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On a physics teacher message board, someone asked:
If a student actually uses the Christmas Tree method or all Cs to answer all or part of the multiple choice questions..
Does this count against the teacher?
Just wondering... for a friend....
I'm not clear what you mean by "count against." :-)
There is no College Board Secret Police. You - and your administration - will see your students' scores on a 1-2-3-4-5 scale. You may access a slightly more detailed report, indicating your students' overall performance broken down by topic. That's it. No one sees the multiple choice other than the computer who scores it.
The readers see the free response. I suppose that if the student writes "Kick Ms. Lipshutz in the butt for me" on the free response, one reader in one room in Kansas city will see that for approximately two seconds - that's how long it takes to write a zero and move on to the next problem.
The readers are not allowed, and not able, to track down teachers whose students give crap answers to the free response. (We're not allowed or able to track down the ones whose students give awesome answers, either.) The process is pretty danged anonymous.
So, nothing to worry about. If a student says (s)he made a christmas tree, consider that he or she is almost definitely exaggerating for the sake of playing misery poker with friends; or, they're trying to get a rise out of you.
Of course, the next step is to build your physics culture all year such that the student who says "I just bubbled christmas trees cause I don't understand anything" earns sneers from classmates. You don't need to respond to such a student, other than to give them the same look you'd give a 14 year old who eats mashed potatoes with their fingers at a formal meal: not as much disapproving as disbelieving and pitying. It's when the rest of the class gives that student a similar look that you know you've established the right tone. That takes a few years.
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