by Bobby Hawthorne
Academics Director
For a guy who has avoided mathematics since the third grade, who has never balanced a checkbook in his life, who majored in journalism because its degree plan then required no more math than was needed to figure out the tip for a cup of coffee and a Manske roll at the old 2-Js on the Drag, I’ve been giving mathematics a lot of thought lately.
Not in any deep, abstract, philosophical way, of course. Oh sure, I’ve tried to understand the calculus that would allow Washington State to leapfrog the Texas Longhorns in the BCS standings, but I’ll fully grasp Godel’s Theorem before I understand college football rankings or any statistical equation that places UT behind Oklahoma in anything beyond poultry science or tornado studies. (editor’s note: this column was written prior to the UT-Texas Tech football game)
And recently, I read the liner notes of Stephen Hawkings’ A Brief History of Time. So I’m not totally math challenged. Still, I don’t generally spend an inordinate amount of time contemplating ordinates. Or fractals. Or vectors.
All that’s changed, and I blame Jim Seale of Waco Midway. Here’s the story: last spring, I proposed that the UIL install tie-breakers in the various academic contests where they do not exist. Why? Because we’ve expanded participation to the point that we’re swamping district and region meets -- and may deluge State Meet as well. Consider, for example, District 30-A. It consists of 13 schools. Each school is eligible to enter four students in the academic contests that contain a team component. In number sense, for example, that’s 52 kids. How many Conference A schools have classrooms large enough to seat 52? And even if they have one, do they have three more because they’ll need at least four in order to host a district meet, given that accounting, literary criticism, science and spelling and vocabulary take place simultaneously unless the district spreads the meet over two or three days.
My tie-breaker proposal wouldn’t change this, and I mention it only to buttress the point that participation in UIL academics continues to expand. The more pressing problem is at region. Each region consists of eight districts. Again, let’s consider number sense. The top three individual winners advance as well as the first place team and one wild card team. Though it’s unlikely to occur, it’s possible that 60 students could advance to the regional meet (24 individuals, 32 first place team members, four wild card team members). While it may not stretch the facilities (and patience and stamina) of some of the larger universities, it poses a considerable challenge for the smaller ones.
Allowing ties to advance further strains the system. Last spring, one district advanced six individuals to region: first, second and a four-way tie for third. Granted, this happens rarely, and there’s a legal axiom that bad cases make for bad law. Still, eliminating ties can restore balance to the program and calm a few of our regional directors’ jittery nerves so I proposed tie-breakers for current issues and events, literary criticism, mathematics, number sense and science teams as well as calculator applications, number sense and science individuals.
I had it all worked out. In the event of a tie, judges would invoke the formula for percent accuracy, which divides the number of problems attempted by the number of problems correct. It’s cumbersome but entirely doable. This is where Jim Seale comes in. Jim correctly surmises that using the formula for percent accuracy would fundamentally change the delicate balance between speed and accuracy so critical to the nature of the number sense contest, and several of his colleagues with the Texas Math/Science Coaches Association agree. This is months after the Academic Committee of the Legislative Council passed the proposals, and less than a week before they’re taken up by the full Legislative Council in mid- October.
So now I’m thinking about math a lot. I’m wondering, "How am I going to convince the Academic Committee to table the proposals on the thin assumption that I know what I’m talking about, which, of course, I don’t because it involves math."
Fortunately, one of the TMSCA officers -- and I honestly can’t recall who -- suggested another option: use the fourth team member’s score to break the tie. It’s brilliant, simple, so much easier than trying to figure out percent accuracy, plus it encourages and rewards team building. Best of all, it requires hardly any additional math.
Thus, in June 2003, the Academic Committee will entertain proposals that in the event two or more teams tie for first place, the highest overall net score of the fourth place member of the team will be used to break the tie. Should two or more contestants who are the fourthplace member of their team have the same overall net score, then a tie will be declared and all involved in the tie shall advance.
What if a team does not contain a fourth member? It forfeits the right to participate in the tie-breaker. At the State Meet, a tie or ties for first place overall team shall not be broken.
We will also submit proposals to break ties for individual calculator applications and science places. As for ties for individual number sense, I’ve decided not to monkey with the delicate balance between speed and accuracy so if ties exist for first, second or third place, so be it.
Moving on...
* A reminder: computer applications is a "laptop only" contest this spring. Contestants must provide their own laptop or notebook computers, printers and peripherals, and all equipment must be fully functional at the beginning of the contest.
Exception: a district may vote to use a networked computer lab with shared printers. We discourage it, however, since students will be required to use laptops at region and state.
* A clarification: in the science team competition, the top four members of the first place science team will advance. For whatever reason some believe that all six members of the top team should advance. Not so. According to the C & CR (Sec.952 (f) (13) (I) “Four members of the winning team will advance to the next higher level of competition.”
In all team contests, the sum of the school’s three highest contestant scores will determine the team score.
* Information regarding the pilot social studies contest is posted on the UIL website (www.uil.utexas.edu). Click on academics and scroll down.
The test will consist of 40 multiple-choice questions, evenly divided between Texas government and Texas geography. Sample questions are posted on the website. The League will make available two invitational contests as well as a district contest. To request an invitational contest, e-mail me at uilacad@uts.cc.utexas.edu. District contest materials will be mailed to all district spring meet directors. The district entry form may be downloaded from the academic page of the UIL website as a PDF file or you can use the district entry form in the Spring Meet Handbook.
This is the fourth year of a social studies pilot. We piloted an economics contest for two years, and are in the second year of the government/geography pilot. If you think we’re taking too long to bring the contest into the spring meet program as a full-fledged contest, keep in mind the literary criticism pilot lasted five years. We think we can bring social studies aboard next year. I met with a number of social studies instructors and coordinators this fall, and we’re appointing members to an advisory committee that will meet in early 2003 to draw up specific contest substance and format guidelines. I envision a contest that resembles literary criticism: thematic, focused on selected readings and requiring more analysis than rote memorization. It will appeal to all grade levels and will delve into economics, history, geography and government.
More on this to come.
* Finally, we’ve recently completed another successful Student Activities Conference season. We tried to reach new regions of the state by visiting Tyler Junior College and UT-Pan American in Edinburg. Next fall, we’ll return to the University of North Texas and Sam Houston State University.
For now, thanks to the following regional academic directors and their staffs for all their hard work: Lynn Elms of Texas Tech; Sally Miller of UT-Pan American; and M’Liss Hindman of Tyler Junior College. Also, to Patty Wilson of Valley View High School and William Kelly of Conroe Caney Creek High School, two of the state’s outstanding UIL academic coordinators, and to all those teachers out there who shared their knowledge and experience with coaches and students.
And, of course, thanks to our UIL contest directors who spend their weekends criss-crossing the state with the League caravan: LaVerne Funderburk, David Bourell, Denis Kohl, Linda Tarrant, Tom Buckley, Karen Werkenthin, Marcia Hilsabeck, Fred Tarpley and our two new directors, Larry White and Lawrence Shepley. Thanks, guys.
To you all, happy holidays. See you in the spring.