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Holly Jones, Teacher of History and Economics

Holly Jones is a longtime member of the History and Social Studies Department at Pennington. We often refer to her as the economics teacher, and--behind the scenes-- Jones has carved out quite a niche for herself in the world of economics education in the United States.

Before economics became “her thing,” Jones, currently in her thirty-first year on Pennington's faculty, taught a slew of courses since she began in 1992. These have included various history courses such as the history of the U.S., modern Japan, specific periods such as the post-WWII era, and colonial Latin America. For a number of years, Jones was the chair of the History Department. And for several years, Jones has taught courses in both AP Micro- and Macroeconomics as well as Introduction to Economics.

In the late 1990s, Jones attended her first AP Reading for macroeconomics, typically an eight-day summer retreat somewhere in the U.S., where professors and teachers grade – or “rate” - the written portions of AP exams.

Jones quickly moved up in The College Board’s ranks in its AP Macroeconomics course, first becoming a table leader, where she led up to a half-dozen raters working on a particular question. For a decade, Jones then served as a question leader, which included the training of dozens of raters on a particular question as well as overseeing the quality control of their work. The College Board then offered Jones the position of question leader for all overseas AP Macro exams, a position that allowed her to hire her own staff. After doing this for a few years, Jones became the first-ever AP Macro exam leader and, since 2020, she has served as the assistant chief reader for all AP Macroeconomics exams. (Author’s note: there is only one requirement that prevents Jones from becoming a College Board Chief Reader – one must be a college professor!)

These leadership roles during the summer reading session have allowed Ms. Jones to enrich the Pennington economics student experience. For seven years, Jones has also been an active writer on the exam’s test development committee. Her roles on these committees have included writing questions, hiring staff, and assigning question writing to other developers.

Not only does Jones teach Pennington students, but she also spends time educating her colleagues in her field and facilitating their teaching. As Pennington's College Board liaison, Jones is the online listserv’s monitor, answering teacher questions from around the country, posting lesson plans, and writing articles on economics education. She has presented on this topic in New York, Baltimore, and St. Petersburg, FL, at various meetings of the National Conference of Economic Educators, and she has contributed materials to publications including a leading economics textbook: Krugman’s Economics for the AP® Course.

In an effort to continue her journey as a learner, Jones is very much looking forward to her trip to Peru this summer. As part of a contingent of twelve social science educators at the college and high school levels, Jones will travel for seventeen days with GEEA, the Global Economic Education Alliance, to the capital of Lima as well as to outlying areas, where she will learn more about Peru’s economy. Jones will be sure to return to her economics students with a new wealth of knowledge after visiting with professionals from the banking and mining industries as well as those from universities, and students from grades K-12.

Despite Jones’ many outside interests and activities, she is still very much part of our Pennington family. Her husband, Blair Thompson, has taught English at Pennington since 1980, and their son Will, Class of 2021, was a Pennington lifer. Jones and Thompson, along with their dog Lacy, also live on campus as members of our residential life community!