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(Posted April 5, 2011)
Twelve students, juniors and seniors, in the Hazelwood School District earned scores of 30 or higher on the ACT since the first four test dates of the 2010-2011 academic year.
In the state of Missouri, scores of 30 or more on the ACT college entrance exam can mean assistance with college tuition in the form of a scholarship.
The Missouri Higher Education Academic Scholarship Program, also referred to as Bright Flight, is a merit-based program that encourages top-ranked high school seniors to attend approved Missouri post-secondary schools. The minimum qualifying score is subject to change annually, but it is typically a score of 30 or 31 on the ACT. Scores are different for the SAT.
The ACT website, www.actstudent.org, lists the highest possible score on the test as 36.
Andrea Smith and Connor McPartland are seniors at Hazelwood Central High School. Smith scored a 33 on the exam in October. McPartland scored a 31 after taking the test in December.
Smith plans to attend the University of Missouri-St. Louis to study business. She will take advantage of the Bright Flight program, combined with other scholarships, to help pay for college.
McPartland would like to study environmental science or political science at an out-of-state school. He has received scholarship offers from the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota. He’s also interested in Colorado State University, Stanford University, the University of California-Berkeley and Brown University.
Both Smith and McPartland took the ACT more than once in an effort to achieve higher scores.
“I took it twice before. I wanted to get Bright Flight,” said Smith.
“I wanted to score above a 30. It’s an elite score,” said McPartland. To help him reach his score, he participated in after-school ACT workshops offered by the District. Previously, he scored 28 and 29 on the exam.
“My score improved by two points,” he said as evidence of the impact of the workshops. He said the math and English review were the most helpful.
Brian Pickens, a senior at Hazelwood East High School, scored a 31 on the ACT in October. He took the test three times, earning a 27 and 28 respectively.
He will accept a Bright Flight scholarship to attend a joint program at UMSL and Washington University in St. Louis to study electrical engineering.
He was not fazed by the test, he explained. For him, “math was the easiest and the hardest was reading.”
“I went in knowing I’d have to pace myself better. I always run out of time in the reading section. If I had more time for the reading, I think I could’ve scored a 33,” Pickens said.
Joshua Merlenbach is a junior at Hazelwood West High School. He still has time before making a decision about college, yet he scored a 33 on the ACT in December.
“I didn’t really study,” he said. “On the first test, I decided to go in blind to see how I’d do.”
Actually, this wasn’t his first attempt at the ACT. In seventh grade, he took the exam as part of the Duke University Talent Identification Program (TIP). He scored in the 20s, he recalled. At the time, he was involved in the District’s middle school gifted education program, Students’ Activities in Investigative Learning (SAIL) at Hazelwood West Middle School.
Merlenbach was “looking to get a 31 for a scholarship to Southeast Missouri State University.” Although he did well, he plans to take the exam at least one more time.
His favorite subjects are science and history, and he admits that English and writing are his hardest subjects because he’s not “excited about it.” The writing aspect of the ACT was “intimidating” for him.
Top scores were also earned by Jacob Shoemake, senior, of Hazelwood Central High.
Other top scorers from Hazelwood West High include seniors Cody Jarvis, Nicolas Smith, Nicholas Alexander, Rebecca Bischoff, Kelly Johnson, Paige Hurtt and Brett Lesinski.
“We’re expecting to have more students score 30 or above on the ACT for the remaining test dates of the school year,” said Gail Stewart, special areas coordinator. Exam dates are scheduled in April and June.
Since 2009-2010, the Hazelwood School District has coordinated ACT workshops to prepare students for the exam throughout the school year. Workshops are scheduled around the national exam dates and are offered after school, in the evenings and on Saturdays.
Stewart explained that in addition to providing the ACT workshops, in 2011-2012, District high school students can take an ACT Prep course as an elective. The semester-long course covers content and test-taking strategies in English, math, reading and science.

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