 2013-14 academic year, both in person and virtually, for additional instruction and advice. Five Baltimore County mentor teachers, who receive a stipend from the program, continue to work with the cohort and with new teachers.

There’s ample anecdotal evidence that the 2013 workshop has bolstered both teacher and student performance. Kaplan says several workshop participants emailed to tell her their students earned higher scores on the 2014 exam. One even reported that his school’s pass rate had gone from 10 to 80 percent. Kaplan says she’s still gathering data to present to the College Board, but she’s confident the program is having a positive impact.


Getting Creative

Last summer teachers from Anne Arundel and Harford counties focused their calculus skills on a variety of interesting—and fun—challenges. Using pipe cleaners, lemon wedges and other inexpensive, easy-to-find materials, Kaplan demonstrated innovative ways to put ideas across to students.

Andrew Bleichfeld, M.Ed. ’97, who chairs the mathematics department at Harford Technical High School, enjoyed Kaplan’s creative approach. “These are the kinds of things I’m always looking for,” he said shortly after completing the workshop. “I’ve already passed workshop materials and several ideas on to new teachers.”

A woman looking at a lemon floating in a measuring cup
Approximating the volume of a lemon wedge required teachers to calculate how much water it displaced.

Kaplan says another part of the program involves training secondary mathematics education majors to teach AP calculus. “Nobody expects someone to graduate from college prepared to do this,” she says. “We expect our students to be very successful.

“Towson is the only university in the country that offers an undergraduate seminar in how to teach AP calculus,” she continues. “The College Board is extremely interested in this aspect of our partnership because so many calculus teachers are at or beyond retirement age.”

Kaplan says teaching AP calculus grew out of the College Board Advanced Placement Summer Institutes, which are offered all over the country. About eight years ago she brought the concept to TU and began offering it to in-service teachers enrolled in the university’s graduate program in secondary mathematics education. “They really liked it,” she adds.


Boot Camp for High School Students

The program’s third component is a two-week summer AP calculus boot camp at an area school. The inaugural camp took place last summer at Milford Mill High School, where the exam’s pass rate lagged behind other Baltimore County schools.

TU’s team included a master teacher, Kevin Dalsimer, a member of the Towson High School faculty, assisted by a pair of TU seniors, Sean Selba and Michelle Tarr. Selba, a secondary mathematics education major from Dundalk, Md., served as the camp’s data analyst. A lifelong math enthusiast who has always wanted to teach, Selba says he reviewed the results of daily tests to determine whether the students had mastered—and retained—what Dalsimer taught them.

Both Selba and Tarr honed their AP calculus skills as juniors in Kaplan’s seminar. “Michelle and I are well prepared,” Selba says. “Being a part of the AP calculus boot camp lets us practice our craft.

“The education and mathematics faculty have been phenomenal,” he continues. “Without their guidance I wouldn’t be anywhere as good as I am now.”

College Board consultants will meet with the Milford Mill students five times during the 2014-2015 academic year to enhance their understanding and improve their scores on the spring exam.

Now entering its third year, TU’s AP calculus pilot is clearly a hit with classroom teachers, aspiring teachers and high school students. “Passing the AP calc exam is a collaborative effort,” Kaplan says. “The Towson-College Board partnership supports the effort on all fronts, and that’s essential for continuing success.”

By Jan Lucas
Photos: Kanji Takeno