Junior High Math League Sample Questions By Meet And Topic: Fill & Download for Free

Q. Can I get into a top 100 university with a 1230 on the new SAT?A. Not knowing any of your other stats and ECs, the 1230 would make you competitive in #76–100 range schools. #50–75 are your reach schools.You should also consider schools that do not require SAT scores, if your other stats are superior. The last post includes 10 highly ranked schools that are flexible with test scores. Most of these are prestigious small National Liberal Art Colleges. The only National University on that list is Wake Forrest. Your major may matter whether certain schools are a fit for you. You can always retake the SAT to raise your score, or take the ACT.All the best!SAT Score Range: What’s a Good SAT Score for Colleges? (Magoosh, skip the second part of the post explaining SAT scoring, on initial reading)Complete Guide: Colleges Not Requiring SAT Scores (PrepScholar Comprehensive list, top 100: Wake Forest, Rochester, Brandeis, NYU, UT Austin, GWU, Worcester Polytechnic, Texas A&M, American, Delaware and Drexel).)10 Top Ranked Colleges That Are Flexible With Test Scores (US News)Tuan Nguyen's answer to What are great colleges that are not Ivy League? Ranking of National Universities and National Liberal Art Colleges.SAT Score Range: What’s a Good SAT Score for Colleges?BY CHRIS LELE ON JUNE 2, 2016 IN SATThe new SAT is scored on a range from a low of 400 to a max score of 1600, combined from a range of 200 to 800 on SAT Math and 200 to 800 on SAT Reading/Writing, but the SAT score range for students admitted to different colleges varies.Okay, I’m just going to come out and say it: the new SAT scoring system is extremely confusing. There are subscores, cross-test scores, a science score and much more.College SAT Score Range for 100 Top UniversitiesSAT (25th to 75th Percentile Scores)Top 25Princeton University 1470-1600Harvard University 1480-1600Yale University 1480-1600Columbia University 1460-1580Stanford University 1450-1580University of Chicago 1500-1590Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1470-1580Duke University 1440-1590University of Pennsylvania 1440-1570California Institute of Technology 1530-1600Johns Hopkins University 1430-1550Dartmouth College 1440-1580Northwestern University 1450-1570Brown University 1410-1570Cornell University 1390-1550Vanderbilt University 1470-1580Washington University in St. Louis 1480-1580Rice University 1440-1570University of Notre Dame 1410-1550University of California - Berkeley 1320-1540Emory University 1370-1510Georgetown University 1320-1520Carnegie Mellon University 1410-1530University of California - Los Angeles 1280-1510University of Southern California 1360-1520Top 26–50Tufts University 1440-1550Wake Forest University Test OptionalUniversity of Michigan - Ann Arbor 1350-1510Boston College 1350-1510University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill 1290-1480New York University 1320-1500Rochester University 1320-1500Brandeis University 1340-1510College of William and Mary 1340-1510Georgia Institute of Technology 1370-1520University of California - Santa Barbara 1200-1430University of California - Irvine 1120-1350University of California - San Diego 1270-1480Boston University 1280-1470Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 1300-1490Tulane University 1330-1480University of California - Davis 1160-1410University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign 1340-1500University of Wisconsin - Madison 1270-1450Lehigh University 1030-1410Northeastern University 1400-1530Pennsylvania State University 1180-1370University of Florida 1250-1430University of Miami 1300-1470Ohio State University - Columbus 1230-1390Pepperdine University 1210-1400Top 51 -75University of Texas - Austin 1240-1480University of Washington 1180-1400Yeshiva University 1200-1420George Washington University 1290-1460University of Connecticut 1220-1410University of Maryland - College Park 1260-1420Worcester Polytechnic Institute 1310-1480Clemson University 1210-1400Purdue University - West Lafeyette 1160-1380Southern Methodist University 1300-1470Syracuse University 1140-1350University of Georgia 1230-1400Brigham Young University - Provo 1150-1370Fordham University 1240-1430University of Pittsburgh 1250-1430University of Minnesota - Twin Cities 1250-1430Texas A&M University - College Station 1200-1360Virginia Tech 1180-1380American University 1240-1410Baylor University 1200-1390Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick 1180-1410Clark University 1090-1240Colorado School of Mines 1390-1440Indiana University - Bloomington 1140-1350Michigan State University 1050-1310Top 76–100Stevens Institute of Technology 1290-1470University of Delaware 1160-1370University of Massachusetts- Amherst 1200-1310Miami University - Oxford 1180-1330Texas Christian University 1170-1370University of California - Santa Cruz 1080-1340University of Iowa 1060-1268Marquette University 1170-1350University of Denver 1170-1350University of Tulsa 1130-1410Binghamton University -SUNY 1280-1430North Carolina State University - Raleigh 1220-1380Stony Brook University -SUNY 1200-1410SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry 1120-1270University of Colorado - Boulder 1060-1280University of San Diego 1210-1400University of Vermont 1170-1370Florida State University 1210-1360Saint Louis University 1090-1220University of Alabama 1070-1320Drexel University 1170-1370Loyola University Chicago 1140-1340University at Buffalo - SUNY 1050-1250Auburn University 1140-1340Now let’s get into everything and anything relating to