ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - At first, Elizabeth Wilson thought the East High School student who showed up at her house just wanted to spend time with her daughters — but then he started arriving even when the girls weren’t there.
He had homework to do.
“Finally it was like, ’Oh, he’s always using the graphing calculator,’” Wilson said on a recent weekday afternoon. “He told me he couldn’t afford one.”
Wilson noticed that at some schools, graphing calculators only highlighted the gap between the haves and the have-nots. That’s because prices can approach $140 for newer models of the technology, a staple of advanced math courses for decades.
The inequity had a simple and reachable solution, she thought: Get more calculators.
So Wilson, a stay-at-home mom with a penchant for giving back, started a grass-roots “calculator campaign.” So far, Wilson has raised enough money to donate more than two dozen graphing calculators, at least 10 of the less-expensive scientific calculators, and an additional $1,700 in cash donations for two Anchorage high schools.
“It’s tangible, it’s easy and it has an immediate and measurable impact,” she said.
Wilson’s efforts started at East High, where 56 percent of the students were considered low-income last school year, according to Anchorage School District data. Wilson said she learned that nearly 30 students enrolled in AP calculus and pre-calculus could not afford a graphing calculator. So she donated three to the high school last fall.
“I saw a sale and I had a coupon, so I bought three just because and delivered them,” Wilson said. “That wasn’t a big deal. But this year, I wanted to step it up.”
She broadened her focus to include Bartlett High School, where the percentage of low-income students also surpassed 50 percent. She looked into buying graphing calculators as well as scientific calculators that students can use on state math assessments, as well as other exams.
Alex Hagler, curriculum assistant principal at Bartlett High, said teachers for classes like calculus and physics have a set of graphing calculators in their rooms for students to use during class, at lunch or before and after school.
But teachers don’t always allow students to take the calculators home. “They’re valuable,” Hagler said.
The School District can purchase the “TI-84 Plus CE” model for $108 each, Hagler said. Wilson said she found the calculators for $88 at Walmart’s back-to-school sale — a “screaming deal.” So she drove to all three stores and bought the whole stock — more than two dozen calculators for roughly $2,400.
She logged on to Facebook to ask her friends for donations to help cover the bills, just as she had done to raise money for her volunteer work on an international medical team.
The money quickly added up. Wilson dropped off one used and 22 new graphing calculators at East High as well as a $700 donation for staff to purchase the technology as needed. Students can check out the new calculators to use at home, said East High Principal Sam Spinella. They supplement calculator sets available for in-school use.
“We did the best we could,” Spinella said. “This gives kids more flexibility.”
Wilson said that met her goal for East High.
“The goal was for every student to have access to one, not to have one,” she said. Her focus then shifted to Bartlett High.
On a recent morning at Bartlett, 17-year-old Alicia Washington sat toward the back of a calculus class next to Dontae Robertson. Washington pulled out her bulky, gray graphing calculator from an oversized purse.
It once belonged to her brother who will soon graduate college, so “it’s ancient,” she said. It did not turn on. The screen recently broke, she said. She tried again to turn it on. It remained black. When asked if she would buy another one she laughed: “Nope.”
Robertson, 17, said he bought his graphing calculator for a little under $100. He said he used money he earned working part-time at the YMCA.
Their calculus teacher, Mike Lanzarone, estimated that fewer than half the students in his class owned a graphing calculator. Those who don’t own one can borrow from a school-provided set that was charging in the back of the classroom. He said they use the calculators every day. Students in other classes, like pre-calculus, physics and statistics, use them too.
“It allows them to do crazy things,” Lanzarone said. Students can program the calculators, use them to graph functions, find derivatives and create lists for statistical analysis, among a long list of other capabilities.
Though the technology may seem dated, it’s necessary. Students can’t use any sort of applications on their cellphones to take exams because of the Internet connection and camera, said Bartlett High Principal Sean Prince.
Wilson has so far donated five new graphing calculators and two used scientific calculators to Bartlett, along with a $1,000 check. She said she also hopes the increased calculator availability helps students on tests, including the SAT, ACT and AP exams. Her own daughter, she says, forgot her graphing calculator for the SAT. When she retook it with the calculator, she scored 50 points better on the math portion, Wilson said.
Hagler said all Bartlett classrooms that need either graphing or scientific calculators have a set, “though they may not be the latest models.” Students can check those calculators out for tests like the SAT or ACT, she said.
She polled teachers and determined that around 60 percent of students had their own scientific calculators and about 40 percent had their own graphing calculators. She said Bartlett will use the $1,000 donation from Wilson to buy calculators as needed and update some that are years old. They will make the donated calculators available for students to check out to practice with or use for homework.
On top of the check and calculators, Barlett High received a pallet from Wal-Mart on Debarr Road that was piled with leftover supplies from their back-to-school sale — notebooks, folders and even a handful of scientific calculators.
Wilson learned of the donation Wednesday. She’d gone to the store to ask if they could donate some of the leftovers to Bartlett. She went back to follow up on Monday, but the manager wasn’t around. Wal-Mart didn’t contact her, she said, but the supplies had shown up.
Wilson, whose own kids are now 17 and 20, has continued plans for the calculator campaign.
“I have a lot of energy for small projects,” she said last week at local coffee shop. “I’m all about, ’Let’s get this done.’”
Wilson said she continues to work with Bartlett High to determine the school’s needs. She wants to partner with businesses for technology donations. She wants to bring in speakers who can succinctly tell students the importance of math in their specific fields — like sports, dance choreography and sales.
For now, she’s set up a box at the Northway Mall management office to continue the calculator collection.
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Information from: Alaska Dispatch News, https://www.adn.com
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