High school students from the south Houston suburb of Pearland took home the trophy at the Texas Academic Decathlon and will represent Texas in the national contest.
The Academic Decathlon contest is considered a premier scholastic competition among high school students, who are judged individually and as teams.
The Pearland team scored 50,595 points out of a possible 60,000 during this weekend’s competition at Plano West Senior High School near Dallas, which hosted 40 teams from Texas’ large high schools. The top 25 teams from medium schools and 15 teams from small schools competed in San Antonio.
The national decathlon has provided a boost to the much maligned Texas education system.
Academic Decathlon teams from Texas have fared well in national contests, garnering 11 national championships, six second-place finishes, five third-place awards and one fifth-place finish in 24 years of competition, according to Sue Edwards, executive director of the Texas Academic Decathlon.
That shows what can be achieved when students are motivated to excel, regardless of the overall reputation of Texas schools. Congratulations Pearland!
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In any school district there are going to be students who want to excel either because of their parents, teachers or themselves. They realize the importance of an education. That education is there for them to do with what they want. It is those non-achieving schools who get all the media attention and make it look bad for all the rest. Like I’ve always said, for those students who don’t want to study, we have burger flipping jobs that need to be filled too so it’s their choice.
Yeah, but can they run fast and throw a ball?
Reply to No. 2: Yeah, that is an option but they can’t do that from behind bars which is where some of them will end up at the rate they are going. Your suppose to find yourself, know what you do best and use it, legally, to achieve your goals in life.
I grew up in Pearland. Go Pearland!
BTW - It’s pronounced Pear-Land, as in payr-land. I heard it pronounced Pearl-and on the radio recently. Usually, cities with “land” on the end pronounce the “land” as a separate syllable. Maybe the announcers should go to school there and learn something.
Of course, it’s Pearl-and in my atlas that I used in college, too. Rand-McNally may be to blame…
What I don’t understand is how those skinny brainy kids can get any distance on the discus and shot……….
Question to No. 4: If you grew up in Pearland, is that school in a district that has a lot of property tax revenue to provide for those student’s needs or what???
Cy-Fair Girls Basketball won state over the weekend, too.
I know, I know, it isn’t academic, but pretty cool nonetheless…
Texas - Win, Place or Show - 22 out of the 24 years of national competition. That ain’t braggin’, that’s a fact. Wow !
Very cool! Go Pearland!
Let’s remember that Friendswood was responsible for a lot of those national wins!! My academic decathlon boys are awesome!!!
Only 3rd at State this year. We’ll get ‘em next time around!
Dang, what are they putting in the water over there, mrygill2?
Don’t know about the water, but both school districts are blessed with parents and a community which CARE about education!
And THAT’S what it takes. Good job over there.
Reply to #2: I recognize your comment was tongue-in-cheek, but I do think its worth pointing out the following. 1) My son is a member of the team, and he’s a pretty good athlete; 2) Another team member quit the varsity soccer team for AcaDec; and 3) a third team member both played on our varsity football team *and* was a member of the AcaDec team. Point of all this is that athletic and academic extracurriculars are in no way mutually exclusive, at least where our kids are concerned. Sometimes its just us parents who see these as either/or options.