SAT scores and SAT score range. I’ll break it down to make things a little easier to follow. Here–in order–are the main points I’ll cover:The basics of SAT total scores, subscores, and essay scoresWhat a good score on the SAT is, and how SAT scores stack up against ACT scores.The SAT score range you’ll need for colleges, from the Ivy League to other competitive schools.Total SAT Score RangeOkay, here are the basics:Two sections, one math and one verbal (combined from the reading and writing sections)Each is worth 800 pointsThe total on the new SAT is 1600 pointsThe lowest you can get on either the reading/writing or the math section is 200 and the highest SAT score on a section is 800.So, the total new SAT score range (combining Reading/Writing and Math) is 400-1600.Average SAT ScoresIf you are with me so far, it’s time to talk about average SAT scores: the average score on each section is 500 points. The average overall SAT score is 1000. These are theoretical averages but the real averages tend to be within about 20 points, plus or minus, of 500 points.Now things are going to get a little more complicated. On the new SAT there are going to be three different types of scores. Yes, three. So hold onto your seats.1. Test ScoresOkay, so the new SAT lumps the separate reading and writing sections into one 800 score. But the College Board still wants to still give colleges a better idea of how to understand your SAT scores: how you did on the reading section and how you did on the writing section.That makes sense, but for good measure, they figured they’d throw math in as a test score. So the three “test scores” are as follows:Reading Test Score Writing and Language Test Score Math Test ScoreEach one of these will be scored on a range of 10 to 40. This score will correspond to how many questions you missed on each section and is adapted to fit the score range. The two scores, one from the reading test and one from the writing test, will be combined to give you a verbal score on the 200-800 range. The math score on the 10-40 scale will be converted to a score from 200-800, which will be your math score. Add these together and you’ll have your overall SAT score.How important are these “test scores”? Speaking honestly, they just give people looking at your score report a way to compare your scores to students who took different versions of the SAT. This relates to an idea called equating, which allows the SAT to compare scores between different tests. But it’s pretty technical and the statistics folks over at College Board take care of this–you just have to look at your score.What is important for you–and what colleges will likely look at if they want to get a better sense of your performance–is how you did on the reading section and how you did on the writing sections. After all, you could do very poorly on reading yet thrive in writing and can get the same verbal score as somebody who was average on both sections.2. Cross-test scoresSo the new SAT doesn’t have a science section like the ACT does, but it does have what are called cross-test scores. Essentially, there are questions that are science related, whether they are in the math section, the reading section, or the writing section (hence the name “cross-test”).And there are also cross-test scores that are history/social studies related.Here’s how the College Board terms the cross-test sections:1. Analysis in History/Social Studies2. Analysis in ScienceEach score will be on the same scale as test scores: 10-40.3. SubscoresThe College Board wants to give college admissions officers as much information as possible. That gives us (I promise) our final set of scores. There are seven of these scores, the first two relate to reading comprehension, the next two relate to writing and the last three relate to math.Reading subscores1. Command of Evidence2. Words in ContextWriting subscores1. Expression of Ideas2. Standard English ConventionsMath subscores1. Heart of Algebra2. Problem Solving and Data Analysis3. Passport to Advanced MathEach of these subscores will be based on a 1 to 15 scale.SAT Essay ScoresLast, and perhaps least (for those not taking the essay), we have three scores based on the 55-minute writing sample you’ll have to cough up after working on the test for three hours.Here’s what you need to know:Two graders will be scoring your essayEach grader will give your essay a score (1-4) for three different criteriaThe three criteria are reading (how well do you understand the passage), analysis (how well do you describe how the writer is persuading his/her audience), and writing (how well do you write).This gives us a total of 24.However, the scores will NOT be added up, but will be presented as three scores:a 2-8 range for readinga 2-8 range for analysisa 2-8 range for writing.So a possible SAT essay score might look something like this: 7 reading/5 analysis/6 writing.PSAT Score RangesRemember I told you how I was here to dispel confusion? Well, that’s very likely what we have around the PSAT, since there is no longer just one PSAT but three, depending on your grade level.The main PSAT, the one for sophomores and juniors, has two primary functions: to see if you qualify for the National Merit Program and to give you a sense of what your likely SAT score will be. Unless, you aim to score in the top 2%, you shouldn’t worry about the scholarship. You should, though, take your PSAT score seriously because it will let you know how much you’ll need to prep for the SAT to hit your target score.The big news is that a perfect PSAT score corresponds to a 1520 on the SAT. That’s