A counselor from a central Illinois high school with an enrollment of 212 students called, said she had just found her candidate`s nomination package for the All-State Academic Team, apologized for mislaying it and asked if she still could mail it.
That was 27 days after the deadline. She was told the judging was over.
”We`re a small school, and we probably wouldn`t have much chance to win anyway,” she mused.
Oh?
Seven of the 10 top winners of the fourth annual Chicago Tribune Illinois High School All-State Academic Team competition are from small schools or communities Downstate.
Like Red Bud and Lebanon, Morton and Pontiac.
Judges selected some candidates from smaller schools and communities over nominees from the high-powered Chicago-area high schools which enjoy a reputation as the bellwether schools of Illinois.
The competition attracted 548 nominees from all areas in Illinois, a 38 percent increase from the 398 candidates submitted in 1988. The main reason for the big gain was that nomination forms were sent this year to counselors as well as principals. There are scores of superbly qualified teenagers.
Judges named to the All-State Academic Team:
Prasant Atluri, Fenwick High School, Oak Park; Steven Balt, Oswego High School; John Bergmann, Normal High School; Julie Bockhaus, Morton High School; Michael Dumbroski, Belleville East High School, Belleville; Grace Lee, Sandburg High School, Orland Park; Trevor Loy, Pontiac High School; Erin McNutt, Lebanon High School; Renee Proctor, Red Bud High School; and Kevin Schoonmaker, Harlem High School, Loves Park.
All of the ”top 10” winners will receive a $1,500 scholarship from the Chicago Tribune Foundation. They and 69 other regional winners have been given a trophy. The other candidates will be sent a certificate recognizing their nomination.
Each of 906 Illinois high schools, public and nonpublic, was invited to submit the name of one senior based on a formula that includes grade point averages and scores on either the American College Test or Scholastic Aptitude Test, two exams widely used to help determine college admissions.
Most, but not all, nominees are valedictorians of their senior classes and many have straight ”A” averages for four years. That`s just the starting point for judging.
Other factors were awards and honors, extracurricular activities, community service and an essay.
This year`s star scholars on the All-State Academic Team have ACT scores of 32, 33 and 34. Perfect composite score for the four tests with 219 questions in English, mathematics, natural science and social science is 35. The state average is 18.9.
But they also are big winners in a myriad of academic competitions. And activists in community volunteer work.
The brief sketches on the All-State Academic Team offer but a small taste of these students` academic and community accomplishments.
It was a tough call for the 44 judges-school board members, school superintendents, high school principals, counselors, teachers, parents and other school officials.
When she finished judging, Judy Schwartz, a school board member from Carlinville, beamed.
”I feel exhilarated and exhausted at the same time,” she said. ”It is such an exhilaration reading about some of the top students attending high school in Illinois, but the discernment you must use to pick them from among such cream in exhausting.”
”So many of these kids are tops in everything,” said Donald Miedema, Springfield school superintendent and another judge. ”They are high scorers. They have terrific grades. They are in every activity the school seems to offer.”
Students were asked to write an essay answering this question: ”What motivated you to excel in high school?”
”Many wrote about family and church, and that`s where it`s at,” said Regina Manley, coordinator of postsecondary guidance for Chicago Public Schools.
She and fellow judges said a recurring student theme for school success was a supportive family. Several clutched essays in which seniors wrote that their parents do not criticize them for school failures, adding pointedly they are their own biggest critics.
But some judges were critical of the writing quality of students supposed to be the very best in Illinois high schools. Two teachers, Dalston Shand of Chicago`s Cathedral High School and Patricia Penelton of Edwardsville High School, said they had expected a much better performance in content and organization. But they found higher quality in second-round judging.
”Students were saying pretty much what we would like to read,” said Sister Ann Schedler, a counselor at St. Anthony High School, Effingham. ”They wrote about family and loyalty to older brothers and sisters. My experience is that students don`t have that much admiration for older brothers and sisters.”
Walt Warfield, Decatur school superintendent, said, ”I disagree with what Sister said. I was impressed with the students` insights, particularly with parental influence and sibling support and competition.”
For the competition, Illinois is divided into seven geographical regions. In in the first round, 44 judges selected 10 winners in each region. In the second round, 9 of these judges narrowed the group of regional winners to an All-State Academic Team of 10 super scholars.
Statewide education groups were invited to select one judge for each of seven regions. Participating were the Illinois Association of School Boards, the Illinois Association of School Administrators, the Illinois Principals Association, the Illinois Education Association, the Illinois Association of College Admission Counselors and the Illinois Parent-Teachers Association. The Office of Catholic Education of the Archdiocese of Chicago also named a panel of judges to ensure representation from nonpublic schools.
But judges only selected one black student and no Hispanics among the regional winners, though there were 47 black and Hispanic candidates. To ensure the the academic achievement of these minority students is recognized, nine blacks and Hispanics were added-based on the highest scores in that group-to the regional winners.
Though there were 38 black and Hispanic nominees among Chicago candidates, the six judges for the area-three blacks and three whites-did not name a single minority winner.
One of these judges, Will Adams, a counselor at Peoria High School, said of the minority candidates, ”They may not list as many activities because those activities don`t exist in their schools. In the inner city, there are not the role models who can serve as examples.
”By the time students see the need to get involved, it`s time for them to graduate. Earlier in life, they were probably trying to get everything sorted out. They were trying to understand if education is important for their future.
”These high school students may not see people who graduated from college and have a good job and came back to live in the neighborhood. Everyone who did well in school may have left the neighborhood.”
