San Luis elementary students get high marks on ACT exams
Group recently recognized for scores at awards ceremony
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — Twenty elementary school students here have been recognized for high scores achieved on the ACT college entrance exams they took to qualify for admission to a summer school program.
Students in the Gadsden Elementary School District took the test to qualify for admission and scholarships to take college-level summer classes offered at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth.
The seventh- and eighthgrade students, from Southwest Junior High School and San Luis Middle School, scored between 27 and 30 on test that is typically given to high school seniors and others seeking admission to bachelor’s degree programs at colleges and universities. A perfect score is 36.
The San Luis students, who were tested in the areas of math, science and English in February, traveled earlier this month to the University of Arizona, where representatives of Johns Hopkins recognized them and other high scorers from around the state at an awards ceremony.
“These students are achieving something that is very being,” said Homero
Chavez, a counselor in the Gadsden district and local coordinator of the program. “There were only 44 students (from around Arizona) who achieved high honors (on the test), and 20 are from our schools.”
From Southwest Junior High School, students who were recognized for high scores were Fanny Acosta, Carlos Arreola, Hannah Castro, Tanya Ceniceros, Jorge Del Río, Elian Félix, Andrea García, Axel Miranda, Martiza Noriega, Jesús Núñez, Angel Pescina, Martha Ramírez, Leonid Reyes, Brian Rueda, Meredith Siquieros and Guillermo Vélez.
From San Luis Middle School, students who were honored were Paola Ruvalcaba, Yesenia Díaz, Spandan Ghandi and Samuel Hernández.
Also recognized in Tucson were two students from Somerton Middle School who scored high on the ACT: seventh-grader Alejandra Jares and eighth-grader Fernanda Villegas.
In the program offered by Johns Hopkins, gifted elementary, junior high and high school students who achieve qualifying scores on college exams travel to colleges and universities around the nation to take summer classes, or take the courses online.
For more than a decade, Gadsden district students have been taking the ACT each year for the classes. This year about 200 from the district took the test.
More recently, Somerton students have also been taking the tests to qualify for the classes.