right, because the PSAT is an easier test, it won’t–at the very high end–give you a sense of how well you’ll score on the SAT. But otherwise, your PSAT score–which ranges from 320-1520–will correspond to what you’d likely get on the SAT where you to take it right after the SAT (not as in the very same day, but you know what I mean).However, you can improve your performance on the actual SAT by prepping and practice; or, if you slack off, your SAT score might be lower than what your PSAT score would suggest.SAT and ACT Score RangesSAT and ACT score ranges is about as dry a topic as they come. But there’s actually some serious drama behind this. The fact is that the ACT right now is pretty much fuming that the College Board decided to release an SAT to ACT score “translation” without consulting them (“hey College Board–why you no invite me to party?”)So the information I’m about to share is somewhat provisional; it might change if the ACT decides to release its own concordance tables (spoiler alert: the College Board won’t be invited). That said, for now, this is what colleges will most likely go on: ACT to New SAT Score Conversion Chart.As you can see from the tables on this score conversion chart, a perfect score on the ACT is a perfect score on the SAT. Though an ACT score of 35 works out to a 1540 on the SAT, remember that the ACT doesn’t have nearly as large of a score range as the SAT (36 increments from 1-36 vs. 120 increments for the SAT from 400-1600).What SAT score range do I need to get into the Ivy League?Everyone is always wondering about the Ivy League and SAT scores–which should come as no surprise. The Ivy League is highly competitive and SAT scores give admissions boards a chance to find out who the top of the top are (at least as far as test scores go).Below is table showing the middle 50% score range (meaning 25% of admitted students had lower scores and 25% had higher scores) for Ivy League schools:Projected SAT Score RangeBrown 1410-1570Cornell 1390-1550Columbia 1460-1580Dartmouth 1440-1580Harvard 1480-1600University of Pennsylvania 1440-1570Princeton 1470-1600Yale 1480-1600How to Improve Your SAT Score RangeAs I implied from the PSAT vs SAT bit above, your score has its own range–it’s not set in stone. Preparation is a huge factor, as is how well you perform on test day.The most important thing to do–and this goes for almost any point-based or time-based goal you want to set for yourself–is establish a baseline. What that means is you should take an official practice test before doing anything else (these are available for free at Khan Academy or in the Official Study Guide for a little bit more). This will give you what is called your baseline score–or the score you get when you haven’t started preparing yet.The goal is to increase that SAT score as you take subsequent practice tests. Brushing up on the fundamentals is the first order of business. Next, improve how well you test. Believe it or not, this is a skill, too. And those who are good test takers are often those who’ve developed this skill, and therefore get a good SAT score. What this means is you should learn how to pace yourself during an exam, how to remain calm when a question flusters you (often guess and move on is the best strategy), and how you can avoid careless mistakes in the future.Improving on these things will help boost your score. So next time you come to this post, when you look at the table above on SAT score ranges for top schools, you’ll be focusing on the higher end of the range and get the best SAT score you can get.More from MagooshSAT Score RangeACT Score Range: What is a Good ACT Score?SAT-ACT Score ConversionComparing SAT Test Scores by StateAbout Chris LeleChris Lele is the GRE and SAT Curriculum Manager (and vocabulary wizard) at Magoosh Online Test Prep. In his time at Magoosh, he has inspired countless students across the globe, turning what is otherwise a daunting experience into an opportunity for learning, growth, and fun. Some of his students have even gone on to get near perfect scores. Chris is also very popular on the internet. His GRE channel on YouTube has over 8 million views.You can read Chris's awesome blog posts on the Magoosh GRE blog and High School blog!You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook!« ACT Science: What to Do When You’re Running Out of Time ACT Test Secrets »Complete Guide: Colleges Not Requiring SAT ScoresPosted by Rebecca Safier | Feb 21, 2015 3:00:00 PMSAT GENERAL INFO, COLLEGE ADMISSIONSTop Tier Schools That De-emphasize the SATWe've listed over 230 of the top colleges and universities that de-emphasize the SAT as of fall 2016. Some of these are Test Flexible, some are Test Optional, and others have guaranteed admission based on GPA or class rank.The schools are numbered according to their ranking and region on the US News list of best colleges.You might notice that liberal arts schools are more likely to have a test optional policy than a national university. Liberal arts schools have increasingly taken the position that your test scores are only one component of your application and don't represent the sum of your entire education.However, most prestigious universities (the top 50 national universities) still require the SAT. This requires Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton; University of California system schools like Berkeley and UCLA; and many other top private schools.It’s important to know the SAT policies of schools long before you actually apply, since taking and prepping for the SAT can begin over a year in advance of your deadlines. Now that