May 18, 2009 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Meeting

AP Statistics is a new elective mathematics course.  This course helps the district accomplish its Tier I goal of increasing the number of opportunities for students to take college credit-bearing classes prior to their graduation from high school.  With the addition of AP Statistics, our students will have a second opportunity to take a course for college credit within the mathematics department.  The curriculum aligns with the course content overview and topics outlined in the College Board’s AP Statistics course description and the standards in the 2005 version of the Connecticut Mathematics Curriculum Framework.  The Student Achievement Committee of the Board of Education met on May 1, 2009 for the first reading of the curriculum.  If approved, students would have the opportunity to take this course in the 2009-2010 school year.

Highlights of the new curriculum include:

·         The curriculum reinforces the “Core” standards and extends the learning opportunities for students by addressing the “Extended” standards in the Working with Data: Probability and Statistics strand of the Connecticut Mathematics Curriculum Framework.

 ·         Stronger vertical and horizontal alignment of standards occurs as a result of writing the new curriculum. 

·         The well-articulated, user-friendly curriculum document will help build greater coherence among what is written, what is taught, and what is tested.

·         The unit structure of the curriculum revision provides teachers with a strong foundation for instruction. 

·         The curriculum places an emphasis on the concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing, organizing, and drawing conclusions from data.

·         The curriculum exposes students to four broad conceptual themes, specifically exploring data, sampling and experimentation, anticipating patterns, and statistical inference.

·         The curriculum provides an opportunity for students to investigate mathematical concepts using statistical software and graphing calculator technology as a tool for discovery.

·         The curriculum embraces a rigorous study of mathematical skills and concepts and their applications in today’s world.

Curriculum writing with the teachers provided opportunities for professional growth and collaboration.

This document submitted is based on the thoughtful work of Kara Jones from Bristol Eastern and Barry Nolan from Bristol Central.

AP Statistics is a new elective in mathematics that has been designed for the college-bound student who is interested in data and statistical reasoning.  This course is equivalent to a one-semester, introductory, non-calculus based, college-level course in statistics.  The purpose of the AP course in Statistics is to introduce students to the major concepts and tools for collecting, organizing, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data.  Students are exposed to four broad conceptual themes, including exploring data, sampling and experimentation, anticipating patterns, and statistical interference.  AP Statistics data analysis is dependent on the use of the TI-83+ or TI-84+ graphing calculator and/or computer statistical software.  For this reason, a search for a textbook for the course ensued.

In the textbook adoption process, all textbooks were examined for alignment with the Bristol AP Statistics curriculum and the CT Mathematics Framework.  All textbooks were considered for supporting research data, recommendations, both authentic and traditional assessments, and supporting materials.  All textbooks considered are available on CDs or with on-line access.     

The committee of AP Statistics teachers is recommending the following textbook for approval:

• The Practice of Statistics (3^rd edition) by Daniel S. Yates, David S. Moore, and Daren S. Starnes, New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 2008.

This is the first presentation of the textbook.  Recommend waiver of the second reading.  Recommend approval of the textbook, The Practice of Statistics.  Copies of the textbooks are available for your review in the Office of Teaching and Learning.  If you have any questions, please contact Dominique Fox at (860)584-7085.

Effective 7-1-2009, Bristol status as a Priority School District will be phased out over the next three years, due to a decrease in student enrollment, a decrease in Temporary Family Assistance participation, and a decrease in the failure rate on the state tests.  The phase out is listed below: