Sapphire Portal Access Required

All students will be expected to be able to log into their own Sapphire account this year. Students will need their own account for signing up for good-standing activities, scheduling, grade monitoring, and accessing features such as online testing by some teachers. If you do not remember your login information, those details were emailed to the email account you used to create the Sapphire portal account. If you never created an account, please see a guidance secretary or let a teacher know and they will track down the information for you.

Better Presentation Tips

For tips on better presentations: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/05/25/the-best-sources-of-advice-for-making-good-presentations/

APA Citation Machine

For students working to develop their list of works cited in APA format, you may want to use this free online tool: Citation Machine

And for those internal citations in APA style: Purdue OWL

Mustang Research Center

In an attempt to provide a unified resource for students working on research projects in any course, a small team of teachers lead by Mr. Vega and Mrs. Greenholt developed a website. This "Research Center" provides guidance and guidelines along with links to examples, graphic organizers, videos and powerpoints - all designed to help students grow more adept at researching and publishing that research. Although already extensive, additional resources will be continuously added and some additional materials related to science research projects will be developed soon. You can access the Mustang Research Center using this link: http://mustangresearch.weebly.com/

AP Scoring Change 2011

From the College Board:

We are writing to inform you of a change related to all AP® Exams, except AP Studio Art, that will be taken in May 2011. Please share this information with students preparing to take AP Exams this year.

Beginning with the May 2011 AP Exam administration, total scores on multiple-choice sections will be based on the number of questions answered correctly. Points will no longer be deducted for incorrect answers and, as always, no points will be awarded for unanswered questions.

Existing research confirms that both formula scoring (in which points are deducted for incorrect answers) and rights scoring (in which no points are deducted for incorrect answers) are valid scoring procedures. As AP has expanded, we have needed to create additional versions of each AP Exam to support test-taking worldwide. Unlike most other high stakes exams, AP Exams have a heavily weighted free-response section, which requires specific test development and scoring processes that ensure AP Exams are comparable in difficulty from version to version. The change to rights scoring simply enables us to streamline those processes.

This change will not make AP Exams any easier or harder for students. The number of points needed to earn AP Exam scores of 5, 4, 3 and 2 is, as always, based on how well college students perform during the pre-testing of AP Exam questions.

Thank you for all you do to provide your students with access to high-quality AP opportunities. Your efforts are laying the groundwork for your students’ future college success.