St. Louis public school student gets perfect score on ACT

Molly Jennings Achieves Perfect Score On ACT Exam

Kirkwood High senior in top 99.99 percent of students nationally
by Murray Farish

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According to officials at ACT, nationwide only 193 students from last year's graduating class scored a perfect 36. Nearly 1.2 million students took the test across the country last year. Jennings' score places her in the top 99.99 percent of students nationally.

Jennings also carries a 4.5 GPA and is a top-ten student in her senior class. But Principal Dave Holley said the numbers only begin to tell the story of Molly Jennings.

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Jennings said her AP classes at Kirkwood High best prepared her for her success on the ACT exam.

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Jennings swims and plays soccer; has been involved in the school's drama productions since she was a freshman; she has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and for the John Kerry presidential campaign. She also teaches Sunday school and sings in the choir at Grace Episcopal Church, and volunteers at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. She said managing her time is sometimes a challenge, but one she relishes.

http://www.timesnewspapers.com/stories/20051209/perfectscore.html

:-)

:silly:

LOL

Well, I should hope so! That would mean that only 0.01 percent finished below her, which would greatly ease my worries about "the dumbing down of America". :-) Perhaps this Murray Farish should sign up for some math tutoring with Molly!

Oh, yes, Kirkwood is just outside St. Louis in St. Louis County. It would be much, much more remarkable if a St. Louis City public school stuident had aced the ACT.

edit: Farish meant "places her in the 99.99th percentile of students nationally".

:D

... is like igloos in Tahiti. :silly:

She's obviously in the "top 0.01%" ... a somewhat smaller group.
A group that clearly doesn't include Murray Farish. :evilgrin:

:D

Most people have a very poor understanding of percentile scores and norm groups.

the meaning of percentile. yeesh.

graduates of superior public school systems.

on proofing the article before it appeared. :eyes:

I meant it as a compliment to her teachers.

Sorry I should have used the :sarcasm: symbol.

with a damn good reputation.

this school district has had 4.

http://www.fcps.net/pressrel/release.asp?articleID=15368

i am being a bit sarcastic since there are some DUers who have severely bashed the public education system....and it is a pet peeve with me since i believe that public education is wonderful thing!!! granted i am not slamming other methods but overall the public schools do their best...

I got ya.

and some of them do very well. I'm happy about that - I HAVE a public school kid, too! OF course, I - like every - wishes that they would ALL do "very well"; but - like hs, private schools, religious schools, charter/magnet, and any other kind of school you can name - there are good ones and bad ones and so-so ones. Isn't it wonderful we have CHOICES?????

BTW - FYI -

August 19, 2005

"Newly released figures for the ACT college entrance exam show that homeschoolers have again scored above the national average. “Homeschoolers continue to excel academically,” said Michael Smith, President of the Home School Legal Defense Association.

The 8075 homeschool graduates who took the ACT college entrance exam this year comprised about 1 percent of those who took the exam.

According to ACT a 22.5 score is significantly higher than the national average and homechoolers have maintained their success over the eight year period they have taken the exam.

“Homeschoolers consistently score above the national average,” said ACT spokesman, Ed Colby. "

If every public school student had the support of their parents, public school scores would jump up to the level of home schoolers. I would bet my teaching license on it. :)

Fess up and tell the real story. The majority of hs families refuse testing (where they can)the majority of hs families will never take college entrance tests. So the story is those hs students who do actually choose to test do well as opposed to all ps students who are mandated to test.

At least my school district doesn't do that. However students do know that getting into college can be easier with that test under their belt. I'm not sure how to fairly pit home schoolers against public schoolers in this instance. Many public school students will never take college entrance tests either.

We know the percentages of students from each school who take the SAT or ACT, that is a good measurement of the quality of a school as well. The point the other poster was making is that we don't know how many homeschooled kids are not taking these tests so it's a rather pointless number. We don't know how many of these children are doing at all, since so many states don't require any measure of progress.

And I was definitely not placing hs over ps at all. Thanks for the clarification! :hi:

It's kind of ironical really. Homeschooling was begun by the hippie generation who didn't want their children to become indoctrinated into the factory worker mindset. Lots of homeschoolers are from very well educated liberal homes. It's only in recent years that the fundies have started keeping kids out because of the evil liberal influence, so now homeschooling is associated with them. But it always kind of cracks me up when liberals rant about homeschoolers, liberals invented it.