you’re aware of these different policies, your first course of action is to start exploring.Comprehensive List of Schools That De-Emphasize the SATBeyond the top schools above, we've also prepared a comprehensive document listing all schools that de-emphasize the SAT. Click the icon below to see the complete list.What You Should Do With This InformationNow that you have a sense of all the schools with test optional or text flexible admissions policies, what should you do next? Consider these four tips for moving forward in the college application process.1. Do Your Own Fact CheckingBecause admissions processes are complex and unique to each school, it falls on you to thoroughly explore the policies of all the colleges you are interested in. As mentioned above, if you can’t find a detailed explanation on the college’s website, don’t hesitate to call an admissions officer and ask them directly. This is also a question you could bring to your college visits, as long as you answer it early enough to have time for test prep.2. Take the SAT or ACT to Keep Your Options OpenYour college list is almost certainly going to change throughout junior and even senior year. Don’t limit yourself prematurely by ruling out the SAT, since you want to keep your options open. You wouldn’t want to fall in love with a college only to discover you don’t have time to take the SAT or prep for it effectively, and thus can’t meet the college’s admission requirements.Planning and prepping should begin at least by early junior year, and it’s very unlikely that you’ll have your college list finalized by then. As you plan out your schedule, visit our resources on when you should start prepping for the SAT and what the best test dates are for you.3. Consider Applying Broadly to Many SchoolsOn a similar note, it wouldn’t be wise to limit yourself to certain schools just to avoid taking the SAT. The fit of the college, in terms of its academics, extracurricular opportunities, campus, and culture, are much more important factors in determining where you will be spending the four years of your life after high school.Even if you feel anxious about the SAT, the skills of applied discipline and personal growth that you develop preparing will be useful to you throughout your academic and professional career.4. Analyze the Strength of Your ApplicationIf you are applying to colleges that do not require the SAT or have test flexible options, it will help you to reflect on your strengths and weaknesses. Have you achieved (or will you be able to achieve) a strong SAT score, or is your academic ability better represented through AP and Subject Tests? Will the scores strengthen your overall application, or do they not truly represent your skills and abilities? Where do you shine the brightest?While SAT optional policies gives you yet another thing to think about as you apply, ultimately having that increased choice can only work in your benefit. By making an informed and intentional decision, you have the power to shape the story you tell to admissions officers.What’s Next?Even among universities that do require SAT scores, there’s some variation in exactly how they look at your scores. Check out the full list of colleges who superscore the SAT and learn how this information may completely transform your approach to test prep.Exploring your standardized testing options? Many colleges also superscore the ACT. Click here for the full list and for strategies on how to get your best scores.Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:Get eBook: 5 Tips for 160+ Points10 Top-Ranked Colleges That Are Flexible With Test Scores

For a high school teacher, is understanding methods to teach more important than knowledge of the subject?this is a crucial question, especially if the teaching assignment is in a low-come area school. white middle-class schools tend to have a majority of students reading at the national average, by definition because the tests are standardized on that population. standard textbooks and lecture methods of instruction are usually adequate for learning, though changes in methodology would accelerate learning in these schools and prepare them better for college.students in low-income area schools can rarely read the textbooks they are assigned in any subject matter, so the expertise of the teacher’s knowledge of the subject matter could be crucial in developing methods that would help these students learn better. the problem, however, is complicated by the shallow knowledge of most college graduates except perhaps in their majors, where i’d guess that most of them can read advanced level authors like shakespeare, twain, faulkner, hemingway and the like with much more comprehension than any of their students. they only need the barest of supporting summaries of their texts to make sense of what they read. they are not prepared to give extensive lectures, and most are not effective by any measure. their personal understanding of most of the assigned material is fine especially if they have used online versions of sparks notes on famous writers. but it takes real training to be an effective lecturer, and they saw few models of that during their college classes.in middle-class area schools i’d say that at least 66% percent are reading at the national average and perhaps more now that more lower-income schools are included in norming process. these schools are still underachieving, but no one notices because their test scores are fine. their grades are even better because they are tuned into their school’s culture and they can read their teachers better than