Issue:
686 Date: 10/16/2003
Rockwood Students Named National Merit Semifinalists
Lance Cai, Soyna Li
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ST. LOUIS, OCTOBER 1, 2003 -- Seventeen Rockwood students have been selected as
semifinalists for the 49th Annual National Merit Scholarship Program. They are Hasan Akbari and Stephen Huggard of Eureka High School; Lance Cai, Jenna Fernsler, Mallory Hicks, Dan Porter, Melissa Subramanian and Mathew Towerman of Marquette High School in Chesterfield; and Lauren Auld, Shannon Petry, Andrew Bartelsmeyer, Ellen East, Catherine Finneran, Lauren Krebs, Sonya Li, Ross Mercer and Heather Nelson of Lafayette High School in Wildwood.
As semifinalists, the students will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for the approximately 8,000 Merit Scholarship awards that will be announced next spring. In order to advance to finalist standing - a prerequisite to being considered for a Merit Scholarship award * each semifinalist must have a record of very high academic performance, be endorsed and recommended by their school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying test performance.
More than 1.3 million juniors in over 21,000 U.S. high schools entered the 2004 National Merit Program by taking the 2003 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, is made up of the highest scoring entrants in each state.
SAT 2002 Average Scores
Missouri 1154
National 1020
Rockwood 1171
Percentage of Rockwood graduates who took the SAT in 2002 - 16.7 %
ACT 2002 Average Scores
Missouri 21.5
National 20.8
Rockwood 23.3
Percentage of Rockwood graduates who took the ACT in 2002 - 80 %
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Wendy
Zhang
Rockwood Students Make the Grade on Standardized Tests
Wendy Zhang will never forget the moment she found out she had scored a perfect score on the ACT Assessment. "I went a little crazy! I was kind of screaming and jumping around!" says the Lafayette High School senior, who hopes to one day become a surgeon.
The entire Rockwood School District has reason to celebrate, too. The district's high school students regularly score above the state and national averages in all areas of the ACT, according to Bertha Doar, the district's Assessment Coordinator. Doar also notes that Rockwood has shown steady improvement in two key areas - composite scores and participation, despite the fact that an increase in the number of students taking a test usually results in a decrease in the overall score. That's certainly not the case in Rockwood. The district's average composite score is now 23.3, up from 21.8 just eight years ago. Participation, meanwhile, is at 80.4 percent, compared to 71 percent in 1995.
Rockwood students also consistently score above the state and national averages on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). In 2002, the district's average SAT scores were 577 Verbal and 594 Math, for a composite of 1171, which is 151 points above the national average of 1020. Bertha Doar credits a combination of factors. "Rockwood has an excellent curriculum that is research-based and taught, followed by excellent staff development to help teachers implement the best instructional strategies, and we are supported by wonderful families and the community."
The end result is that Rockwood students, like future surgeon Wendy Zhang, aren't just receiving a good education. They're also acquiring the kind of tools/(or the test-taking tools) that can help make their dreams a reality.
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