McKinney ISD produces 11 National Merit semi-finalists

by PegNews wire

Eleven McKinney ISD high school seniors were honored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) for outstanding academic achievement and exemplary scores on their PSAT examination.

"I’m very proud that we have 11 students named this year,” said Matt Bolinger, McKinney ISD Coordinator of Advanced Academics. “This number almost triples the amount we had in 2007. In addition, this is the first year for MISD to be in "double-digits”. Our goal is to continue to build upon the progress we have made thus far."

Seven students from McKinney Boyd High School – Alec Baum, Danielle Corbin, Catherine Lee, Laurel Buchanan, Tyler Terrill, Austin Butts, and Steven Kirk – were named National Merit Semi-Finalists.

Three students from McKinney High School – Jerod Coker, William Johnson, and Justin Montgomery – and one student from McKinney North High School – Zachary Bitting – were also named as Semi-Finalists.

Approximately 16,000 students were named as National Merit Semi-Finalists nationwide.

“These students work so hard to achieve this designation,” said Justin Acker, McKinney ISD Communications Specialist. “It’s always a great day when our students accomplish something that takes a great amount of time and dedication.”

These 11 seniors will now compete to become a National Merit Finalist. Once named as a Merit Finalist, students will be eligible to apply for one or more of the 8,200 Merit scholarships available.

To become a National Merit Finalist, semifinalists must earn SAT scores that confirm their earlier PSAT performance, have a record of high academic performance, and be endorsed and recommended by their high school principal. Those students achieving this recognition are announced by the NMSC each year in February.

“MISD has been diligently working for the past three years to increase the opportunities for our students to compete in the National Merit program,” said Dr. Virginia Cotton, McKinney ISD Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. “We have increased our identification process of potential semifinalists by targeting sophomores who score well on the PSAT. In addition, we want all juniors to take the PSAT because that test begins the National Merit process.”

Source: McKinney ISD

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