Catalysts at the 2013 Advanced Placement Statistics Reading

N. Parker, Laura Ziegler, Robin Lock (of St. Lawrence University), and Elizabeth Fry at the Advanced Placement Statistics Reading in Kansas City, Missouri

Every year, statistics teachers congregate to grade the Advanced Placement Statistics Exam, the final assessment given to high school students who completed the Advanced Placement Statistics course. This year, three of our Ph.D. students, N. Parker, Laura Ziegler, and Elizabeth Fry made it down to Kansas City for the reading, June 11–17.

Laura was a table leader, and N. was an "acorn"—the affectionate name given to first-time readers. AP Statistics gets bigger and bigger every year, with about 630 readers grading nearly 171,000 exams!  In fact, this year there were enough exams that the AP readers conquered the "million question challenge":  by grading more than a million responses.

We look forward to the day when enough students are taking AP Statistics that we face a two million question challenge!