Ted Nutting, a 12-year veteran math teacher at Ballard High School, was presented the first ever PI Award for excellence in math education during a Sept. 17 Ballard PTSA meeting.

The award was given to Nutting by Where's the Math?, a non-partisan advocacy group of parents, educators, and community members in Washington, for raising the Advanced Placement test scores of his AP Calculus students to the highest in the Seattle School District over the last two years.

Ballard High School Principal Phil Brockman said the test scores are just amazing.

"He knows how to do it," Brockman said. "He knows how to reach those kids."

In 2007, Nutting was selected to present "The Ballard Miracle: How AP Calculus Scores Quickly Rose from the Depths to the Stratosphere" to a conference of superintendents.

Brockman said Nutting's success in teaching comes from his high expectations of students and his knowledge of the curriculum.

"The bottom line of every great teacher is knowing what to teach and how to teach it," Brockman said. "He knows mathematics. He knows that material forward and backward."

The PI Award stand for "Prodigious Instruction in Mathematics" and is a reference to the mathematical symbol Pi.