Mehlville School District seventh-graders tested their knowledge recently by taking the ACT or SAT college placement exams through the Duke University Talent Identification Program (TIP).

Twenty-seven of the district’s students received State Recognition for scoring equal to or better than half of all college-bound high school seniors who took the tests, while three seventh-graders have been honored with Grand Recognition for producing scores exceeding those of 90 percent of high school seniors tested this year.

“We are so proud of all of our students who participated in the Duke TIP program,” said Bernard Middle gifted program instructor Susan Jesse stated in a news release. “It takes great motivation for these seventh-graders to give up a Saturday to take a test intended for college-bound high school students.”

The district’s 27 seventh-graders will be honored at a State Recognition Ceremony held at Drury University on Friday, May 20. The three students who scored higher than 90 percent of college-bound seniors also will be invited to attend the Grand Recognition Ceremony at Duke University on May 23, 2011.

“We are used to seeing these students score in the top percentiles of grade appropriate tests. But I think it is amazing how high these students can score on a test that is geared so far above their grade level,” Jesse stated.

Students were selected by each middle school to participate in the TIP program based on their outstanding scores on standardized tests. All of these students should be commended for their performance on these challenging, above grade-level exams.

State Recognition:

Bernard Middle School: Jacqueline Dreppard, Bailey Foster, Kate Giles, Daniel Golob, Justin Martin, Shannon O’Day and Caroline Tank.

Margaret Buerkle Middle: Patrick Smith and Ashley Indelacato

Oakville Middle School: David Chopin, Marissa Gassner, Joshua Kuntze, Jacob Kaufman, Mallory Meeks, Abigail Menkhus, Matthew Miller, Ines Oulamine, Madelyn Reinagel, Gabrielle Wilson and Haris Zeneli.

Washington Middle School: Ashlyn Dimmick, Nick Eder, Megan Hudwalker, Shawn Hughes, Esmire Karabas, Brianna King and Mitchell Walden.

Grand Recognition:

Oakville Middle School: Jacob Kaufman and Abigail Menkhus.

Washington Middle School: Nick Eder