they can their assignments, so their grades are fine as well. they aren’t learning much past simple recall summaries. and most of them don’t their schools any better than the lower-come kids like their schools.but kids in lower-income area schools have the reverse of the number who are reading at the national average—only about 33%.i have more than anecdotal evidence for that last claim. the grade distribution at my school, 3-miles from the mexican border, stayed permanently fixed in the same bi-modal split for 20 years. every was accreditation showed the same numbers every four years:40% A’s and B’s….and 40% D’s and F’s.that’s a damning stat, huh? but in some respects it may look encouraging that there was still a substantial number of kids with above average grades. no one, not even the teachers at our school, really believed those grades were “authentic” measures of achievement. the most honest assessment was that we had a large group of nice, hard-working kids, who showed up on a regular basis, and did their homework (this was a key factor in getting A’s). they picked up enough of the lecture summaries to write minimally successful summaries of their own. their state standards exams showed that they were averaging around the 25th percentile in reading comprehension and even lower in vocabulary.our textbooks looked like the sets in middle-class schools, which meant that they were essentially unreadable for most students. no matter the subject are, but especially in english classes, where the language had multiple layers of meaning, even the dumbed-down summaries were inadequate. not much learning is going to occur in a classroom where only person in the room who can read the story is the teacher. all courses in every subject matter were simple courses, taught by college majors, as preps for future college majors. the teachers taught what they had been taught. now, what’s wrong with this picture? what my high school buddy, who became a specialist in learning disabilities, called “the elusive obvious.” what was wrong was that in any single course, the number of kids who had any definite idea at that time of what they wanted to choose as a major was very small, about two or three kids at the most. so, teachers were teaching with highly specialized focus on very complex readings well beyond the grasp of even those two or three kids in the class who were somewhat interested.what about a different approach? what about choosing textbooks which were student-centered and accessible. by sheer luck, our district was targeted by an unusual offering of popular readings from a major book company. it was a staggering offer, under the umbrella of a comprehensive elective program. we weren’t going to offer english 10 - 11- and 12 texts for each grade level, but instead we were given as many class sets of specialized semester electives as we could imagine teaching. we got to pick our favorites genres and/or authors to fill out the program. we had courses with the following tiles: creative writing, writing the short essay, literature of sports, myth and folklore, humor and satire, drama, black literature, the short stories of ernest hemingway, spies and private eyes, reading short stories (several different collections were available), modern novels, something strange and for those who didn’t want to jump right into this format i constructed semester courses, and wrote district program descriptions with goals and objectives, for each of the three traditional textbooks. we didn’t want to force anyone to have to teach courses they had never taught before. the next year only two teachers were teaching from traditional textbooks, but each teacher was only teaching the modern semester of the readings.we were now consumed with a programming nightmare. computers were still incapable of handling complex functions, so had to work by trial-and-error with the counseling staff to find a workable programming approach. here is the only program that would work:semester courses only, all courses could be taught in any order and at any time in the three years of high school. all courses were ungraded (anyone at the school could take any open course no matter their grade level—my first modern novel class had 12 seniors, 11 juniors and 12 sophomores). all students would register in an open arena where tables were set up with all faculty members holding their ibm computer punch-cards for each course they taught. one nice feature was that courses could be opened and closed during registrations as the need arose. we just sent program notes to the computer room and got sets of ibm cards back within an hour or so. we had to stay flexible and calm during these hectic registrations days. by the second year we had reduced the time to register the entire school down to three hours, and we were done by noon.we had no idea whether any of this would work, but everything worked like a charm. kids loved its flexibility, teachers loved the way the choices became official before school even started and we could all begin teaching our courses on the first day of school. we usually a two-week period of unstable class rosters with lots of last- minute transfers. this system had almost no transfers. almost all course had accessible reading materials. the snazzy title spies and private eyes had to be dropped in the second year because the pulp-fiction stories had too many vocabulary words the kids couldn’t read. that was a surprise. the hemingway short stories was a surprising hit and became very popular. his stories were short and readable but much more complex than they appeared. literature