Southeast decathlon teams do well in state competition
24.05.12
Southeast Alaska’s Academic Decathlon teams fared well in the statewide competition in Anchorage Feb. 22-25.
In Division III, for small schools, the first place trophy went to Metlakatla High School, coached by Rob Salisbury. In the same division second place went to Craig High School, coached by Jessica Lee. In Division I, Interior Distance Education of Alaska (IDEA), a state-wide homeschooling program run by the Galena School District, earned third place.
The school team that won the overall competition, and will go on to the national competition in New Mexico in April, is Lathrop High School in Fairbanks, coached by Chris Benschoof and Katherine Geerdes.
The state Academic Decathlon is broken up into several categories of schools and student achievement levels. Schools are separated into small, medium and large sizes. Students are represented in Varsity (C-range students), Scholastic (B-range), and Honors (A-range).
“Most academic decathlons are only interested in the A students, the 4.0’s,” said Curtiss Clifton, state director for the Alaska Academic Decathlon. “They want the students with the big scores, single subjects. We are not like that. We want a balanced team of ‘A,’ ‘B,’ and ‘C’ students.”
Source: Juneau Empire