In 2007, Craig Smith left a successful career at Exxon Mobil and became a teacher of secondary school calculus. In 2006, the year before he started teaching, 46 students per thousand took the AP Calculus AB test at Lone Peak High School. In 2017, this figure had jumped to 160 students per thousand, compared to 34 students per thousand statewide. The current participation rate is 800 percent higher than the national average. In 2006, 13 students per thousand at Lone Peak passed the test, compared to the rate of 22 per thousand statewide. In 2016, the statewide pass rate was still 22 per thousand, but Craig's students had a pass rate of 114 per thousand, an increase of 777 percent. > He begins with one all-important preconception, one rigid bias, one unyielding prejudice: that every student can learn calculus. His math dojo is a per- sonal development center that rejects the idea that learning ability is fixed or implanted at birth.⁵ “I try never to judge a student’s aptitude or effort.” Craig maintains that slow students are not less intelligent students. They simply assimilate at a slower pace, so his focus is on student effort rather than aptitude. That ability to resist making discriminating judg- ments of students’ abilities is a skill, but it’s also a moral capacity, and one that many teachers don’t have the discipline to develop. Many teachers make aptitude judgments and begin sorting and assigning value to their students immediately. --- Source: [[The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety]]