Jacobs Students Earn Perfect ACT Scores : Whiz Kids

Whiz Kids' Names: Brad Searle and Erik Hansen

Whiz Kids' Grade: 12th

Whiz Kids' School: Harry D. Jacobs High School, 2601 Bunker Hill Dr., Algonquin.

Whiz Kids' Accomplishment: Searle, 18, of Algonquin, and Hansen, 18, of Carpentersville both earned a perfect 36 composite score on the 2010 ACT test.

The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions for English, mathematics, reading and science. The overall average composite score in 2010 for District 300 was 20.4; for Jacobs High School 21.6; and 20.7 statewide in Illinois, according to ACT test results.

Whiz Kids' Key To Awesomeness:

Brad Searle: "Hard work, and my parents really getting on me to study."

Searle also credited taking the ACT-36 preparatory course at Jacobs, reading three ACT study books and completing the practice tests with helping him prepare for the exam.

Erik Hansen: "The diversity in classes and extracurricular activities I took. I participated in music, sports and clubs, and having that diverse background really helped me on the exam."

Hansen added that taking advanced placement courses in English and physics "really helped" him as well.

Searle and Hansen are members of the National Honors Society and the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Club, WYSE, at Jacobs.

Searle is president of the Information and Technology Club at Jacobs and plans to study computer science in college. He has not selected a university, yet.

Hansen was a member of the school's varsity football, wrestling and LaCrosse teams and sang with the Jacobs' Goldenaires choir. Hansen is leaving on a two-year church mission trip upon graduating from high school. He plans to attend college when he returns.

Read MOre:Jacobs Students Earn Perfect ACT Scores : Whiz Kids

Read more...

Collective Bargaining: Do SAT Scores Prove States Need It?

Does collective bargaining make for better or worse test scores?

With Republican-controlled legislatures and state houses from Wisconsin to Oklahoma attempting to strip state workers of collective bargaining rights, figures on the combined SAT and ACT college entrance test scores in states without them are proving fodder for the ongoing debate.

As republished in The Economist, a chart purporting to show that combined SAT and ACT scores in the five U.S. states without collective bargaining rights are among the worst in the country quickly became a viral hit on Twitter and Facebook. Indeed, this reporter first saw the information via Andrew Sullivan's blog, which linked to The Economist, a highly trusted source of information. The specific data showed the following combined SAT/ACT rankings for the states without collective bargaining rights for teachers:

* South Carolina -- 50th
* North Carolina -- 49th
* Georgia -- 48th
* Texas -- 47th
* Virginia -- 44th

Wisconsin ranked second, according to the source cited by the Economist.

Though the Economist did note that drawing the conclusion that students did better as a direct result of the inclusion of collective bargaining rights for their teachers was tenuous, it suggested that arguing that doing away with those rights would lift student performance was rather absurd.

"... this doesn't show that collective bargaining makes school systems better. But it makes it pretty hard to argue the converse," the Economist wrote.

The problem with the stats? As PolitiFact discovered, the data came from 1999, not 2010. Moreover, a variety of factors account for test score results.

Read More:Collective Bargaining: Do SAT Scores Prove States Need It?

Read more...