From Box Scores to Test Scores

Teacher and podcaster Mike O'Connell (host of the Math and Musings podcast) brings a new look to teaching mathematics using his twin passions of sports and sports statistics.

Teacher and podcaster Mike O'Connell (host of the Math and Musings podcast) brings a new look to teaching mathematics using his twin passions of sports and sports statistics. What started as strictly a motivation to help minority male students (shown to be lagging behind in standardized testing but often showing an interest in sports) soon became an inclusive program designed to help all students, assisting those originally targeted without shortchanging anyone else. Not really a textbook per se, From Box Scores to Test Scores is a combination math primer, autobiography, and comedy script. The sample problems within vary from elementary level to, well, a lot more than that. From the classroom to the test page to real life, From Box Scores to Test Scores is your playbook for success!

Michael O'Connell was born in Binghamton, New York, and for better or worse spent the first 30 years of his life there. He lives now in Sterling, Virginia, with his wife and son. O'Connell is the author of The Other Side of the Coin (2007), a free-market response to Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, and The 365 Greatest Movies Ever Made and the Days You Should Watch Them (2023). He has been a teacher since 2008, first at a community college, then at the middle school level since 2015. After starting his career teaching social sciences he has taught math exclusively since 2018. Currently O'Connell is a teacher in the Loudoun County Public School district in Loudoun County, Virginia. In addition to his other works, his blog can be found at www.mikeoconnelljr.com. His weekly podcast is Math and Musings, found wherever podcasts are sold.