Re: [Academic Decathlon] Re: Speech & Interview Schedules

[JChu...@aol.com]

Tom,

 

What, if anything, became of the discussion about how to change the problem going forward?

 

Ten or so years ago Texas adopted a system that ensured the top ten ranked teams at the state meet (based on regional scores) would all compete directly with each other and would also be slated at the end of the schedule.  (This is at the large school meet.  I can't speak for the medium/small meet.)  There are forty teams at the meet, and two sets of judges.  The top ten teams go in slots eleven through twenty, by random draw, for one of the judging sets.  This system has done a good job of preventing any gross irregularities that would handicap a team based merely on the luck of the draw.

 

Texas still has a large problem, though, when it comes to subjective scoring at one of their state meets relative to the other.  The two meets are held at different sites, and more often than not there is a significant difference in the subjective scores between the two meets.  In 2004, for example, the medium/small meet had a team subjective average that was around 1500 points higher than the team average at the large meet.  The large-school team had the highest objective total in the state and the #1 ranked subjective total at its own meet, but the medium-school team advanced on the strength of its subjective scores, though those scores ranked only #7 at their own meet.

 

A couple years after that, the effect may have swung the other way (against the medium-school team).  When the teams are closely matched, as they often have been in Texas the last several years thanks to the increased strength of the medium-school division, it is difficult to tell who the best team is when there are two different, and sometimes wildly disparate, scoring scales.

 

Jeremy Chumley

Nimitz HS

Irving, TX

 

 

 

In a message dated 8/7/2008 8:05:01 A.M. Central Daylight Time, rile...@yahoo.com writes:

I don't have a problem with staggered schedule - I think it's the fairest
way to ensure that judge fatigue is minimized.

However, judge rest breaks and judge score calibration is critical.  With
AP exams (and the former Golden State exams) subjective grading of
essays is prepared for by an extensive, detailed training session.  There
is ongoing calibration to ensure that scores dont meander off the "center."

I think if we are to minimize unfair scoring, judge training and calibration
has to be implemented.

This past year at LA County, the schools were broken up into an early
start and a late start group, with about 27-28 teams in each, according
mostly to their geographic location.  90% of the speech medals went
to the late start schools.  And this had nothing to do with the quality
of the teams, as there were high scoring teams in both groups.

This is statistically significant and led to a discussion of how to avoid
this problem in future years.  Judges scoring habits change during the
day.

Tom Riley
Mark Keppel HS
Alhambra, CA

----- Original Message ----
From: KScarberry <KScar...@solanocoe.net>
To: Academic Decathlon Coaches <acadec...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 12:29:24 PM
Subject: [Academic Decathlon] Speech & Interview Schedules


How would you schedule your local, state and/or national Speech &
Interview (SpeInt) Competition?

Would you stagger decathletes so that the entire team does not go at
the same time?
Would you group teams with similar scores together?
Would you pull names out of a hat and put them in a random order?

What would you do to make this portion of an AD Competition fair for
all teams taking into consideration some teams are more competitive
than others?

Thanks, in advance, for those willing to share your perspectives on
this item.  Please consider responding and sharing your view.

 

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[Dean Webb]

Our scores are always higher when we have a late start time. And, yes, we’d love calibration of judges. Essay scores in Texas last year were a wreck, and I think calibration would have helped avoid that mess.

 

Dean Webb

Berkner HS

Richardson, TX