Homeschooling was the only way many children of the pioneers got any education at all. It goes back way before the hippie era. I have read diaries of Oregon Trail pioneers who left their furniture but took boxes of books on the trail to their new home. As communities grew up around settlements, schools were often the first priority of the pioneers. But even then, there were those who rejected community schools and communities entirely. They say Abraham Lincoln's father moved his family to a new home when he could see the smoke from his neighbor's chimney.

My grandfather was homeschooled on a rural farm in the early part of the 20th century. Then when he was 14 he was sent to boarding school in another state to continue his education. My grandmother told me that was common practice back then. Her family lived in a small town and boarded students who attended the school. That is how she met my grandfather, he was her roommate.

Some people need to be part of a community. Others are just more independent by nature. That has been the case for thousands of years, it wasn't a new trend begun by hippies in communes.

and not just because I am a public school teacher. I mean, if I were the education goddess I would make a LOT of changes and they would be very radical (such as neighborhood schools, small, k-12 in one building) but that is unrealistic. Given the limitations we work with on both sides of the desk, I think we do pretty well. I know all the arguments and the things we fail at all too well, but I would have quit a long time if I were ashamed, and I'm not. That said, I still believe that the more choices there are for a child, including magnet schools, alternative schools, ESE classrooms, home schooling, private schooling, etc., the better our chances of success are. One approach won't work for every child.

10/14/2005 9:47 AM
Fayetteville teen earns perfect score on ACT’s

FAYETTEVILLE) -- On a typical day, you can find Daniel Lloyd, 16, at home. . . He earned a perfect score on the ACT's. . . With a house of seven brothers and sisters, the Lloyd’s are home schooled. Statistically, home school students score about two points higher than the average private or public school student. http://rdu.news14.com/content/school_news/?ArID=75689&SecID=136


*******

January 2002
Homeschooler Ben Crowder
Achieves Perfect ACT Score

Many have asked us over the past few weeks to discuss our homeschooling journey with regards to our eldest son, Ben, who recently had the distinction of being one of two students in the nation to achieve a perfect 36 on the ACT exam. http://www.ldshea.org/pages/family_album/crowder.htm

She sounds like a great kid. I hope the universities start fighting over her and get her a good financial aid package.

ionally"...

Nice that she isn't in the BOTTOM 0.01 percent...
:eyes:

She sounds like a great person.

on a Missouri Democrats board.

"she has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and for the John Kerry presidential campaign"

Public school kids can't do things like that. We all know that. ;-)

The corporate media is not interested in any postitive news about public school students. They received their marching orders in that regard fifteen or twenty years ago. So how did this sneak through?:sarcasm: I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting for it to be the lead story on FAUX, although they will cover any propaganda about public schools that comes their way.

I take it they haven't yet trained their reporters to trash public schools.

to get NCLB off their backs, and make their town something to be 'proud of' :eyes:

And I congratulate her, yet I've seen reports where the numbers of kids who graduated HS with honors - sometimes a dozen kids all tied for Valedictorian has skyrocketed in the last 5 years. That's what I'm saying is all feel-good BS.

Not that St. Louis Public schools is not trying. Ask anyone who lives in St. Louis area. Kirkwood is not the inner city.

The St. Louis Historical Society has a film that delves into the St. Louis question "Where did you go to High School?". There are at least 2 books that cover that question. Kirkwood is well funded middle class, they do not face the same challenges of St. Louis Public schools.

I quote "St. Louis public school student gets perfect score on ACT". St. Louis area has rather rigid divisions between "have and have not" in their school districts.

If transported, Kirkwood, would be considered an elite district in most places in this country.

It isn't completely incorrect to call her a St. Louis student.

I used to have to figure that out. Then try and figure out Court jurisdictions between City and County. I don't know how anything gets accomplished.

and there are many school districts within the city limits. The KC school district is NOT the only one.

U-City and Crestwood/Sunset Hills. Chesterfield it ain't.

Hence more than 200 school districts in Missouri continue to seek legal remedy from inequities in the funding formula.

I hope the best for her.

I just wish colleges would not use standardized testing for admittance and all scholarships. Not every child starts off life on an equal footing.

:hi:

We had a guy in my HS who was one class ahead of me who scored a perfect 36. He was truly a genius. He spoke 9 languages fluently and had mastered Calculus by the time he was in 3rd grade...I'm not kidding here. He ended up getting a full ride to MIT, and now he's in a pretty high level technical position with Microsoft.