May 3, 2005
Washington students honored for outstanding verbal, mathematical abilities
More than 1,100 fifth through eighth graders from across Washington will be honored Saturday on the Seattle campus of the University of Washington for their outstanding verbal and/or mathematical talents.
The students’ high academic achievements were uncovered through the Washington Search for Young Scholars operated by the Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholars at the UW. To be eligible for the awards, fifth and sixth grade students had to score in the upper 3 percent of all pupils taking the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) in reading or mathematics, or in the upper 3 percent on a nationally standardized achievement or aptitude tests in reading/verbal or mathematics/quantitative skills. Seventh and eighth graders were required to take either the SAT I or ACT, college entrance tests, and score at or above the average of college-bound high school seniors.
In all, 1,130 students from 98 cities and towns representing more than 320 schools will be recognized at awards ceremonies to be held in the ballroom of the Husky Union Building. Because of the large number of students being honored separate ceremonies will be held for the two groups. Older students will be recognized first with Ana Mari Cauce, chair of the UW’s psychology department and former director of the university’s honors program, delivering the keynote address to the students and their parents. Bob Dumas, entrepreneur, author and UW mathematics instructor, will give the keynote talk to the fifth and sixth graders and their parents. Kathleen Noble and Robert Vaughan, the director and an associate director of the Robinson Center, respectively, also will give short talks at the ceremonies.
The Robinson Center operates the Washington Search for Young Scholars and a number of other programs to serve Washington’s most academically talented students.
“The Washington Search for Young Scholars not only recognizes and honors many of our state’s most talented students, it also help all of us, parents, family, teachers and educational leaders, to better see who we must serve if these young people are to fulfill their promise,” said Vaughan.
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For more information, contact Vaughan at (206) 543-4160 or rvaughan@u.washington.edu
