(Posted April 5, 2011)
\nTwelve 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.
\nIn 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.
\nThe 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.
\nThe ACT website, www.actstudent.org, lists the highest possible score on the test as 36.
\nAndrea 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.
\nSmith 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.
\nMcPartland 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\u2019s also interested in Colorado State University, Stanford University, the University of California-Berkeley and Brown University.
\nBoth Smith and McPartland took the ACT more than once in an effort to achieve higher scores.
\n\u201cI took it twice before. I wanted to get Bright Flight,\u201d said Smith.
\n\u201cI wanted to score above a 30. It\u2019s an elite score,\u201d 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.
\n\u201cMy score improved by two points,\u201d he said as evidence of the impact of the workshops. He said the math and English review were the most helpful.
\nBrian 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.
\nHe will accept a Bright Flight scholarship to attend a joint program at UMSL and Washington University in St. Louis to study electrical engineering.
\nHe was not fazed by the test, he explained. For him, \u201cmath was the easiest and the hardest was reading.\u201d
\n\u201cI went in knowing I\u2019d 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\u2019ve scored a 33,\u201d Pickens said.
\nJoshua 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.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t really study,\u201d he said. \u201cOn the first test, I decided to go in blind to see how I\u2019d do.\u201d
\nActually, this wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s middle school gifted education program, Students\u2019 Activities in Investigative Learning (SAIL) at Hazelwood West Middle School.
\nMerlenbach was \u201clooking to get a 31 for a scholarship to Southeast Missouri State University.\u201d Although he did well, he plans to take the exam at least one more time.
\nHis favorite subjects are science and history, and he admits that English and writing are his hardest subjects because he\u2019s not \u201cexcited about it.\u201d The writing aspect of the ACT was \u201cintimidating\u201d for him.
\nTop scores were also earned by Jacob Shoemake, senior, of Hazelwood Central High.
\nOther top scorers from Hazelwood West High include seniors Cody Jarvis, Nicolas Smith, Nicholas Alexander, Rebecca Bischoff, Kelly Johnson, Paige Hurtt and Brett Lesinski.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re expecting to have more students score 30 or above on the ACT for the remaining test dates of the school year,\u201d said Gail Stewart, special areas coordinator. Exam dates are scheduled in April and June.
\nSince 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.
\nStewart 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n