IPSD News
Points of Pride, 10.06.09
Reported by janet_buglio@ipsd.org on 10/6/09
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National Merit Names
Commended Students
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Forty-nine students in District 204 were named Commended Students by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Approximately 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation were recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships, Commended Students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2010 competition by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
National Merit Commended Students from Neuqua Valley include: Rachel Aron, Grant Blazina, Ellyn Bordushuk, Ankit Chandola, Varun Char, Peggy Chau, Aman Choudhury, Joseph Cronin, Siddarth Datla, Mitchell Davis, Michael Hardisty, Samuel Ide, Krystal Lee, Alexander Merkley, Monica Mingione, Joe Nash, Ashwin Nayak, Bradley Niederschulte, Sandeep Reddy, Karuna Relwani, Pedro Ribeiro, Michael Rooney, Adam Safer, Matthew Skrip, Katherine Sparks, Maxwell Stunkel, Melissa Tang, Megan Taylor, Matthew Uber, Apuroopa Vesangi, Charles Vinci, and Kara Wisniewski.
National Merit Commended Students from Waubonsie Valley include: Christopher Andrews, Matthew Bajzek, William Case, Nikhil Chintalapudi, Samantha Cooper, Jordan Geltner, Leandra Knapp, Alexander Knightwright, Kelly Knox, Benjamin Rubinstein, Corey Sarcu, Michelle Senger, Paul Sowa, Alexander Stein, Courtney Weber, Robert Wieland, and Eric Wu.
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National Hispanic
Recognition Scholar
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The College Board named Neuqua Valley student Pedro Ribeiro a National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar. Of the 200,000 Hispanic/Latino students who took the 2008 PSAT, some 5,000 with the highest Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test Selection Index scores (the sum of critical reading, mathematics and writing skills scores) qualify for this recognition.
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National Achievement
Scholarship Semifinalist
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Neuqua Valley student Chelsea Clark was named a National Achievement Scholarship Semifinalist. This honor is presented to the top 10 percent of black students based on their 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test Selection Index scores (the sum of critical reading, mathematics, and writing skill scores). About 1,600 high-scoring participants in each year's National Achievement Scholarship Program are designated Semifinalists and have the opportunity to advance in the competition for National Merit Corporation scholarships.
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College Board Announces
AP Scholars
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In District 204, 1,522 students took a total of 3,051 Advanced Placement (AP) tests in May of 2009, with 83 percent of those tests resulting in a score of 3 or above (on a 5-point scale), providing students with the equivalent of college credit while in high school. Many students took multiple AP tests.
The College Board's Advanced Placement Program provides motivated and academically prepared students with the opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses while still in high school and to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP exams.
About 18 percent of the nearly 1.7 million students worldwide who took AP exams last spring performed at a sufficiently high level to earn an AP Scholar Award by completing 3 or more exams and earning grades of 3 or higher. Thirty-nine percent of Neuqua Valley students and 31 percent of Waubonsie Valley students earned a grade of 3 or higher on at least one AP test last year.
The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on students' performance on high school AP exams:
AP SCHOLAR WITH HONOR – 110 District 204 students were recognized with this award by earning an average of 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on 4 or more of these exams
AP SCHOLAR WITH DISTINCTION – 188 District 204 students qualified for this award by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams
NATIONAL AP SCHOLAR – 41 District 204 students were so honored by earning an average grade of 4 or higher (on a 5-point scale) on ALL exams taken AND grades of 4 or higher on eight or more of those exams.
National AP Scholars from Neuqua Valley High School included: Brian Afeltra, Brian Banta, Siyue Chen, Ian Dimayuga, Tanay Ganga, Kevin Gao, Caitlin Glimco, Josiah Han, Heather Herzog, Thomas Hirschfeld, Katherine Li, Winshen Liu, Matthew Lutrick, John Majors, Scott Nelson, Christopher Nye, Alex Onsager, Bhavani Pokala, Iman Rahim, Michael Rooney, Kareem Saleh, Matthew Seeberg, Rohit Subramanian, Todd Tabor, Cassandra Thomson, Nivedita Umasankar and Patrick Welch.
National AP Scholars from Waubonsie Valley High School included: Brian Baro, Matthew Beaty, Cvetomir Cankov, Jeffrey Carlson, Sonam Dodhia, Alissa Fahrenz, Andrew Huh, Matthew Jachimiec, Philip Jones, Edwin Lee, Carla Mann, Alana Moore, Leah North, and Steven Troscinski.
These achievements ranked District 204's high schools among Newsweek's "America's Top High Schools" for 2009, placing them in the top 5 percent of public schools measured by the publication's index, which is based on the number of AP tests taken divided by the number of graduating seniors.
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District 204 Recognized by
SchoolSearch and SchoolMatch
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Indian Prairie School District 204 was selected as one of only 58 Illinois school districts (out of 868) to receive the SchoolSearch 2009 Bright A+ Award. The award identifies school districts that represent the top 5 percent of Illinois school districts academically. Selection is based on student performance with the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) and ACT composite scores.
District 204 also received the 2009 "What Parents Want Award." This national award from SchoolMatch recognizes the district as part of the top 16 percent of the 15,571 public school districts across the country meeting the needs of families with regard to selecting schools. Some of the criteria for award selection include having competitive academic test scores; competitive teacher salaries; and, above average expenditures in instructional and library/media services on a national average.
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