of sports was very popular and myth and folklore was also a surprise popular choice. this program was incredibly flexible and accessible in content. i guess that was enough radical changes. i didn’t see much change in approach at all. the texts usually had “discussion” questions that were a step-up in interest and at encouraging divergent thinking, but most were simple-minded and formal questions of little learning value. all the writing courses became very popular. creative writing (mine) always closed first with all seniors and even the college prep writing courses were very popular. but the approach for creative writing had wonderful texts and didn’t require any innovative lessons, but i still used lots of a-v support when i taught the courses.my writing the short essay course was my own invention and had no textbooks, but lots of xeroxed readings (single pages only) from all collegiate lower-division courses they might encounter. i taught expository essays that had timed limits (simulating college mid-terms and finals) and stressed completeness of answering the questions being asked. we had reports fro early on that the average gpa at uc san diego for our freshman there was 1.4—probation. i set out to change that. that one semester course soon produced a second, more advanced course, called college prep compositions. these two courses were the most radically different in terms of methodology. i soaked the course in documentary films from the national film board of canada and a wide range of advanced musical formats from classical to fusion jazz, and i offered extra-credit for attendance at the local foreign film theater, which became a popular date night for large groups of my students. i had learned from former students that foreign films were very popular among the teaching staffs at san diego state and uc san diego. using references to a bergman film, for instance, would give you bonus points on most essays. i also set out to counter a primary psychological problem facing my students, the wholesale attack on their traditional beliefs in the fist two years of college. i loaded them with library research on short topics with controversial topics (“was jesus of nazareth born on december 25th?”), and challenged them with short passages from sartre, jung, plato and weber to name just a few. i gave them practice in listening to lectures that would shock and challenge them, then taught them how to defend themselves. i loved using passages from studies in sociology like milgram’s studies in obedience, to start examining controversial issues. the elective program lasted another ten years before it was erased with a single stroke by the back-to-basics movement. i never had so much fun teaching and i saw other teachers were having fun for the first time, too.other departments had not been nearly as willing to experiment at first, but once the elective program stabilized so quickly and efficiently, others added more and more electives of their own. the PE department had some particularly innovative courses, but math and science stayed with nearly the same courses and sequences and added only one course, an oceanology class, that was new and a “probability” course in math got lots of attention from a young, hip teacher who was close to a professional gambler. unfortunately, the social sciences department, with an even wider range of possible electives than english remained unwilling to offer a full elective program and remained largely in a static stage of offering mostly their same program of history courses, but the were forced by the english department’s program into non-linear semester courses with mixed grade level rosters which seemed to irritate them. by the third year of the program, for instance, no english teacher was teaching a traditional semester course. everyone there had found a group of elective courses they preferred. by contrast, the social sciences had no one with a completely different course selection of new electives, though there were as many offerings from the textbook company in the social sciences as there were in english, but only a few members of that department chose even one new elective program to teach over the next ten years.why such a difference and even resistance from the largest department in the school? the only observable difference was the gender factor. the social sciences had only three female teachers and the english department had only three male teachers. this was a typical gender divide in most american high schools. and there was one other crucial difference that the english department had that no one other department had. me. i was the crucial difference and i had a very different background from the rest of the teachers. i had been drafted, but more importantly i had offered my limited teacher’s experience to revolutionize the army’s special agent program.that revolution occurred almost accidentally. first, i was headed to vietnam as an infantry officer, but a last-minute change in the army’s structure took precedence over the need for combat officers. they needed more officers in intelligence and we were all offered immediate branch transfers to military intelligence. i had already submitted a request for that branch transfer, so i knew i’d get that transfer. the army saw my teaching credential and assigned me to stay at the army intelligence school to teach in the special agent course. first, i took the course itself, which was interesting and i could see where my background as an english teacher might be helpful in a couple different departments teaching that course. there was a substantial number of classes in report writing. intelligence agencies needed intel and agent reports were an essential first step in any intelligence operation. the special ops dept had the coolest courses which included counter-terrorism and black ops. the classes had experienced field operatives teaching the classes, but they needed someone to teach them how to teach more effectively. all their classes were straight lectures and the instructors were obviously uncomfortable in that role. that’s where i wanted to be. another dept was also attractive. they had to teach young agents how to interview people during the required background investigations that military intelligence ran to make sure their staff had proper security clearances. this was a massive dept with trained actors who enforced the proper interviewing technique with explosive humor whenever an agent would ask the “wrong” kind of question. i’d like to write scripts for that dept and would enjoy becoming actor, too. the legal dept was the most highly trained group of the course, loaded with top ivy-league lawyers they duplicated the socratic method used in law schools and were the most effective teachers in the school by far. and they gave gravitas to the rule-of-law that many intelligence operations dismissed as “legal technicalities.” well, i had loved being in that dept but they didn’t need my help.three of us had finished the agent course and had been given our assignments at the intelligence school, but my assignment was not to any dept in the special agent course. previous to taking the agent course, i had been temporarily assigned to an adjunct committee while i waited for my agent course to start, about three weeks. this committee had a simple task. they taught everyone assigned to teach courses at the intelligence school how to teach. it was a five day course, and it was a joke. the only “method” they taught was the simple lecture, no matter what the content, but they were especially concerned that all instructors would stay “on task” and cover every “teaching point” in the assigned lecture that had been written for them. i was not assigned to this committee as an instructor nor as a writer of this short 5-day how-to course. i was given paperwork, but the committee was nearly dysfunctional, and there were always problems services the huge number of new “instructors” that needed their course. i was asked several times if i could “step in” to teacher a class, and i was glad to do it. i must have drawn someone's attention there, because my orders assigning me to the school was not to teach in any special agent course deduct but was to this hole-in-the-wall committee. i was upset, but what could i do? i began wondering if they would allow me to extend the length of the course to 10-days with more helpful ideas about teaching. or, i could offer my services to any dept (like special ops) that might like some added teaching support. this was a one-year assignment and after that, my orders to vietnam would come. i was upset, but not nearly as upset as another young officer who was very angry that his orders were “wrong.” he was guaranteed by a friend that he would be assigned where the friends also worked. he was upset. i was, too, but not like him. i asked where he had been assigned: special ops. that’s great assignment, i said. you can have it, he answered sarcastically. then he asked what my assignment was. now, he was very angry. that was where he was supposed to go. how did i get his assignment? i just shrugged my shoulders. his friend was the spec 4 clerk-typist who handles all incoming and outgoing correspondence, and was perfectly placed to direct his friend’s request to join him. but something had gone wrong. maybe my assignment to “his” committee had also been requested by the officer in charge there. that officer was long gone by now, shipped to vietnam. i said i’d switch assignments with him. his buddy would handle the paperwork and no one would see that his assignment had been changed. my change of assignment would attract attention, but i was pretty sure i could bluff my way through reporting to special ops. their course had taught me how to construct a plan of “plausible denial” if i ran into trouble. so, i was planning my “cover story” as i walked to the department of special operations with orders that had my name written in elegant cursive and the original persons name neatly crossed out. i had catholic school palmer-method cursive handwriting. it looked like a woman’s handwriting—some secretary. no one cared, especially once i told them that i was a credentialed teacher. it also helped that the officer i reported to had an X in his name. captain xenakis. was i greek, he wanted to know. irish, i said. i had dark red hair and two irish grandmothers.i immediately began asking other instructors if i could help in any way. they hated the scripts they had to use, so i asked how they’d like to teach the lesson. that’s how i started. i changed the lecture method and substituted an inquiry-method where they asked their students to solve a particular “problem” that has occurred in the operation. all these “problems” were based on actual cases these experts had worked. their stories were great and they loved their new scripts. within a couple months i had rewritten every lesson in the department, and had gotten each script approved officially. i was also looking for an area of expertise that i could develop for myself. most lesson really required extensive operational experience in the field. but there was a single hour class on “radical groups in the USA,” which was incredibly out-dated, so i rewrote the class as a two-hour presentation and updated the content to meet the needs of new field operatives. the research was fun and teaching the classes were great. i took a clue from the actors around me and decided that i’d set the first hour up as “a radical” who had been given access to debate a well-known member of the dept that was exactly the kind of person who would do such a thing. that other person never shows up, of course, and i began arguing with the military officers in the room about their conduct in an immoral war. this always got very heated and right before someone came top grab me, i’d slide my official name and rank into the lecture slot for the class instructor. i also had an officer outside the room to stop anyone from the class who would be sent to report the disruption going on. it worked like a charm and made me famous.as my year tour of duty came close to ending, wrote up a radically different program that would use re-enactments of intelligence scenarios to create on-the-spot “problems” that needed immediate responses. every class in the dept would be recreated in this dramatic process with five or six student on stage rotating in and out as they all took shots at find the school-solutions to the continuing problems. this was my parting gift to the dept that had welcomed me so completely. they really liked the program, but were worried that it wouldn’t work without me being there. i showed them that wasn’t true. there were plenty of experience field operatives who would also be good at fixing the scripts as needed. i had given rather explicit directions. anyone could make the necessary adjustments with the structure of my notes and advice from staff. i really thought the plan was easy to implement once the idea was accepted. the proposed change of program was given to all the special agent depts and they were all enthusiastic and anxious to try it. captain pyle from legal was especially supportive and said my implementation of the harvard school of business’ case-study program was especially effective. i’d never seen the harvard program, but i saw how it looked like i had. as my transfer date approached my department members were constantly stopping by with questions and suggestions for making the program better. i was happy to so much input and was busy writing suggested changes as my deadline neared.we all knew when our exact date for transfer would occur and the transfers for my section began alphabetically, so in formed my department that i had about a week or so before they to me at the very end of the list. a classroom had been reconfigured a coupe weeks previously and i spent a lot of time in that room testing the rear-screen projections of backdrop photos of actual field offices throughout the US and europe as required in the scenarios. the photos were stunning in transforming the empty classroom into a realistic field office. changes of venues that occurred throughout the complex storylines could be made with a simple flip of a switch. the colonel in charge of special ops asked for a sample demo of how the program would function. we found several recent grads from the traditional agent course that had just finished. they were all on hold in casual status waiting their next assignments through the world and were anxious to have some brush-up exercises.everything was working quite well and the reactions to the program’s opening scenarios were enthusiastic. meanwhile my time for transfer was within a day or even sooner. the orders didn’t come. nor the next week, either. everyone else had been transferred, except me. i never knew for sure why my orders weren’t issued but my department was sure that the colonel had requested that i remain to implement a crucial new program.that program was a bold revision of a lecture-format process into a dynamic discovery-method program worth of john dewey’s famous “learn-by-doing” methodology. at the very moment i was a changing the agent course, secretary of defense bb macnamar’s whiz kids were transforming all of the army schools with their performance-objectives with strict accountability guidelines. that reformation which would soon spread into all of american education was being ordered into place with a single directive. those educational experts were very interested in my program and my extensive network of goals and objectives. in the second year of my stay in the special ops department, they were constant visitors with hundreds of questions and suggestions. i’ve never experience such interest and positive encouragement from any administrator or district in 30 years of teaching in public high schools.when the moment came in my second year at a new school, i was ready for a systemic change in both content and methodology. i got a new and much-needed change in content materials that were directly designed to be student-centered. there was not a comparable change in methods to teach that content. small steps, i guess. i was spoiled by my early success in the army, of all places, and also by the innovative elective program that operated successfully for over ten years, which was quite an achievement in its own right. my assessment of the content vs methodology argument falls more heavily with methodology, but radical content (compouter skills, information service jobs) might force a sea change in methods of teaching. absent such pressure, i’m afraid it is mostly business as usual in our schools.one final note: talking about systemic change may turn out to be a substitute for actually doing anything about it.